Jane Margarette is a Filipino American artist working in ceramics and installation. Her sculptures explore notions of strength, protection, sensuality, and captivity. The various animals and insects in her work, adorned with chains and lures, disguise themselves as mechanical locks that tempt viewers to touch and manipulate the ‘functional’ mechanisms.
Created by traditional slab construction, the interlocking puzzle-like objects Margarette creates also explore architectural motifs such as doors, windows, and gates. There is a surrealist quality present in her work—locks shaped like insects, doors with eyes, baskets of teeth and fruit. Playful with scale, Margarette is not trying to pass these objects off as the real thing, rather as icons glistening in fluid blue and muted pink, they yield their irresistible secrets.
Margarette enjoys the unpredictable alchemy of the glazing process, which introduces an element of surprise and imagination. Unlike painting one can’t control exactly how the final work will turn out; final forms emerge from the kiln—a metaphorical cocoon—transformed into glistening objects.
Jane Margarette (b. 1985, San Diego, CA) received her MFA in Ceramics from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), Los Angeles, CA in 2020 and her BFA from California State University Long Beach, Long Beach, CA in 2016. She has exhibited her work in solo exhibitions at Anat Ebgi, Los Angeles, CA and 1969 Gallery, New York, NY. She has also exhibited in group exhibitions including Ruttkowski;68, Paris, France; Sargent’s Daughters, Los Angeles, CA; Galerie Wolfsen, Aalborg, Denmark; Grounds for Sculpture, Hamilton, NJ; and Moskowitz Bayse, Los Angeles, CA. The artist has taught as a professor of Ceramics at Cal State University, Bakersfield, CA and Cal State University, Long Beach, CA. In 2023 she will have her first European solo exhibition with Ruttkowski;68 in Paris. Margarette lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.
![This image depicts an artwork by Jane Margarette titled "A Comforting Squish." This artwork was created in 2022 and measures 35" x 59" x 4 ¹⁄₂" [HxWxD] (88.9 x 149.86 x 11.43 cm). Its medium is Ceramics and glaze.](https://anatebgi.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Jane-Margarette_JAN1021_1663364396.jpg)
![This image depicts an artwork by Jane Margarette titled "Some Inkling of Forever." This artwork was created in 2022 and measures 36" x 40" x 1 ³⁄₄" [HxWxD] (91.44 x 101.6 x 4.45 cm). Its medium is Ceramics and glaze.](https://anatebgi.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Jane-Margarette_JAN1020_1663364401.jpg)
![This image depicts an artwork by Jane Margarette titled "An Assortment of Maladies." This artwork was created in 2022 and measures 34" x 26" x 2" [HxWxD] (86.36 x 66.04 x 5.08 cm). Its medium is Ceramics and glaze.](https://anatebgi.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Jane-Margarette_JAN1022_1663364366.jpg)
![This image depicts an artwork by Jane Margarette titled "From the Tail of a Comet #1." This artwork was created in 2022 and measures 12" x 7" x 10" [HxWxD] (30.48 x 17.78 x 25.4 cm). Its medium is Ceramics and glaze.](https://anatebgi.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Jane-Margarette_JAN1019_1663364665.jpg)
![This image depicts an artwork by Jane Margarette titled "Jam To-morrow, Jam Yesterday." This artwork was created in 2022 and measures 47" x 67 ¹⁄₂" x 6" [HxWxD] (119.38 x 171.45 x 15.24 cm). Its medium is Ceramics, glaze, magnets.](https://anatebgi.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Jane-Margarette_JAN1016_1654801393.jpg)
![This image depicts an artwork by Jane Margarette titled "Chase a Rainbow." This artwork was created in 2022 and measures 74" x 43" x 5" [HxWxD] (187.96 x 109.22 x 12.7 cm). Its medium is Ceramics and glaze.](https://anatebgi.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Jane-Margarette_JAN1012_1654801416.jpg)
![This image depicts an artwork by Jane Margarette titled "I Must Have Missed You." This artwork was created in 2021 and measures 54" x 46" x 7" [HxWxD] (137.16 x 116.84 x 17.78 cm). Its medium is Ceramics, glaze, magnets.](https://anatebgi.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Jane-Margarette_JAN1015_1654801398.jpg)
![This image depicts an artwork by Jane Margarette titled "Pie in the Sky." This artwork was created in 2021 and measures 34" x 42" x 3" [HxWxD] (86.36 x 106.68 x 7.62 cm). Its medium is Ceramics and glaze.](https://anatebgi.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Jane-Margarette_JAN1013_1654801410.jpg)
![This image depicts an artwork by Jane Margarette titled "Miserable with Carefulness." This artwork was created in 2022 and measures 67" x 117" x 5" [HxWxD] (170.18 x 297.18 x 12.7 cm). Its medium is Ceramics and glaze.](https://anatebgi.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Jane-Margarette_JAN1011_1654801421.jpg)
![This image depicts an artwork by Jane Margarette titled "Miserable with Carefulness." This artwork was created in 2022 and measures 67" x 117" x 5" [HxWxD] (170.18 x 297.18 x 12.7 cm). Its medium is Ceramics and glaze.](https://anatebgi.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Jane-Margarette_JAN1011_1654801433.jpg)
![This image depicts an artwork by Jane Margarette titled "Psychically Milked." This artwork was created in 2021 and measures 79" x 44" x 24" [HxWxD] (200.66 x 111.76 x 60.96 cm). Its medium is Ceramics and glaze.](https://anatebgi.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Jane-Margarette_JAN1002_1654801463-scaled.jpg)
![This image depicts an artwork by Jane Margarette titled "In a Good Way." This artwork was created in 2021 and measures 24" x 37" x 5" [HxWxD] (60.96 x 93.98 x 12.7 cm). Its medium is Ceramics and glaze.](https://anatebgi.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Jane-Margarette_JAN1008_1654801442.jpg)
![This image depicts an artwork by Jane Margarette titled "Too Much Daydreaming Left Me Blue." This artwork was created in 2021 and measures 36" x 70" x 6 ¹⁄₂" [HxWxD] (91.44 x 177.8 x 16.51 cm). Its medium is Ceramics and glaze.](https://anatebgi.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Jane-Margarette_JAN1007_1654801447.jpg)
![This image depicts an artwork by Jane Margarette titled "Easy Daisy." This artwork was created in 2021 and measures 48" x 18" x 4" [HxWxD] (121.92 x 45.72 x 10.16 cm). Its medium is Ceramics, glaze.](https://anatebgi.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Jane-Margarette_JAN1006_1658514282.jpg)
![This image depicts an artwork by Jane Margarette titled "Lazing Through." This artwork was created in 2021 and measures 48" x 33" x 4 ¹⁄₂" [HxWxD] (121.92 x 83.82 x 11.43 cm). Its medium is Ceramics and glaze.](https://anatebgi.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Jane-Margarette_JAN1003_1658514248.jpg)
![This image depicts an artwork by Jane Margarette titled "Latch 3." This artwork was created in 2019 and measures 11 ¹⁄₂" x 25 ¹⁄₂" x 9 ¹⁄₂" [HxWxD] (29.21 x 64.77 x 24.13 cm). Its medium is Ceramics and glaze.](https://anatebgi.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Jane-Margarette_JAN1010_1658514276.jpg)
