Brian Rochefort with a series of his untitled “Craters” and wall works.
Photo: CHARLES BENTON, COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND VAN DOREN WAXTER, NY
How Artist Brian Rochefort Finds Inspiration Through Exotic Travel
This Los Angeles–based artist creates lava-like sculptures inspired by his excursions through Latin America and Africa
Drawn to ceramics since he was 14, Brian Rochefort produces lavalike vessels with spectacular goopy stalagmites, building high-volume glazes via a layering technique perfected over the past decade. Working inside a light-filled storefront turned studio in Los Angeles, he crafts forms that inadvertently conjure food, specifically, melting ice cream. His inspiration, however, stems from a very different source. “My work references volcanoes and craters that I’ve been to,” says Rochefort, who is busy preparing for his first solo exhibition with Sean Kelly, Los Angeles, in September. “Most of my sculptures are based on traveling through Latin America and Africa.”
A 2023 piece made using ceramic, glaze, and glass fragments. Photo: COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND VAN DOREN WAXTER, NY
Brian Rochefort, Untitled, (2023). Photo: COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND VAN DOREN WAXTER, NY
For the artist, excursions—a Tanzanian safari, treks to the Galápagos—serve as research. He describes how he has even found inspiration for new textures and surfaces when he was alone deep in the Bolivian Amazon. He channels these experiences into his process. “I start off with one color: Let’s say, black,” he explains, tipping over a piece to reveal an inky hue. “I’ll airbrush it at an angle, so it tricks your eye. Then I fire it and choose another color. But pink exists in almost everything. That’s my signature.”
Garnering attention with shows at Massimo De Carlo in Milan and Dries Van Noten’s Little House in L.A., Rochefort has produced a body of work that evokes Franz West and Sterling Ruby. For Berluti’s spring 2021 collection, the artist collaborated on a menswear line in which his ceramic motifs appeared on the French fashion house’s silk shirts and knits.
Brian Rochefort, Untitled, (2023). Photo: COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND VAN DOREN WAXTER, NY
Brian Rochefort, Untitled, (2023). Photo: COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND VAN DOREN WAXTER, NY
This past winter, Rochefort’s pieces were included in “Timeless Harmony,” an exhibition by Sorry We’re Closed and Chahan Gallery at Nomad in Saint Moritz, Switzerland. In March, he wrapped up “The Hunter,” a major solo show at Van Doren Waxter in New York, presenting a selection of wall-mounted artworks as well as the largest examples to date of his “Craters.” But don’t expect his practice to necessarily scale in size. “Because I work by myself, there’s only so much I can carry,” he clarifies. “I have to finagle these things into the kiln.”
A version of this article first appeared in print in our 2024 Summer Issue under the headline “Singular Expressions.” Subscribe to the magazine.
Cover: Brian Rochefort with a series of his untitled “Craters” and wall works.
Photo: CHARLES BENTON, COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND VAN DOREN WAXTER, NY
