Artist Statement:
My name is Kaneez Zehra Hassan, and my ceramic art practice is known as Zia Ceramics Design. My work celebrates form, texture, detail, and storytelling, reflecting my deep appreciation for the beauty and meaning found in cultural objects. Through hand-built ceramics, I explore the interplay of design, identity, and intersectionality, infusing each piece with intention, emotion, and a sense of connection. Inspired by nature, heritage, and cultural traditions, as well as the philosophy of wabi-sabi and Sufisim, I strive to create decorative and sculptural art that evokes moments of reflection, wonder, and introspection.
Each piece I create serves as a dialogue between the past and the present, blending timeless techniques with the organic textures of clay, the intricate details of my heritage, and the universal stories that shape our shared human experience. My art is deeply rooted in the exploration of identity and the intersections of cultural and personal histories, revealing new perspectives and fostering connections. The irregularities and imperfections in my work are intentional, celebrating the beauty of impermanence and the quiet elegance of the unexpected.
Zia Ceramics Design is more than an artistic practice; it is an expression of my belief in the transformative power of creativity. Each creation is a labor of love, shaped by hands that honor tradition while imagining new possibilities. My goal is to craft ceramics that transcend decoration, offering meaning, resonance, and a sense of quiet beauty.
Through my work, I honor the cultural heritages and stories that inspire me. Each piece is a testament to the enduring stories our hands can tell, reminding us of the interconnectedness of art, culture, and humanity.
Cultural Statement:
As a Pakistani-American woman artist living in Utah, I carry the weight and richness of layered identities. My work emerges from this in-between space: shaped by ancestral traditions, the lived reality of diaspora, and the urge to preserve heritage through a woman’s perspective in a world that often forgets or erases it.
I come from a lineage of storytellers who valued quiet craft as a form of survival. Though not ceramicists, my ancestors built, mended, and created with both their hands and words. My practice continues that continuum, honoring inheritance while reinterpreting it for the present. Clay becomes not just material but language—one through which I speak of displacement, resilience, and belonging.
My approach is shaped by both gender and culture. I use clay as vessel and voice, echoing women’s often-unseen labor of preservation, care, and continuity. At the same time, I draw from the philosophy of wabi-sabi, which resonates with Sufi traditions of embracing imperfection, repair, and endurance. By binding vessels with cotton thread or leaving surfaces marked by erosion, I reference both Japanese aesthetics and South Asian practices of mending textiles and treasuring the patina of time. This cross-cultural dialogue is central to my voice: rooted in one culture, shaped by another, and speaking across both.
In an art world that often prizes polished narratives, I am drawn to what is fragmented, weathered, and incomplete. My ceramics are cultural touchstones, inviting reflection on how memory and heritage endure, adapt, and transform.
Through this work, I hope to bridge personal history with broader cultural conversations, contributing to a field where women and artists of diaspora can assert their voices and expand what belongs within contemporary ceramics.