In my work, intimacy, love, and community mingle with separation, solitude, and grief.
By critically examining relationships I consider significant - between family, friends, places, objects, ideas, and the environment - and the fundamental transformations they have undergone over time, I strive to better understand myself, my place within my community, and how my experience with the human condition can be reflective of the experiences of others.
I create ceramic and clay manifestations of my big feelings that use playful and unsettling imagery and interactive elements to explore these relationships and memories, and within that space I learn, experiment, condemn, and celebrate.
Interaction and audience participation have become central to my practice, and here I have seen a more meaningful dialogue between artist, artwork and viewer emerge. By practicing altruism, crafting strange games, or engaging materialistic tendencies, I use interactive elements to provoke thought and build connections and community with and among the audience through the sharing of experiences.
Michael Guerra Foerster is an artist living and working in San Antonio, Texas. Michael received a BFA with a concentration in ceramics from the University of Texas at San Antonio in 2018, has studied at Haystack, Penland and Arrowmont Schools of Craft, participated in residencies at Brick Gallery and Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, and exhibited nationally, including creating temporary and permanent public art pieces in San Antonio. Michael is also currently a visual arts instructor at SAY Sí (San Antonio Youth Yes) where he teaches middle and high school-age artists, who in turn regularly inspire his work. The curriculum he co-creates focuses on creating elevated and original artwork, while also promoting social justice and community centered action.