Coral Form #26, Stoneware & Glaze
by Marissa Petruzzelli
Marissa Petruzzelli is a ceramic artist based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, originally from Connecticut. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Institute of Art & Design at New England College and a Master of Science in Museum Leadership from Drexel University. Her sculptural work investigates abstracted landscapes through clay, using hand-building and layered glaze application to develop form and surface. She shifts away from idealized representations often associated with domestic or regional decor, instead drawing from personal experiences of environment and place to construct forms that exist between observation and abstraction. Her methods are rooted in hand-building techniques, including thick slabs and pinched forms, allowing her to build surfaces with folds, edges, and openings that create visual depth and variation. She responds to how the material moves, settles, and fractures, allowing the clay to guide the development of each form. Through this process, Petruzzelli examines how home and environment shape identity. Using color, line, and texture, she constructs surreal forms that feel recognizable but not literal, often existing between interior and exterior spaces. Her glazing practice expands upon this investigation, layering multiple glazes that interact, pool, and shift during firing. She challenges fixed or romanticized notions of landscape through abstraction and distortion, reflecting the fluid and subjective nature of memory and place. Influenced by abstract expressionism, funk art, and surrealism, Petruzzelli embraces organic movement, distortion, and color. Growing up on the shoreline of Connecticut and now living in the high desert of New Mexico has shaped her understanding of landscape as both physical and psychological space, informing her ongoing investigation into how contrasting environments can coexist within sculptural form. Ultimately, her work invites viewers to consider their own sense of place, perception, and memory, forming personal and shifting connections through abstracted form.
