Ann Shure is a woman seeking art. With a diverse background spanning bookbinding, magazine print production, and even interior design, she’s always commanded keen fluency in visual storytelling—but since she first touched clay, the medium has been her first and best loved language. A voracious learner, world traveler, and lover of beauty, she approaches the clay with deep curiosity and an eye for detail, continuously exploring new forms and refining her craft.
Now on display at Atelier Seattle, Shure’s latest installation, PLUMES—stacked, organic, textural forms inspired by the living landscape of Iceland—feels tactical and immediate, ranging well beyond the aesthetic and into the experiential. Read on for our conversation with the artist.
Tell me a little about the works on display at Atelier. How did they come to be? How do you think they fit in the space, and what do you hope visitors and passersby come away with?
I’ve been working on the stack form for a while. I was very excited when Atelier asked me to produce some work for their space. Atelier’s space is amazing, and I knew it would allow me to display them not only individually in some areas, but in clusters as well. Being vertical, they take on a new life when presented as a group.
I want visitors to come into the space and realize that the right art can make any environment, even an incredible one like Atelier, better. In that sense, this show is a bit different from one in a conventional gallery, since the work isn't presented in isolation.
Your journey into ceramics seems to have been an almost instant connection. Can you tell me more about that first moment you touched clay and realized it was a medium you wanted to pursue?
This was a long time ago, but yes, it was an instant connection. On a whim, I enrolled in an introductory class at a local community center, just as something to do together with an artistic friend of mine, not actually looking to become a ceramicist. Still, I was hooked from the start. It’s kind of a common joke for those of us who work with clay, to warn people who mention they want to take a class, to be careful before touching clay, as it can be addictive. From that point forward, all I could think about was finding a way to become a more serious student of the medium as fast as I could. I love to learn in general and ceramics has given me an endless set of opportunities to explore.
How have your other artistic pursuits informed your ceramic practice?
They all do influence it, but the truth is that my ceramic work is by far my most committed. I love the tactile: the skill that is required to shape clay, and the chemistry of the glazes. I spent time in my 20’s as a bookbinder and that discipline has some similar elements. Ceramics require both physical skill and taste. In my prior career as the head of editorial and advertising production at LIFE magazine, I got very comfortable making aesthetic choices. I was not a photo editor, but instead oversaw the print production and color quality of the magazine. I had a short career as an interior designer while my kids were young, and I still seem to be the go-to person for friends seeking paint color and design advice.
Making art isn’t just about creating great components, but also about the right choices of which ones to combine with which, in what way, in order to create a cohesive, beautiful and satisfying whole.
What has your editorial background taught you about visual storytelling? How does that translate into your ceramics? What about into your installation at Atelier?
A great magazine layout at LIFE was never just about a series of individually great photos, but just as much about how those photo choices all worked together to create mood and tell a story. That’s what I’m looking for in my pieces… a set of individually great components that fit together in such a way that the whole is more beautiful and seductive than the sum of its parts. Of course, I also care deeply that each part is beautiful on its own, but what matters most is the entire presentation.
The PLUMES installation at Atelier takes this to a different level because it isn’t just about the individual pieces that come together to form a stack. It’s how multiple stacks work together to create a mood and feel in a particular space. I really like the combinations that the incredible Atelier team and I came up with, from a colorful cluster in the front space, to a more monochromatic grouping against a mirror, to some smaller and single color ones that are all the same dimensions but use different colors and textures. The team at Atelier really know and excel at store design and display, so their placement of my stacks was spot on. It was a thrill to see the final installation. As pieces have sold, they’ve moved the remaining stacks around in really thoughtful ways, and the full impression holds up.
What connections do you see between the world of ceramics and the world of fashion?
The basics are that both are purely about beauty and self-expression; at least my ceramics work that way. I’m not trying to make any particular statement or get a message across. I only want to build things that blow people away with their technique and beauty. A lot of Atelier is like that. The clothes are unapologetically gorgeous. Sometimes in soft and more traditional ways, but often in more brutalist and shape-forward ways. I walk around Atelier and can’t help myself from touching every piece I see. The clothing is tactile, not unlike ceramics. People are always wanting to touch my stacks.
