Not Your Grandma’s Dishes: Anthropologie Puts Chic Plates On Display

What comes to mind when we hear about ceramics are animal-shaped lawn ornaments or those kitschy plates hanging in grandma's kitchen. That is, until we learned about South African artist, Ruan Hoffmann, a painter who has been working with ceramics for almost 20 years. Hoffmann embraces the medium's fragility and uses the three-dimensional surface as his canvas, creating rare delicate plates that are both abstract and symbolic. The Anthropologie gallery at Rockefeller Center is currently holding the exhibition, "Much Love Me", which shows one hundred of Hoffmann's painted ceramic plates uniquely arranged atop thin rods; a more avant-garde display than a plate stand in a china cabinet. The exceptional craftsmanship advances ceramics to fine art, and Hoffmann's pieces are a far cry from your college elective creations.