Sophie Lever is a ceramic artist who creates both functional and sculptural work. Growing up, she moved around a lot, and spent time in many different states on the east coast and midwest. This (along with other factors) created a desire for order and structure in the work that she makes. Fascinated with pattern, geometry, and organization, both her functional and sculptural work contain these elements, whether that be through surface decoration or form.
While her functional work is wheel-thrown, most of her sculptural work is built with hard slabs. She is interested in paradoxes and contradictions in her sense of self and how these ideas can visually play out in a single work. Sophie is currently an artist in residence at Access Arts in Columbia, MO where she teaches adult and youth classes and works to maintain a functioning studio. Prior to Access Arts, she was a resident artist at Brockway Center for Arts and Technology in Brockway, PA. Over the past two years, her work has been exhibited in juried shows across the country, including 64Arts, Atlanta Print Biennial, and In Hand II. She received her BA in Studio Arts from the University of Rochester in 2023. For two summers, she was an apprentice at Bella Joy Pottery in Plainwell, MI.
Artist Statement
Contradiction is not just a theme in my work, it is the basis from which everything else emerges. Contradictions permeate every aspect of my being, from my beliefs to my actions, from my sense of self to the way I exist in the world. I wrestle with their discomfort while I simultaneously am lured to their complexity. Often, I find tension within myself, where my more abstract beliefs butt up against my actions or more concrete chain of thoughts. Through ceramics, I explore these paradoxes of humanity in hopes of deepening my understanding of myself. My work usually begins from personal experience, but aims to move beyond my own individuality and create work that serves as a site of shared humanity. While I create a combination of both functional and sculptural work, both avenues incorporate geometry, pattern, and repetition combined with some spontaneity, whether that be through form, surface, or atmospheric firings.
CV
Education
2023 B.A. in Studio Arts, University of Rochester
Exhibitions
2025 Salt, Soda, Submerged, Juried Exhibition, Ology Gallery 2025 Feats of Clay, Juried Exhibition, Art League of Lincoln 2025 In Hand II, Juried Exhibition, The Art School at Old Church 2024 Clap, doodh!, Individual Exhibition, Brockway Center for Arts and Technology 2023 64Arts, Juried Exhibition, Buchanan Center for the Arts 2023 Atlanta Print Biennial, Juried Exhibition, Kai Lin Art Gallery 2023 Five Points Printmaking Exhibition, Juried Exhibition, Five Points Art Center 2023 Gallerium Art Prize, Online Exhibition, Gallerium 2023 West Michigan Area Show, Juried Exhibition, Kalamazoo Institute of Art 2023 Tethered, Individual Exhibition, The Yards Collective 2023 Wall to Wall: Annual Members Exhibition, Group Exhibition, Flower City Arts Center
2022 All Things Considered, Group Exhibition, University of Rochester
2022 Illusions, Group Exhibition, University of Rochester
2022 Connected Methods, Group Exhibition, University of Rochester
2022 Since March 2020, Group Exhibition, University of Rochester