MATERIAL / STRUCTURE / EMPTY SPACE
I draw to see.
I make to know.
Shoval Shekrel
AN ONGOING MATERIAL EXPLORATION
My work begins with the vessel,
but rarely ends with its
conventional boundaries.
01 / SELECTED WORKS
Works in clay
Six encounters with
material and empty space.
02 / INSIDE THE STUDIO
Thinking through making
The drawing begins
a question.
The material offers
an answer.
Drawing, throwing, cutting, joining. An idea takes shape through direct contact with material, often finding an unexpected direction along the way.
The tools behind the work ↘03 / KAVANACRAFT
Tools are part
of the practice.
Making the tool is another way of understanding the material. Through KavanaCraft, I develop handmade tools for pottery and the studio.
Explore KavanaCraft ↗04 / ABOUT THE ARTIST
Shoval
ShekrelArtist, Architect & Maker
Making is a form of thinking.
Shoval Shekrel is an Israeli artist, architect, and multidisciplinary maker working across ceramics, sculpture, drawing, woodworking, and toolmaking. A graduate of Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem in 2011, he has maintained an independent practice combining architectural design with hands-on material exploration.
His ceramic work investigates the relationship between geometry, structure, function, and empty space. Wheel-thrown forms are transformed through cutting, carving, subtraction, and joining, creating objects that move between vessels and sculptural structures.
Alongside his artworks, Shekrel develops and makes tools through KavanaCraft. Traditional handwork and the construction of tools inform his understanding of materials and the possibilities they offer. Across these disciplines, making becomes a way of asking questions and discovering answers through direct experience.
Read the artist statement +
My work begins with the vessel, but rarely ends with its conventional boundaries.
Trained as an architect, I approach making through questions of geometry, structure, proportion, and the relationship between material and empty space. I am interested in the moment when an object moves beyond its expected function and becomes a space for exploration.
Clay offers a particular freedom within this process. It can be shaped with intention, yet it retains the memory of touch, movement, gravity, and fire. Openings, fractures, asymmetries, and structural tensions become as important as the material itself.
My practice moves between ceramics, sculpture, drawing, woodworking, and the making of tools. These disciplines are not separate pursuits, but different ways of investigating the same questions.
I often return to familiar forms, traditional vessels, architectural structures, and cultural symbols, not to reproduce them, but to reconsider their meaning in the present.
For me, making is a form of thinking. The drawing begins a question. The material offers an answer, often an unexpected one.
05 / START A CONVERSATION
A work caught
your eye?
For artwork inquiries, collaborations, or a conversation about making.
kavanacraft@gmail.com ↗