Next Big Thing: Ranti Bam

Nigerian-born artist Ranti Bam is redefining the art of ceramics, coaxing clay into extraordinary and unexpected states. “I’m a highly sensorial being, and through clay and form, my spirit finds voice,” says Bam, who is based in Paris. “My work has always been rooted in the semiotics of the feminine: fragility, vulnerability, intimacy, care, and beauty.” Utilizing a process of intense labor and material alchemy, she meticulously builds her vessels from thin, overlapping slabs of earthenware—then uses slip, a pigmented liquid clay, to construct their brightly patterned surfaces. “Each piece begins with the story,” explains Bam, whose works are inspired by West African Yoruba culture, the intense color palette of Renaissance paintings, Nigerian textiles, and the natural world.

Breaking point: Bam deliberately fires the pieces past the clay’s prescribed temperature, allowing the unglazed exterior to stretch, tear, and crackle. “What may appear as imperfection is often just the point where expectation falls away and something truer emerges,” she says. “Surrender is at the heart of my practice. That’s where the beauty lies.”

Up next: This June, Bam debuts a new installation for a public art trail around Oulu, Finland.

“Ranti’s delicate, contoured vessels activate a unique sense of vulnerability and resilience. Her practice seems to reshape the language of clay, demanding response from the materials, both physical and elegantly poetic,” says Kamal Shah, Collector and Founder of Making Their Mark Foundation.

A version of this article first appeared in print in our 2025 Winter issue under the headline “Next Big Things.” Subscribe to the magazine.