Janny Baek's Life Forms exhibition is a solo show by artist Janny Baek presented at Joy Machine gallery in Chicago from March 20 to May 9, 2026. The exhibition features ceramic sculptures that take on organic, ambiguous forms resembling plants, shells, and hybrid organisms. The works are built through a layered construction process, beginning with coiled bases and expanding upward through successive additions of clay. Baek’s background in architecture informs the structural approach, with each element branching from the last to form complex compositions.
The sculptures are made using hand-building techniques combined with nerikomi, a process that layers differently colored clay and slices through it to reveal internal patterns. Color is embedded within the material rather than applied to the surface, creating gradients and striations throughout each piece. Forms extend outward in branching and bulbous shapes, with visible seams and layered construction defining the surface.
Image Credit: Jenny Baek
Key Themes Behind This Trend
- Material-embedded Coloration
- Coloration integrated into the body of materials offers opportunities for durable, gradient-rich products that maintain aesthetic depth as surfaces wear or are repaired.
- Layered Parametric Ceramics
- Layer-by-layer construction combined with patterned slicing enables complex, customizable internal geometries that could redefine scalable artisanal manufacturing.
- Bioinspired Structural Branching
- Branching, organism-like forms suggest new load-distributing morphologies that can inform lightweight, resilient designs across scales.
Where This Applies
- Architectural Facades
- Facades incorporating coiled, layered ceramic panels could create visually dynamic, thermally tuned building skins with intrinsic color and texture.
- Luxury Homewares
- High-end tableware and object design could leverage nerikomi-style internal patterns to offer unique, collectible pieces where patterning is integral to material integrity.
- Biomedical Implants
- Porous, branching ceramic structures modeled on Baek’s compositions may present new routes for osteointegration and load-bearing implant geometries.
