Marc Zimmerman "Small Earthtone Ceramic Totem" Glazed Ceramic, 40 Inches Tall, Brown and Gold Glaze, Wood Base, Contemporary Art West Coast

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Description

At 31 inches on a natural wood base this smaller totem has an intimate, meditative quality that the larger floor … Read more At 31 inches on a natural wood base this smaller totem has an intimate, meditative quality that the larger floor sculptures approach differently. The palette is warm and unified, browns and golds and ochres in a close range that gives the piece a geological character, as though the forms accumulated over time rather than were built in a studio. The surface textures vary quietly from element to element, smooth against textured, providing interest within the tonal restraint. This is an excellent entry point into Zimmerman's totem practice for a collector who wants to begin with something at a more manageable scale, and it works beautifully as a complement to a larger totem or a painting nearby. On a console, a sideboard, or a shelf with other considered ceramic objects, it carries quiet presence.

ARTIST BIO:
Marc Zimmerman is an American painter and ceramic sculptor based in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. For more than four decades, his work has opened doors into imagined worlds: lush jungles filled with fantastical botanical forms, sun-drenched Mediterranean villages, vibrant florals, and ceramic totems that blend ancient influences with a distinctly contemporary vision. Zimmerman's artistic language was shaped by an unusually varied career. His background as a woodcut printmaker brought compositional clarity and strong graphic structure to his paintings, while the influence of Henri Rousseau and Paul Gauguin inspired his richly imagined landscapes. Time spent living and painting in Kauai, along with extensive travel throughout Mexico and Europe, infused his work with the saturated light, color, and atmosphere that define his celebrated Jungle, Village, and Tropical Floral series.

In recent years, Zimmerman returned to his earliest passion, clay, creating his Garden Totem series from hand-sculpted and individually glazed ceramic elements stacked into spontaneous vertical compositions. Rooted in his pottery experience in Venice Beach during the 1960s and 70s, these works bring the same exuberance, movement, and inventive use of color found throughout his paintings into three-dimensional form. His work is represented by galleries in California, Florida, and New York, and is held in private collections throughout the United States and internationally. See less