The unexpected love relationship of Ghada Amer (1963, Cairo, Egypt) with ceramics began in 2014 at the Greenwich House Pottery—a non-profit ceramics center in New York—and was solidified on a trip to Mexico, especially to Cerámica Suro, in February of 2018. Initially a painter, Amer found it frustrating to deal with the unpredictability of glazing, which often resulted in unexpected breaks during the firing of larger pieces. However, from each accident, a new opportunity for artistic exploration arose. Her series Thoughts emerged from one of these fortuitous situations. While focusing on shaping large plates with her dominant hand, the excess clay that accumulated in her left hand sparked her imagination. Rather than throwing away those remnants, Ghada saw them as surreal visual experiments, non-figurative, marking her foray into what she calls “gestural sculpture.” 

Despite her novice approach to ceramics, Amer's training in painting imbued her ceramic plates with a mural quality, intended to be displayed on walls as canvases. Moving away from the ancient colorless sculptures, she meticulously selects vibrant colors, reviving the tradition of richly decorated art. The playful aspect of ceramics also benefited Amer's practice, as the freedom of this new medium allowed her to paint without many of the restrictions she had learned in her art school training. 

A chance encounter with Iranian-American artist Reza Farkhondeh (1963, Iran) also shaped Amer's artistic career; their relationship flourished into a fruitful collaboration following an unexpected intervention by Farkhondeh on one of Amer's canvases. This bold action catalyzed years of creative exchange and collaborations in various media, including painting, printmaking, drawing, video, and performance. Farkhondeh's early works consider notions of originality and mass reproduction in an increasingly globalized world. By questioning shifts in social, environmental, and political spheres, Farkhondeh began to explore the subject of 'Broken Landscapes' in 2001, creating a wide variety of interconnected panoramas—both tangible and psychological—that embody emptiness, segregation, desolation, and deep beauty. 

The material dialogue found within Auspicious Accidents invites us to witness the intrinsic alliance of curiosity and pleasure that leads to discovery. In this collection of spontaneous incidents and collaborative efforts, Ghada Amer continues to challenge artistic boundaries, forging a path of innovation and creativity in ceramics and beyond.