Avis Dou

Ceramics & Glass (MA)
Avis and her series of works.
After-School Still Life revisits the repetitive structure of extracurricular art training in China, where still life subjects such as apples, bottles, and plaster busts functioned as symbols of discipline and conformity. Dou reinterprets these familiar forms through kiln-formed glass, layering texture and visual depth by manipulating thickness and transparency. Rather than painting or printing directly onto the surface, she allows patterns and colors to emerge from within the glass, creating images that appear suspended in space. This body of work explores the relationship between rigid educational systems and the expressive potential of glass. Dou integrates metal wire into the composition to form playful, irregular contours that echo hand-drawn lines, introducing both formal and whimsical qualities. Her practice combines precision with unpredictability, producing textures that range from rough and fragmented to fluid and luminous. Through this process, she challenges conventional perceptions of glass as cold and static, using the material as a medium to reflect on vulnerability, transformation, and resilience, as well as the complex relationship between memory, fear, and the act of learning.
After-School Still Life revisits the repetitive structure of extracurricular art training in China, where still life subjects such as apples, bottles, and plaster busts functioned as symbols of discipline and conformity. Dou reinterprets these familiar forms through kiln-formed glass, layering texture and visual depth by manipulating thickness and transparency. Rather than painting or printing directly onto the surface, she allows patterns and colors to emerge from within the glass, creating images that appear suspended in space. This body of work explores the relationship between rigid educational systems and the expressive potential of glass. Dou integrates metal wire into the composition to form playful, irregular contours that echo hand-drawn lines, introducing both formal and whimsical qualities. Her practice combines precision with unpredictability, producing textures that range from rough and fragmented to fluid and luminous. Through this process, she challenges conventional perceptions of glass as cold and static, using the material as a medium to reflect on vulnerability, transformation, and resilience, as well as the complex relationship between memory, fear, and the act of learning.
After-School Still Life. Autor: Avis Dou. Fecha: 2025.
After-School Still Life: A Warm Breakfast
After-School Still Life: A Warm Breakfast
This piece presents a minimal yet evocative depiction of a simple breakfast: a slice of bread, a fried egg, and a cup of coffee. The composition is deliberately restrained, avoiding decorative excess in favor of a warm, intimate atmosphere. With gentle contours and soft coloration, the work captures a fleeting moment of domestic stillness, evoking the quiet pleasure of solitary routines.
After-School Still Life: Purple Grapes
After-School Still Life: Purple Grapes
This square-format work features a porcelain plate adorned with traditional blue-and-white patterns, upon which rest a cluster of purple grapes and a sliced orange. The scene is intricately composed, incorporating elements such as fine metal mesh and a knife shape formed from sculpted tin foil. These materials introduce both tactility and tension, lending the image a layered visual complexity that balances ornamental beauty with subtle narrative intrigue.
After-School Still Life: Leftover Fish
After-School Still Life: Leftover Fish
The most abstract of the series, this work constructs the remnants of a meal through expressive material gestures. Wire and tin foil outline the skeletal remains of a fish, while powdered grey glass suggests the faded imprint of its flesh. Accompanied by a lemon wedge, a pear, and a distant bottle of wine, the composition evokes a sense of quiet domesticity—rooted in everyday life, yet intentionally distanced from realism. This measured detachment creates a poetic space where the familiar becomes contemplative, reflecting the artist’s interest in observing daily rituals from a gentle, introspective distance.
After-School Still Life revisits the repetitive structure of extracurricular art training in China, where still life subjects such as apples, bottles, and plaster busts functioned as symbols of discipline and conformity. Dou reinterprets these familiar forms through kiln-formed glass, layering texture and visual depth by manipulating thickness and transparency. Rather than painting or printing directly onto the surface, she allows patterns and colors to emerge from within the glass, creating images that appear suspended in space. This body of work explores the relationship between rigid educational systems and the expressive potential of glass. Dou integrates metal wire into the composition to form playful, irregular contours that echo hand-drawn lines, introducing both formal and whimsical qualities. Her practice combines precision with unpredictability, producing textures that range from rough and fragmented to fluid and luminous. Through this process, she challenges conventional perceptions of glass as cold and static, using the material as a medium to reflect on vulnerability, transformation, and resilience, as well as the complex relationship between memory, fear, and the act of learning.
After-School Still Life: A Warm Breakfast
After-School Still Life: Purple Grapes
After-School Still Life: Leftover Fish

About

Avis is an artist born in Beijing, China, in 2002. She began studying glass art during her undergraduate studies and has since developed a deep fascination with the tactile possibilities of the medium. She primarily works with kiln-forming techniques, exploring the dynamic interplay between controlled digital imagery and the inherent unpredictability of glassworking.

Her practice focuses on the precise manipulation of temperature and material interactions to create unexpected textures and visual effects—ranging from rough, fragmented surfaces to fluid, luminous forms. Through her work, Avis challenges conventional perceptions of glass as a rigid and cold material, instead employing it as a vehicle for narrative and emotional expression.

By combining contrasting techniques, she investigates themes of vulnerability, transformation, and resilience. Glass becomes both her language and her armor, a means through which she confronts memories, fears, and uncertainties.

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