Recurring lucid dreams and night terrors leave me disoriented in my personal life. I analyze the tangible world to ground me in physical existence to combat this feeling and hesitation about reality. I have adopted First Principles Thinking*, which boils objects and problems down to their fundamental truths and then reasoning up from there. For me, confusion is an invitation to put logic back together.

I obsess over objects, particularly those that others might overlook. Inspired by domestic interiors and the natural world, I isolate and scale up common things to invite human bodies into new, surreal experiences. Through clay, I simulate patterns and forms to reveal fundamental truths of structure. The clay’s material properties dictate how I manipulate it. From the restraints of wet clay against gravity, I react and respond. I combat what I cannot control in ways that I can, such as using weight and suspension to create anticipation and uneasiness.

My work allows me to investigate object-hood through shape, texture, size, scale, proximity, form, and color. I separate new truths from the cognitive shortcuts of stereotypes, assumptions, and biases that accelerate conclusions. I slow down thoughts by exaggerating objects and the space they reside in as a way to put logic back together.

*First Principles Thinking is a scientific way of looking at an object or problem through reverse engineering. Once used by Aristotle, he would break down complicated issues into essential elements and reassemble them from the ground up.

Lean Stephan was born in the Guangdong Province in Southern China in 1997. In 1999, they moved to Lititz, Pennsylvania, United States. Their interest in object-hood developed through straddling two cultures that hold different standards for the materiality of the objects we allow into our lives. Through further research, Lean has developed a practice around the heightened awareness of the tangible and intangible world around us.

For three months in the fall of 2017, Lean exhibited their print work at the Plymouth College of Art in the United Kingdom. In March 2017, Lean was awarded a ceramic scholarship from the faculty of the Division of Ceramic Art of the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. In July 2017, Lean attended a one-week workshop at Peters Valley School of Craft in New Jersey taught by artist Kate Maury. They have exhibited their ceramic and print work at multiple exhibitions at the Robert C. Turner Gallery in Alfred, New York, in 2016, 2017, and 2018. In May 2018, Lean traveled to Florence, Italy, to study on-site painting and Italian. Then, in June 2018, they exhibited their paintings in the show, Incontri, at the San Gallo Gallery in Florence, Italy.

Lean has completed their studies at the New York College of Ceramics at Alfred University and graduated with a BFA. They are developing a practice around object-hood through shape, texture, and size. Currently, they are researching clay body and glaze development.