first published in Juxtapoz, August 14, 2019

Maryam Yousif, “Puabi Bust”, glazed stoneware, 18 x 10 x 20.5 inches, 2019.

Back to Back: Maryam Yousif & Nick Makanna @ Guerrero Gallery

By Tamsin Smith & Matt Gonzalez

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Maryam Yousif: Puabi Live! / July 20 – August 17, 2019

& Nick Makanna: Spiral Architect / June 14th – July 13th, 2019

Guerrero Gallery, 1465 Custer Avenue, San Francisco

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Maryam Yousif and Nick Makanna are part of an exciting resurgence in ceramic art occuring in the San Francisco Bay Area. Inback-to-back shows at Guerrero Gallery, the married couple separately demonstrate how clay has a resonance as primordial as it is universal. 

The Quran and the Bible both contain references to clay being the substance from which humankind was originally created. In Greek mythology, Prometheus molded men out of water and earth. Long before Islam or Christianity or Hesiod, the…