Photo: TMP
Photo: TMP

Tri-lobed Vessel and Contents (Perforated Vessel Series)

USA, 2002
<p>A table top sculpture of three thin walled connected cylinders. The one on the right has a donut shaped object and a narrow cylinder in it. The one to the left has a small bowl and two spheres. There are two large and one small sphere in the back one. This entire sculpture is white and perforated with hundreds of small holes as if from a paper punch. In all cases the holes are very orderly and close together.</p><p>The underside shows three partial circles that are joined to create the sculpture. The punched holes are arranged to follow the contour of the circles. A part of each circle has been filled in with white clay. The accession number, 2002.516.a is written on the clay.</p>
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Date acquired:
Materials:
Earthenware
Form - Functional: N/A
Form - Sculptural:
Installation - small/intimate scale
Method:
Thrown and Altered
Surface Technique: N/A
Kiln Type: N/A
Glazes:
Engobe
Overglaze
Tony Marsh

Mark Pharis is known for wheel-thrown stoneware high-fired functional pottery created in his early career and from the early 1990s onward for slab-built low fired earthenware utilitarian objects.

Pharis uses paper templates to develop components of slab-built works. The surface technique is minimal. In early work Pharis used earth-toned glazes and later work often features contrasting brightly colored geometric shapes.

Pharis? formative years as a student at the University of Minnesota with Warren Mackenzie inform his studio practice.

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Metropolitan Museum of Art

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Last updated: April 22, 2026

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