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Biography
Claudia V. Solórzano’s ceramic sculptures are rooted in memory, place, and material. Her practice draws inspiration from wrought iron gates, window bars and other architectural forms from the landscape of her upbringing in East Los Angeles.
Solórzano's work has been exhibited at venues such as Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, Craig Krull Gallery, the American Museum of Ceramic Art, and Hauser & Wirth among others. Solórzano has been an artist in residence at the American Museum of Ceramic Art in Pomona, CA (2023) and Township10 in Marshall, NC (2025). Solórzano holds an MFA from Claremont Graduate University (2022) and a BFA in Ceramics from California State University, Long Beach (2017).
She is currently an adjunct professor at California State University, Long Beach's School of Art teaching courses in ceramic art.
Photographed by Jorge A. Jimenez Jr.
Artist Statement
Exploring the intersections of preservation, human experience, domesticity and spirituality, I utilize clay to create modern artifacts. Responding to the transient nature of the neighborhoods from my upbringing in East Los Angeles I engage in traditional handbuilding techniques, intuitively rendering architectural forms such as gates, fences, and other overlooked urban structures. I find these constructions to embody metaphors of boundaries, thresholds, and the spaces between the known and unknown. Each piece becomes a portrait of a place, person, or of histories in flux.
Through the versatility of clay I am able to hammer, bend, push, pull and pinch this tactile material and sculpt it into any form I desire. The energy flowing from my hands shape each piece that is then dried, solidified, vitrified and purified by fire and heat. Though it becomes stronger after its firing it remains fragile in comparison to other earthly elements. Through this process reflects a poetic sensibility that allows me to capture the quiet, uncelebrated beauty of the structures of my youth, while acknowledging their impermanence faced with the harsh reality of gentrification. Although it’s a science, I still can’t help but feel a sense of magic while constructing these forms.
Over time the work has evolved from an interest in preservation to a more intuitive exploration of spirituality and my reawakened interest in otherworldly narratives. My work acts as portals, relics, altar-like structures and objects of that nature that don’t necessarily promise arrival, but instead gesture toward movement, transition, and even transformation.
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