The exhibition

In the Post Hall on PoMo’s ground floor, the exhibition “Alien Terrain” will delve into the influential American artist Ken Price (b. 1935, Los Angeles, California; d. 2012, Taos, New Mexico, USA), who redefined the place of ceramics in contemporary art. Throughout his five-decade career, Price demonstrated how clay could be both visually captivating and conceptually rich, while also challenging conventional boundaries of the material. Bringing together 14 sculptures from the artist’s late period (1995 to 2011), the exhibition presents an artistry where the forms seem to belong elsewhere—an alien terrain that simultaneously bears traces of something corporeal and intimate. This is the first solo presentation of the artist in Norway.

Price consistently challenges the distinction between the handmade and the imaginary. Ceramic, a material with deep historical roots, is used to create objects that seem to come from another reality. The result is sculptures that can be read both as inner landscapes and as alien terrains, as if we are viewing something familiar through a sci-fi filter.

The exhibition “Alien Terrain” invites the audience to move between these levels: from the tactile to the cosmic, from the intimate to the otherworldly. Here a space emerges where the sculptures are not just objects, but places—small worlds that can be reminiscent of the body, landscape, and distant planets.

In early works such as Miroesque, Cheeks and Kabongy Balls, Price’s sculptures appear like small landscapes – rounded, perforated and gently undulating. They evoke eroded surfaces shaped by wind, time or unfamiliar geological forces, while also hinting at a sci‑fi world of lunar fragments and imagined planets.

This tension is heightened by Price’s meticulous surface treatment. Through repeated layers of paint, sanding and polishing, he creates a rich, almost artificial finish. The glossy, vibrant surfaces recall something synthetic or illustrated, echoing the smooth forms of comics, science fiction and superhero imagery.

In later works like Zyko, Chicton and Crypto, the shapes become more complex, as if caught in motion or transformation. The large bronze sculptures Spider Blue and Yogi expand this universe in scale, yet still feel intimate within Posthallen – as if even the monumental grows out of something tactile and close.

The exhibition Ken Price – Strange Landscapes is produced by PoMo in collaboration with the Ken Price Estate and Matthew Marks Gallery, and marks the artist’s first solo exhibition in Norway.

The artist

A constantly inventive artist, Ken Price (b. 1935, Los Angeles, California; d. 2012, Taos, New Mexico, USA), redefined ceramics in contemporary art. From the 1950s, Ken Price committed to clay as a material and became known for his innovative glazing techniques, distinctive forms, and a wide range of references – from organic and geological forms to Mexican folk art and surf culture, as well as the improvisation found within jazz music. Throughout his five-decade career, Price demonstrated how clay could be both visually captivating and conceptually rich, while also challenging conventional boundaries of the material. In addition to his sculptures, Price was also a skilled illustrator. He was a key figure in the LA artistic movements that originated in southern California in the 1950s and 1960s, alongside other prominent artists.

Price participated in the Whitney Biennial in 1979 and 1981. His first retrospective took place in 1992 at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis. A major travelling retrospective of the artist was organised by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2012-2013), designed by his friend Frank Gehry.