Rode Rat

Carolein Smit is one of the most exciting contemporary ceramics artists in the Netherlands. She worked as an illustrator and painter for years before being introduced to working in ceramics at the European Ceramics Work Centre in Den Bosch.

Smit's animal figures have extremely evocative postures, embued with a certain vulnerability. This rat figure is built up from small ceramic filaments joined together to form a highly stylised surface pattern. Glazed in lustrous red, the viewer is given the impression of a skinned animal. Smit is a master in creating a dual emotional charge, in this way; a sensitivity that makes her creatures both endearing and macabre.