In the middle of January 2002 I dropped by Chicago Cultural Center and visited Ceramic National 2000 exhibition (which is being shown there from January 12 till March 17, 2002). I was suprised, astonished and immediately fall in love with the sculpture named Rustle (shown below) by former Russian artist Sergei Isupov. And I decided to find more about this wonderful sculptor and his ceramics.

The work that is featured in the exhibition (Rustle, 1999) demonstrates that I print on a three-dimensional work as on a canvas. Every surface of it is actually the front surface, and every observation point is equally important. All plastic, graphic and painting elements of the piece function as complementary parts of the work.

The essence of my work is not the medium of the creative process, but in the human beings and their incredible diversity. When I think of myself and my works, I'm not sure."

Sergei's current work is figurative in both form and content. His dreamlike, surreal narratives are self-portraits and auto-biographical. His visual vocabulary includes many personal symbols - anatomically accurate hands, feet and hearts, "tapir" like animals representing the beast, torn sections of the body to reveal an inner thought or hidden element and tattoo style decorative painting.

His work explores male and female relationships, which is often explored through graphic sexual images. Isupov constructs his work in porcelain using traditional handbuilding and sculpting techniques. He uses stains and glazes to contrast areas of intense drawings in black and white areas with colorfully glazed and painted sections. Conflicts that exist between the classical art training he received in the Ukraine and the more contemporary "Scandinavian" point of view that he experienced while at the Art Institute of Tallinn, Estonia, continue to fuel his work.

The stories Isupov tells through his figurative ceramics are universal. Often incorporating his own visage in his sculptures, the heavily decorated forms crowded with detail are at times specific to a personal narrative. Isupov comments, "I use all my experience with everything in the work . . . like relationship, career things, my learning English, my knowing mathematics, or computer, or cutting grass."

Originally making his reputation in the United States with a series of teapots, his recent work is predominantly sculptural. Even when the form of the teapot was hardly recognizable, the concept of function and the memory of handling a teapot and personal connection remained. Despite the often dark nature of his work, Isupov relates his own personal story to the viewer, at the same time drawing a line of communication with the everyman.

Bioraphy.
Sergei Isupov was born in Stavrapole, Russia in 1963 to artistic parents (his father was a trained artist who created mosaics and large scale sculptures for architectural sites, and his mother was a ceramic designer). Sergei was sent to the Ukrainian State Art School in Kiev at the age of 11. Ceramics was a natural choice for Isupov. In 1990 he received his M.F.A. in ceramics.

After winning the Best Artist Under 30 Prize from the ministry of culture in Estonia, he was granted Estonian citizenship. Isupov emigrated from Estonia and moved to the United States in 1993 and and after several years in Louisville, Kentucky, he now lives in Richmond, Virginia. Relatively unknown in the United States, he arrived with a long international resume with work in collections and exhibitions throughout Northern Europe and the Baltics. He received immediate recognition among private collectors and shows at galleries, expositions and institutions throughout the United States.

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