Opening Reception: Wesley Anderegg: Sonora

Anderegg returns to Hecho a Mano this year with a new show, Sonora, that features ceramic sculptures and large wall plates that show “snippets from growing up in the land of cactus,” the artist says.

His start in ceramics was serendipitous: while studying geography at Arizona State University, he happened to take an elective in the medium. Captivated, he went on to study it further at the Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass Village, Colorado and again at the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, Montana, and was a resident artist at both sites. His practice evolved from wheel-thrown pottery to hand-building, which remains the basis of his sculptural and narrative work. Moving from pinch pots, to small figurines, to larger sculptures, his work evolved into what it is today: an exuberantly strange world populated by curious, angry little beings.

“As far as my work goes,” he says, “I just keep thinking and moving forward trying to make the best stuff I can.”