Doug Herren is known for his brightly painted ceramic sculptures that artfully blend post-industrial monumentalism and dynamic, almost playful assemblages. A Philadelphia-based sculptor working in clay, Herren came to the medium organically. First studying at Wichita State University (BFA) and then Louisiana State University (MFA) earning degrees in ceramics, Herren was captivated by the technical nuances of wheel throwing and began making functional ceramics. An attendee of the acclaimed Archie Bray Foundation in Montana and The Clay Studio in Philadelphia, both residencies were influential in developing his remarkable, hybrid sculptural vessels and stands.

With “Chroma-Structure”, Herren offers bold, non-apologetic monuments to classical forms and functional objects. Tables, amphora urns, stirrup pots, and elaborate architectural vases are assembled through wheel-thrown and slab-built stoneware components coated with layers of oil-based enamel paints. The saturated vivid colors, often subtly bleeding through from lower layers, accentuate and soften the edges of the architectural ceramic forms. Herren’s keen understanding of color saturation animates the massive stone-like forms. With an architect's eye, he optically flattens a shape in space, pushing another forward, suspending one plane which resists the pull of another. Doug's monolithic structures are once imposing, yet after careful examination, reveal dynamic elements of stability. 

“My sculpture is based on vessel forms but transformed by scale and complexity into architectonic forms with industrial-tool references” states Herren. “My primary working medium is ceramics combined with wood-working in the fashioning of stands and tables. I aspire to attain in my work the wedding of the prosaic yet intimate qualities of pottery to the more assertive power of industrial tools, both regulated to an age more closely attuned to human labor and striving.”

Herren’s work is included in the collections of the International Museum of Ceramics, Faenza, Italy; the Yenggi Museum of Taipei; the Museum of Ceramics Quran, Alcora, Spain; Kamm Teapot Collection, Sparta, NC; and Fuller Art Museum, Brockton, MA.