Throughout Roger Herman’s career, there has been a focus on controversial themes of mortality and pornographic references in both his painting and ceramics, which has fascinated his fans. However, his exhibition at Carpenters Workshop Gallery will showcase an alternative side of his ceramic works that experiment with color, another central aspect or the artist’s work, the artist himself saying that the subject of his work is always paint.
Roger Herman’s use of color is renowned in his recent work. Despite its characteristic arbitrariness, there is real mastery in the works that the artist creates, which brought him recognition as the West Coast king of the 80s neo-Expressionist movement. Control he had mastered in his painting on canvas was taken away from him when he began to use clay. The artist became fascinated by how the colors changed during the glazing process, which ironically gave him more freedom to enjoy the sensations of learning to be an artist in a different way.
