Ann Van Hoey: Clay, Color, and Form

Lucy Lacoste Gallery is pleased to present ceramist Ann Van Hoey: Clay Color and Form opening January 17, 2026 from 4-6PM.  This exhibition will be Van Hoey’s third solo with the gallery since her debut US solo show in 2021.

Van Hoey is internationally known for meticulous construction of vessels. Her objects, as she calls them, are bold and singular, each coated in vibrant glaze. Rather than the high gloss finish of her previous work, this new collection emphasizes the “purity and raw presence” of red stoneware clay, leaving the piece interiors unglazed and glowing against their vivid outer shells. The idea for this body of work emerged last summer when Van Hoey was invited to exhibit at the  Landcommanderij Alden Biesen, the UNESCO World Heritage site. The medieval castle is defined by its powerful architecture and interiors entirely built in red brick. These works echo the structure’s signature red facade. 

This tension between inner and outer, historic and contemporary, restraint and expression is essential to Van Hoey’s practice. These contradictions imbue her work with a taut elegance, enhanced by careful construction. Van Hoey’s precise cutting and folding technique treats clay like an origami pattern, allowing “color, form, and material [to] become inseparable — color is not applied as decoration, but lives within the structure of the object itself.”