Julia Haft-Candell has long wielded sgraffito—the technique of carving into clay before firing to achieve variations in textures and colors—to harness her chosen medium’s full expressive power. Often, the Angeleno artist’s spellbinding works glimmer with bronze and gold flourishes shaped like combs, hands, chains, and infinity loops. Her latest body of work expands her visual lexicon even further, venturing into bold new creative territory. One sculpture resembles a hand extended backward, but doubles as a lamp adorned with chains of loops that splay across its surface; another masquerades as a luminous wall sconce captured in a state of genesis as legs extend outward from the clay body holding them.
Ryan Waddoups
January 2, 2025
