Ilona Golovina (b. 1987, Stavropol, Russia) is a New York–based artist whose ceramic practice is rooted in ancient techniques and guided by the philosophy of surrender. She embraces chance as a collaborator—inviting natural forces to shape the work alongside her hands. For Golovina, unpredictability is not chaos but possibility. Each piece becomes a dialogue between intention and the unknown.

At the core of her work is the vessel—not as a functional object, but as a metaphor for the human experience. Our bodies, like vessels, carry memory, emotion, and story. Every curve, crack, and void in her sculptures echoes the events that shape us. These forms become structural testaments to resilience—reminders that what doesn’t break us makes us stronger.

Golovina often works directly with the land, pressing clay into the earth to capture imprints of landscape.

Her “soil paintings,” made with wild clays foraged across the U.S., preserve the raw beauty of unprocessed material. Unpolished and elemental, each work becomes a distilled memory of place.

Her work has been featured in The New York Times,

Architectural Digest, and Domino Magazine, and exhibited in cities including

New York, Los Angeles, Milan, Athens, and Toronto.

Selected exhibitions:

2025 Losing Control: John Cage x Ilona Golovina, Jim Kempner Fine Art, New York

2024 Ancient Methods in a Contemporary World Vessels and Sticks Gallery, Toronto Canada

2024 Nova Bossa Furniture, New York United States

2024 Cavin-Morris Clay Cavin-Morris Gallery, New York United States

Art Fairs:

2024 Salon Art + Design Armory, Park Avenue New York United States

2021 Salone del Mobile Superstudio Più, Via Tortona 27 Milan Italy

Residences:

2024 Denniston Hill Denniston Hill Woodbridge, NY United States