Nicolás Leiva, Journey to Meet God I, 2005, Mixed media on canvas, 72 x 118in,182.9 x 299.7 cm
Nicolás Leiva began working with ceramics in the mid 1996s when he was encouraged by his friend and gallerist Gary Nadar to make a dinner set for his personal use. Leiva, taken by the challenge, went to a family owned shop run by a Cuban man named Uria. The first plates and amphoras made by Leiva were painted on the commercial molds that the workshop had. Leiva recalls that he treated these as blank canvas on which he expressed his full creative force. The end results were very colorful and depicted organic forms, similar to those present in his paintings of the time.
