In the exhibition Diamonds and Pearls, Boutwell Schabrowsky Gallery presents new ceramic sculptures by Claudia Terstappen.

What is the connection between jewellery and sculpture? We decorate our bodies, living spaces, homes and cities. Claudia Terstappen's exhibition title has to do with this association. The word "schmücken" goes back to the Middle High German word "smücken, smucken" and means, among other things, "to press into something; to press against"; this in turn points to Terstappen's method of pressing clay into a form, of deliberately transforming an unformed mass into a sculpture; as a measure of beautification and enrichment for us.

"Often it is certain forms, color combinations or arrangements of things that I later transpose into my works, as if attributing a concrete image to a memory. It is not the source itself that interests me, but the physical properties, its appearance and its force. Through the playful transformation into abstraction, I try to give the works an independent existence. They should remain open in their statement and allow a wide spectrum of associations. Colors play an important role for me - they can be emotional, but can also serve to disguise the origin of the form. Above all, however, they fetishize the work as a precious object."

Terstappen studied sculpture at the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf. After graduating, she moved to London, where she taught at several universities. She later run the Master of Fine Arts Course in Barcelona for the Southampton University before being appointed Professor in Melbourne. Today she lives as a freelance artist in Barcelona and Melbourne. Her artistic work is influenced by the diversity of these places and cultures. In Australia it is above all nature that has influenced her creative output.