Biography

Leora Brecher is a ceramic artist living and working in the Philadelphia area. She grew up in Montreal, Canada and has lived in India, Israel and Switzerland. After receiving her B.A. in Philosophy and Psychology from McGill University, she spent a year apprenticing with a ceramic artist in the Old City of Jerusalem. She went on to study ceramics at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design.

Leora began her career as a functional potter but soon began creating one-of-a-kind, wheel-thrown and hand-carved porcelain vessels. After ten years, she felt the need for a new creative direction and spent six months photographing nature. This exploration led to an entirely new body of work marked by a significant change in both material and technique as she began using dark iron-saturated clay to create hand-built, pit-fired pieces.

After exploring this direction for nearly a decade, a new more sculptural and abstract body of work has emerged. Still inspired by nature this new work is filled with many exciting possibilities. She now works with a white clay which allows her to explore light and shadow in greater depth. Her new work is created through the use of coiling, carving and burnishing. Coiling highlights the soft, malleable nature of the clay, thus enhancing the fluidity and movement of each piece. Carving gives each piece greater clarity and strength while burnishing creates a tactile smoothness and visual simplicity which further enrich and complete the sculpture.