Casey Zablocki is a ceramic artist known for his brutal forms and craggy surfaces. His alchemical experimentations with proprietary mixtures of clay push boundaries of scale and material, forging sculptures, functional objects, and furniture that appear as though they were carved from a prehistoric landscape or rescued from architectural ruins. Based in Missoula, Montana, Zablocki’s mountainous surroundings are central to his practice. The colors of his work come from slips fashioned from locally sourced porcelain or ash from native woods, which Zablocki uses to fire his pieces in a cave-like wood-burning anagama kiln—one of America’s largest—for ten days straight. In each work, Zablocki seeks to capture the tension of the modern world we’ve created coexisting within the ancient one we’ve been given.

Born into a family of artists and makers, Zablocki received his BFA at Finlandia University in Hancock, Michigan and completed his post-baccalaureate studies at Montana State University. He has apprenticed with some of the world’s leading ceramic artists, including American anagama kiln expert Peter Callas and renowned South Korean sculptor Hun Chung Lee.