Sebastian Stöhrer

White Smoker is Sebastian Stöhrer’s second solo exhibition at Barbara Seiler and the first to take place in the gallery’s garden at Rämistrasse 18. The exhibition title refers both to hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor – known as white smokers – and to the ceramic firing process, subtly linking geological phenomena with Stöhrer’s practice. His sculptural ceramic works, often vessel-like in form, are marked by thick glazes, textured surfaces, and an elemental palette. They evoke natural formations shaped over time, suggesting processes of sedimentation, erosion, and transformation. In this new outdoor context, the works engage with their surroundings in quiet conversation – placed among trees and grass, they sit between the organic and the constructed. As in the later stages of a hydrothermal field, where materials settle and shift, Stöhrer’s pieces reflect a balance between energy and rest, control and chance, surface and depth.

Sebastian Stöhrer’s work can rightfully be described as a form of creation. From clay – essentially earth – he shapes his “inhabitants”: colorful, friendly-looking sculptural beings, sometimes extended with twig- or branch- like appendages reminiscent of limbs. These creatures exude a playful, humorous charm, but they are far from the product of mere whim or inspiration. They are the result of decades of meticulous experimentation at the kiln, rooted in ancient ceramic traditions and supported by a deep understanding of chemistry and physics. 

Stöhrer has been called an alchemist, and indeed he revives this early scientific discipline that combined reason, experimentation, and a touch of mysticism. His process unites pure logic with chance and intuition. Working with clay and the unpredictable nature of glazes, Stöhrer embraces the sensual, the chaotic, the primal – all inherent to any act of creation. His “inhabitants” are manifestations of this ethos: figures that seem to mirror or perhaps herald a gentler, more whimsical version of ourselves. 

His sculptures, at times reminiscent of organs or microbes, pulse with humor, eccentricity, and erotic energy. Fantastical beings and sci-fi forms blend with human innards. Trunked creatures, hybrid human-animal figures, and vase-like objects with gossiping mouths animate his visual world. Some appear to dance, others shimmer playfully in iridescent hues. Natural materials like reeds, branches, and straw are often incorporated, adding a tactile contrast and evoking associations from Niki de Saint Phalle’s Nanas to three-legged, seductive totems. The massive meets the whimsical. 

But it is above all the glazes – the surface refinement – that unlock vast creative possibilities and present the greatest challenge. Stöhrer works with up to 30 different elements, many of them sourced directly from the earth. Through painstaking measuring, scaling, mixing, testing, and documenting, each glazing becomes a new cosmos of its own. This technique yields an almost infinite palette of colors. As the artist explains, “Working with ceramics connects two distinct creative processes: the modeling of clay as a sculptural practice, and glazing as a painterly one.” Stöhrer’s oeuvre sits at the intersection of sculpture, painting, and experiment – a vibrant, tactile alchemy of form and color that is as grounded in material research as it is in imaginative play. 

Sebastian Stöhrer (born 1968, Germany) studied at the Städelschule in Frankfurt and is known for his distinctive ceramic sculptures that blur the boundaries between utility and abstraction, nature and craft. His works have been exhibited at institutions and galleries including the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Freedman Gallery in London, and Avlskarl Gallery in Copenhagen. Recent exhibitions include Spat und Spreißel at Overbeck – Gesellschaft (2022), and a presentation with Almine Rech at Ceramic Brussels (2025).