Growing up in rural St. Elizabeth, Jamaica, artist Lois Samuels’ life followed a familiar rhythm: Saturdays were for the market, Sundays were for church. The rest of the week was for school or one’s job, the latter often predetermined. “If your parent was a teacher, you would become a teacher,” Samuels explains. “If they were a nurse, you became a nurse. If your family had a shop, you worked in the shop. It passed down from generation to generation.”
For Samuels – whose work is available through the Los Angeles gallery Twentieth and was recently showcased at the Paris gallery Cinémorphe during Ceramic Art Fair – this predictability sparked a quiet rebellion. “By age 14. I was already thinking, ‘How do I get to see the world?’ Art was something that ignited and stimulated me in so many ways, and when I was discovered by a modeling scout, I was given the opportunity to explore that while traveling.” Even as she walked runways for fashion legends such as the late Alexander McQueen and modeled for magazines that included Vogue Italia, Samuels was designing, photographing, painting and writing. But it was clay that she eventually fell in love with. “I wanted to experience something that you can touch,” she describes. “Something coming out of you. That’s where ceramics came in.”
This evolution isn’t a departure from her past, but rather a culmination of it, referencing the role soil and farming played in her early life. “The earth is such a magical element,” she notes. “You plant a seed, and somehow, once it touches earth, it becomes alive. My ceramics are rooted in the past, the present and my life’s journey.”
This is an underlying theme in all her series, from Fragmented Beauty – in which she molds together bits of clay into forms that celebrate resilience – to Open, where imprints of towels and linens symbolize nourishment and receptivity. The silhouettes of Portal evoke womanhood and fertility, while Wave Medallion reflects life’s unpredictable rhythms.
“There’s something so organic and soulful in the execution of all of my pieces,” Samuels shares. “I hope that resonates with others.”
Photography courtesy of Lois Samuels and Twentieth.
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