Footed Ceramic Bowl by Carolyn Brice Brooks, 1985, Memphis Style

A hand-built footed ceramic bowl by Carolyn Brice Brooks, United States, 1985.
6.5 inches wide x 4.5 inches tall

The form is decorated in vibrant color and retains a bisque-like, unglazed matte finish that speaks to a deeply tactile experience.

Geometric patterns pulse with the bold energy of the 1980s, echoing the Memphis Group’s flamboyant color schemes and the spirited nostalgia of atomic-age revival. Surprisingly delicate for a hand-built piece, the bowl’s subtle surface irregularities underscore the tactile warmth of raw clay—an expressive conversation between material, maker, and moment in time.

This work closely recalls Brooks’s 1984 footed bowl in the Delaware Art Museum, situating her firmly within the broader studio-pottery movement of that era. Brooks, born in 1949, studied ceramics at the University of North Texas and the University of Texas at Austin, exhibited at the Rhinebeck Craft Fair, and co-created functional work as part of the Blue Moon collective.