Elaine Buss
Elaine Buss
Elaine Buss received her MFA in Ceramics from Ohio State University (2018) and a BFA from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (2010). Her installations and ceramic sculptures explore ambiguity and the nondescript, specifically in relation to the sensory, ineffable, and intangible experience of inhabiting a human body. In addition to being Foundation Faculty at Kansas City Arts Institute, she is a Career Resident at Belger Crane Yard Studios. Her metaphorical approach to materials has garnered multiple recognitions, including the Ceramics Monthly Emerging Artist Award (2019) and Best in Show at the International MFA Exhibition, hosted by University of Montana (2018). Her work is held in collections such at Honos Art (Rome, Italy), Belger Collection (Kansas City, MO), Baggs Library (Columbus, OH), and C.R.E.T.A.Rome (Rome, Italy). Elaine’s awards and grants include the Global Gateway Grant, The International Award for Visual and Performing Arts, and an ArtistInc Fellowship from the Mid-America Arts Alliance. Among her publication records is a feature in the Art Basel Miami edition of Create! Magazine and exhibition reviews by KCStudio and Alive magazines.
To create my forms, I decontextualize historical utilitarian objects. My references include ancient grinding stones, water pipes, vertical loom weights, arches, and building fragments, among others. Anthropological sources provide a place of empathy with past humans and a way to understand my own humanity more thoroughly. I choose objects that reveal direct logic, touch, or process and then use the same visual language in my own forms. The resulting sculptures are not meant to allude to any specific origin or culture, but rather remain anonymous and elusive.
Floating between particular objects and ambiguously referential forms, I embrace the nondescript. There is an otherness that feels indiscernible, and I am fascinated by the space between knowing and searching. I find mystery to be one of the most compelling emotions, and I try to arrive at a sense instead of a certainty in my work. It is humbling to be reminded that there is still so much beyond our empirical grasp. The ambiguous forms that I create relate to my own ineffable experience as a human; they assure me that it’s ok to exist in the space of the indeterminate.