I want people who look at my work (and especially those who buy pieces and make them part of their day-to-day lives) to feel as if they are living with purpose-built beauty, just as they feel when they are wearing beautiful and sumptuous clothing.
You've spoken about your love of travel. What are some places that have made an impact on you and your artwork?
I do love to travel and have the good fortune to travel a lot. The travel that has had the most powerful impact on my current work and specifically the PLUMES work at Atelier is the trip I took to Iceland two years ago. All the pieces in the Atelier show are named for places or geological features in Iceland. The country is astonishing, like a moonscape, so different from anywhere I’d been. The crazy rock and lava formations, the flowing waterfalls, the geological eruptions, all informed the colors, textures and forms of the work at Atelier. Even the name PLUMES comes from Iceland, in that the stacks themselves are like plumes jutting up from the ground. Per Wikipedia: “The Iceland plume is a postulated upwelling of anomalously hot rock in the Earth’s mantle beneath Iceland.” The funny thing is that I built an entire body of work because I liked what I was creating, and only after it was completed did I consciously realize the influence that Iceland had on me.
You're based in the Pacific Northwest. What about the region inspires you?
The PNW is incredibly beautiful in a very specific way, but I don’t think of myself as an artist who tries to incorporate PNW visual motifs in my work. I love to look at the mountains and water, and when it is pretty, there is nowhere prettier. These days, I split my time between Seattle and New York City. When I’m in Seattle I work in my home studio, my favorite place to be. When I’m in NYC I go to as many art shows and museums as I possibly can. Being a ceramic artist could be lonely, but I love what I’m creating.
Tell me about a few fellow artists whose work has captured your imagination lately.
I'd really rather not focus on just a few. I look at art, read about art, all the time. I have a large and broad range of contemporary and historical artists whose work I admire for different reasons. All different mediums. For a sense of the breadth of my interests, have a look at WomanSeekingArt, which is a personal art blog I created and maintain. I'm pretty behind in posting right now, as I have a daunting backlog of art to write about and lots of ceramic work to do, but as a whole WomanSeekingArt provides a robust picture of the sorts of artists and work that inspire me. There are hundreds of entries and the blog gets a fair amount of traffic, especially when I'm posting regularly. I started the blog as a way to share what I was seeing with friends who had an interest in art, and wanted to hear about what I was seeing, but who don't travel or see art as frequently as I do, and grew from there. On my most recent trip to NYC I went to multiple art openings, several museum shows, and about 30 gallery shows. I’m always in active pursuit of new artists to see and learn about. I can’t get enough. That all being said, I am also quite picky. I can walk into a gallery and immediately know I am not interested. There is a lot of art out in the world and people have very different tastes.
What's next for you in your practice?
I’m still very excited by the work I did for the PLUMES show. I expect my next step to be evolutionary, rather than transformative. I still feel as if I have a lot of runway with the vertically stacked form. I’m playing with some new ideas. For instance, the mini stacks were a late addition to the PLUMES show at Atelier and I have a bunch of ideas on how to make for interesting work on that scale.
I’m experimenting a lot with base construction, new glazes and textures, so I expect to deliver some new thinking there.
At the core, I’ve been super pleased with the response for this show and the one I did earlier in 2024 in Montana. People seem to really appreciate the format as both artistically sophisticated and decorative. The stacks really fit with how people want to showcase unique and beautiful objects in their homes. The vertical format and small footprint really work for that. People may run out of wall or shelf space, but there is always a spot on the floor!
I’m excited to explore and update, while maintaining the essence of the work. I have had a lot of fun installing purchased stacks in people’s homes. The variety of spaces they are in is fascinating. It’s something I never really thought about before, but I am finding that, after spending more hours than I care to count on a piece, the act of setting it up in its permanent home is proving to be a true thrill, every time.
Interview by Sharon Weissburg
Photography by Adrien Cho
Location: Atelier New York Seattle and Ann Shure’s studio
Discover the sculptural art of Ann Shure online and experience them in person at Atelier New York in Seattle.