About

Male Glaze is a ceramic design company solely operated by Los Angeles-based artist Alex Miller. Miller has been a practicing artist since 2009, mostly using ceramics for his conceptual projects. Shortly after the 2016 election, Miller founded Male Glaze. The title ‘Male Glaze’ is provocative but deliberate. The name parodies the concept of the “male gaze” or the way way women are depicted in heteronormative culture as objects of male pleasure. By naming the company Male Glaze, Miller seeks to bring awareness to this manifestation of toxic masculinity. The goal is to guide the gaze on to products (or actual objects).

Recently, Miller expanded on the idea of functional ceramics in ways he had not anticipated by launching his line of ceramic lighting, LIT by Male Glaze. It’s a fresh challenge, but he welcomes the growth of his art form, already evident in his work. The pieces still exhibit his signature unglazed black exterior but in inventive variations: for instance, the ceramic lamp shade of the table lamp or the layered nature of his rolled/stacked pieces.

Male Glaze bowls and plates are currently in use by N/Naka in Los Angeles.

Male Glaze can be purchased at in M+B Gallery’s applied arts ANNEX and at Freehand in Los Angeles.

Born and raised in The (San Fernando) Valley, Alex Miller has been working with clay since he was 12-years-old. After studying under noted glass sculptor John Luebtow as a teen, he geared his studies at Sarah Lawrence College to the John Dewey/Allan Kaprow/Fluxus method of making work: art as activity. He views his process, both throwing and slab work, as a persuasion of clay. Miller leaves the clay body intentionally unglazed on the exterior–giving a tactile experience of how he has transformed this mud into rock and glass. To show the artist’s hand in the work even further, he hand paints the glaze on, adding more variables and color combinations. Each piece of Male Glaze is unique and handmade in Los Angeles.

For more information, contact maleglaze@gmail.com.