BURNT OFFERINGS
AUSTEN BRANTLEY
Opening Reception:
Friday, March 20th | 6 - 9 PM
My practice is rooted in clay as a living archive—one that carries memory, pressure, and time within its body. I am drawn to the moment when form is no longer entirely mine, when fire intervenes and reshapes intention. The kiln is where authorship loosens, and transformation begins.
In Burnt Offerings, firing becomes a ritual act. Clay is shaped, prepared, and then surrendered to heat—knowing that it may crack, warp, or emerge changed beyond expectation. This process mirrors ancestral traditions of offering: giving something of value to forces larger than oneself, not for perfection, but for communion.
I think about what it means for an object to survive fire. For it to hold evidence of stress and still remain whole. These sculptures carry the language of endurance—compressed figures, fractured surfaces, layered skins—reflecting how bodies and histories are shaped under pressure. The marks left by flame are not erased; they are honored.
My work speaks to lineage not through direct representation, but through process. Clay remembers every touch. Fire remembers every risk. Together, they echo inherited narratives of resilience, adaptation, and quiet strength. What the viewer encounters is not a fixed story, but a shared moment—an offering made visible.
These works are not monuments. They are witnesses. They ask to be approached slowly, felt rather than solved. In standing before them, the viewer completes the cycle—receiving what has been given, and carrying it forward.
Austen Brantley, 2026
In the Journal
Burnt Offerings is a solo exhibition that centers clay not simply as material, but as ritual. Across sculptural works formed through hand, heat, fracture, and endurance, the exhibition treats the firing process as an act of surrender—where intention is given over to flame, time, and chance. What emerges is not control, but transformation.
In this body of work, clay becomes a universal offering: shaped by the artist, altered by fire, and completed through the presence of the viewer. The kiln functions as both crucible and altar, echoing ancestral practices where objects were sacrificed to fire as a means of communication—between the living and the dead, the material and the spiritual, the present and inherited memory.
The sculptures bear visible evidence of this passage. Surfaces crack, glaze blooms unpredictably, figures appear compressed or suspended, as if carrying the weight of heat and history simultaneously. These marks are not imperfections but records—proof that the work has endured something. Each piece holds the residue of risk, loss, and survival, mirroring generational narratives carried within Black diasporic experience.
Burnt Offerings invites viewers to slow down and witness clay as a vessel of ancestral continuity. The works do not demand interpretation; instead, they ask for recognition. To stand before them is to encounter an object that has already been tested by fire—one that offers itself fully, without guarantee, and remains.
AUSTEN BRANTLEY
Through the exploration of form and texture, I strive to create a visual representation of our emotional landscape, revealing raw and vulnerable aspects of ourselves that we often hide from the world. Each sculpture in the Unearthed series embodies a unique combination of strength and fragility, inviting viewers to confront and reveal their own hidden emotions and vulnerabilities.
These sculptures serve as a catalyst for personal introspection and growth, encouraging individuals to embrace their own complexity and embrace the beauty in imperfection.
By pushing the boundaries of traditional sculpture techniques and experimenting with unconventional materials, I hope to challenge viewers' perceptions of what sculpture can be and the emotions they experience. In the end creating a visceral and emotional experience for the viewer, one that transcends language and culture and speaks directly to the human experience.
AUSTEN BRANTLEY
Ceramic and granite base
36 × 19 × 11 inches