Funk You Too! Humor and Irreverence in Ceramic Sculpture

The first book to connect the history of Funk Art to contemporary ceramic practice.

Funk You Too! arrives at a moment when clay has unprecedented currency in the art world as a sculptural medium. It is the first book to connect the history of Funk Art to contemporary ceramic practice through an exploration of the enduring role of humour in clay image-making.

The founding generation of Funk artists used forms of subversion to deflate the power of the aesthetic hierarchy that dismissed ceramics as hobby art. Today, in the hands of a younger, more diverse cohort, the irreverent approach is a powerful tool of critique and personal expression and the "spoonful of sugar" to help discuss sociopolitical concerns of our time.

Showcasing over 50 works from a 2023 exhibition at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City, this catalogue addresses the historical context for the emergence of ceramic sculpture in 1960s Funk Art and applies a critical lens to work by its contemporary successors. The exhibition's curator, Angelik Vizcarrondo-Laboy, conceptually frames the exhibition's emphasis on humour as a tool for tackling personal and political themes. Garth Johnson contributes an essay on the impulse for humour in American ceramics that lead to Funk ceramics.

The catalogue also features biographies of the artists, colour images, and a select bibliography.