Zack Nathanson is a Los Angeles–based ceramic artist working between pottery and sculpture.

Originally from the Boston area, I hold a BFA from Pratt Institute. My work draws from 20th-century architecture, graphic and industrial design, and craft traditions. I’m interested in architecture and design as formal languages, and in how simple geometric systems become complex through repetition, proportion, scale, color, structure, and surface. Working with groggy clay slabs and coils, I extract and rearrange these elements into vessels and sculptural objects rather than reproducing their sources literally.

Typography is central to my work. I incorporate text directly into ceramic forms, treating language as an architectural element that shapes form, proportion, and visual rhythm. Words are chosen for their meaning, tone, cadence, humor, and letterforms, bringing an emotional or poetic quality to the architectural forms. Custom glazes emphasize color, texture, and variation, grounding the work in the traditions of vessel-making.