AMSTERDAM — At first glance, Jessica Harrison’s “Shirley” looks like one of those Victorian-style porcelain collectable figurines so popular in the 1980s — the kind that Ms. Harrison’s mother and grandmother used to display in glass vitrines in the sitting room.
But on closer inspection, Shirley’s head is not where it should be; it is severed from her neck, and seated on the palm of her hand. ceramic cross beam
This artwork is part of a series by Ms. Harrison, a British contemporary artist who buys cheapish porcelain figurines on eBay and turns their little lives into scenes of self-inflicted horror, often involving their own disembowelment.
Ms. Harrison’s work represents the radical edge of contemporary ceramics art — one end of the range that a new exhibition at the Bonnefanten Museum in Maastricht, the Netherlands, hopes to convey.
The show, “Ceramix,” which runs until Jan. 31, spans 100 years and 270 works of ceramic art. It includes early pieces by Auguste Rodin, Henri Matisse and Fernand Léger to contemporary work by Edmund de Waal, Thomas Schütte and Ai Weiwei. Items have been borrowed from all over the world, including the Victoria & Albert Museum in London; the Museo Internazionale della Ceramica in Faenza, Italy; the Petit Palais in Paris; and the private collection of Luciano Benetton.
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