PATRICIA VAREA MILÁN: from archeology and research to contemporary artisan ceramics

Patricia Varea Milán (Villena, Spain, 1984) is a renowned ceramist in the context of Spanish Contemporary Craftsmanship. After training in both ceramics and archaeology, she has devoted over 20 years to a work combining artisan methodology and research. Her work highlights the role of ceramics as an expressive means and as a reflection of current society. Through her art, Patricia pays homage to ancestral techniques of ceramics production, such as the potter’s wheel and manual modelling, which go back to the Palaeolithic and Neolithic periods.

Varea transforms minerals such as clay, stoneware and porcelain into pieces that blur time frontiers, creating an igneous symbiosis of great beauty and strength. Her pieces are distinguished for their strong expressive dimension and for defying ceramic conventions by exploring the material limits and merging the old with the contemporary. The textures and colours of her pieces conjure geological processes, product of the unique alchemy and experimentation that take place in her studio, where she uses ashes, quartz sands, feldspars and metallic oxides that are transformed at high temperatures.

She began her training at the Escuela Superior de Cerámica de Manises [Manises High School of Ceramics] (2004-2014). Then, she completed three residencies in Korea (2015-2018), where she studied under Master Kim Dae Woong, learning the Godeaeajan technique, which integrates ceramic production with nature, transforming her artistic and philosophical approach.

Her strong curiosity for ceramics led her to study a Master’s Degree in Archaeology at the University of Valencia in 2021, merging both of her passions. Her last exhibition, Arkhaios (from the beginning), is based on the research of archaeological plant remains by recreating in the ceramics the charred seeds found in sites of the Valencian Community, which brings us closer to the plant heritage of the region.

From her studio in the Huerta de Alboraya [Valencia], Patricia keeps developing her nature-inspired ceramic practice. Currently, she is working on her new exhibition, Botane (which means herb), a series of pieces inspired on germination and blooming processes.

In STAYINGVALENCIA, a Valencian hotel chain leader in sustainable tourism, with boutique hotels, tourist apartments and design restaurant located throughout Valencia, we are proud to be part of this ode to the craftsmanship and tradition of our land and never cease in our efforts to transmit the culture, history, traditions and lifestyle of this land to the rest of the world.