Dates
May 8 – Jun 29, 2026
Nathalie Karg Gallery is pleased to present a new series of small-scale ceramics by Elsa Sahal. In this intimate body of work, Sahal engages in a direct, spirited dialogue with the legacy of American ceramicist Ken Price, blending her signature biomorphic provocations with the rhythmic color and finish fetish sensibilities of the West Coast master. Known for her large-scale, often visceral explorations of the female body, Sahal shifts her focus here to the miniature. These new works retain her characteristic suggestion of flesh, fold, and organ, but are distilled through the lens of Price's iconic "mound" and "blob" geometries. While Price sought an otherworldly surface, Sahal introduces a tactile humanity, allowing the thumbprint and raw clay to peek through vibrant, multi-layered glazes. The exhibition is less a replication and more a resonance. Sahal captures the Pricean spirit--the rejection of the ceramic vessel in favor of pure sculpture--while infusing it with a contemporary, feminist energy. These pieces vibrate with a shared appreciation for saturated hues, ambiguous biological geometries, and the power of small-scale works to deliver a massive impact. To look at a Ken Price is to see a landscape through a microscope. In this series, Elsa Sahal takes that microscope and turns it toward the body, creating internal landscapes that are as playful as they are profound. Elsa Sahal (b. 1975, Paris, FR) is a leading figure in contemporary French sculpture, recognized for her transformative and visceral approach to ceramics. A graduate of the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris (2000), Sahal has spent over two decades deconstructing the traditional boundaries between abstraction and figuration, utilizing clay as a medium for exploring the "enigma of morphology" and the complexities of the female body. Her work has been exhibited at major international institutions and is held in prominent permanent collections.