There’s a special kind of push-pull pleasure to an exhibition that derives from conceptual interests, but is realized through material experimentation and finesse. Such was the case with Swiss artist Mai-Thu Perret’s appealing new exhibition “Mother Sky.” My first impression was to marvel at the variety of tactics she brings to bear on her chosen medium of ceramic, but spending time with the show revealed the web of connections that she weaves between the disparate artworks. Grafting contemporary reflections on nature, mythology, craft and women’s history onto a serene classical layout, the installation felt like an elucidation of an internal cosmology projected outward to create a richly tactile indoor sculpture garden that invited leisurely viewing, stimulating brain and body alike.

The exhibition featured several bodies of work, whose at times unlikely dialogue lent the show an engaging frisson. A number of the works spring from a recent exhibition at the Swiss Institute in Rome, including a trio of arcing bird forms mounted on wooden plinths, which allude to ancient Etruscan funerary objects, as well as several squat frog sculptures—based on a decorative found object from her studio—which, spread across the floor, paraded their lush monochromatic glazes to luxurious effect. Holding court over the room was Minerva III (2022), a seated figure of the goddess of wisdom and justice (and, fittingly, a patron of arts and crafts and trade), coated in a deep red glaze. The piece is based on an altered digital scan of a 2000-year-old sculpture; the artist added computer-generated hands and replaced the generic facsimile face adorning the original statue with that of a Senegalese-Swiss family member, making it both more specific and more personal. Facing the figure from the far end of the gallery was a set of neons based on stitching patterns described by the early 20th-century multidisciplinary Swiss artist Sophie Taeuber-Arp. Set out like text across the wall, the lights suggest the disciplined expression of penmanship exercises, or even heartbeat readings: a testament to female artistic survival through methodical mark-making.

Set out across one wall was a series of monochromatic rectangular ceramic works created from various disparate strategies: some with excised segments resembling leaves or droplets, some gouged by hand, some adorned with elegant bird forms. Looming over it all like a view of the planet was the show’s impressive and eponymous centerpiece: a huge circular ceramic work titled Mother Sky (2022). Created last summer during a residency at the Center for Contemporary Ceramics at CSU Long Beach under Tony Marsh, and divided into 24 segments, this colorful, immersive wall-work suggested an expressionist landscape, its furrowed ceramic skin evoking both painterly impasto and variegated natural textures. It even included frog and birds forms tucked within. Inviting the viewer to explore its gnarled, notched surfaces, the ambitious installation flaunted Perret’s ample talent, as an artist who channels her intuitive relationship with nature through a panoply of symbols and sources, and an approach to her medium that’s exuberantly hands-on.