Ana-Belén Montero was born in Madrid (Spain) and grew up in Cáceres (Extremadura, Spain). After her studies at the School of Fine Arts – University of Salamanca (SP), I moved to Belgium and continued her education at the Department of Sculpture of the Academy of Fine Arts in Liege. She pursued her artistic research in the Academy of Fine Arts of Huy (Belgium), at the Department of Ceramics. She has curated several international art events including Ceramic Art Andenne 2018 (BE). Since 2011, she shares her time between creation and education. Her works are exhibited all around the World in galleries, ceramic festivals and museums.

“Symbiosis” is the result of an exploration of materials used in ceramics. I have deconstructed the usual process of ceramics according to which we realize the forms in clay or porcelain. We often use glaze to finish them. I have reversed this process: the volumes of my “Symbiosis” series are made of glazes, mainly high temperature. I let the glazes melt at high temperatures and I assemble pieces at lower temperatures in order to obtain shapes more complex. Porcelain or porcelain paper elements, imprints of nature and / or used sponges are assembled to the sculptures at the end of the process. The surface and colors of the glazes I use evoke the aquatic and coral world; the porcelain elements represent the terrestrial nature; used sponges, recycled in porcelain, “blur the tracks” by returning the human environment they have absorb while being used in our everyday life. These elements are made of casting porcelain, possibly with the addition of cellulose. “

My Secret Garden Series

I have thrown and altered this bowl made of English pyrity stoneware. I have decorated it on the inside and outside with a black slip using "katagami": a traditional Japanese stencil. I made this stencil with flowers from my herbarium (here, hydrangea quercifolia). I have also used a wood ash glaze with ashes from my wood stove (hornbeam, ash, beech).

I have been creating herbariums since my childhood. My series "My Secret Garden" uses some of these dried flowers and deals with the theme of memory. These creations are a metaphor for enchanted and somewhat melancholic memories.

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