Sculptor Vince Palacios Unveils His ‘Potato Trees’ in a New York Exhibition This Fall

Sculptor and ceramics professor Vince Palacios was born in Michigan and is based in California. Yet for his latest body of work, he references, among other inspirations, Peru—particularly taken with the the notion that a certain tuber symbolizes purity there. For “Haptic Memory,” at Gabriel & Guillaume in New York this fall, his series of “potato trees” nods to the food’s bulbous and awkward, yet beautiful and essential qualities. “I’m most interested in the unexpected things that emerge in the moment,” he says.

Indeed, the vessels are delightfully surprising, a result of manipulating clay by wheel and hand, then treating it with glaze and various flux before it undergoes multiple firings. “We all have bumps and lumps, my goal is to cause viewers to reflect on finding a way of fitting in.” Gabriel & Guillaume has done just that, this exhibition launching cofounders Nancy Gabriel and Guillaume Excoffier’s first permanent location. They’ve chosen to put down roots in the landmarked Steinway Hall (now, with a new adjoining tower by SHoP Architects and Studio Sofield, called 111 West 57th Street), engaging design agency FrenchCalifornia and Cueto Art Advisory to establish 17S, a former duplex apartment, as a soaring, 5,000-square-foot gallery.