Vicente Garcia Studio
10 Crescent Way, Simsbury, CT 06070
Host: Vicente Garcia
Guest Artist: Mike Tino
The studio isn’t just a place for creation — it’s a space for sharing. Over the years, Garcia has invited students, local schools, and fellow ceramic enthusiasts to experience hands-on workshops, demonstrations, and open-studio days, giving audiences a rare view into his firing processes, his interplay of materials, and his artistic philosophy. Garcia employs a variety of distinctive techniques — including primitive and experimental firings such as raku, saggar, smoke, and obvara — often combining traditional ceramic practices with metalwork and unconventional materials to yield vessels and sculptures with unique textures, finishes, and presence.
Whether you’re exploring pottery for the first time or seeking innovative, sculptural works — Studio Garcia offers both a creative home for Garcia’s evolving body of work and a welcoming gateway into the world of clay, fire, and metal.
Vicente Garcia
The essence of my art deals with the use of clay and steel to create sculptural forms and vessels. I am attracted to the precision of man and machine made steel objects and the manner in which clay can be manipulated to simulate such forms. The simulation of such forms with clay, the experimentation of various finishes, and steel and clay combinations are factors that I investigate. I have been creating with clay and steel for the past forty years. The inherent qualities of both media fascinate me. In clay, it's the plastic quality that allows it to be modeled into a wide range of forms. I take advantage of its plasticity and its ability to be transformed into whatever form I want. I model some pieces to simulate steel while I manipulate others to show its fragility. In steel, it's the strength, the immediacy, and the process that captivates me.
My artistic practice finds beauty in chaos, balancing process-driven forms with narrative sculpture. I create unique vessels, utilizing the unpredictable nature of raku, saggar, and atmospheric firing. This focus on material exploration extends to dynamic abstract wall pieces that fuse wood and ceramic. Meanwhile, my creature sculptures translate deep, unspoken human narratives and struggles into potent, symbolic visual forms.