About
Jennifer Bensley is an American artist based in Greece. From a young age she was immersed in the world of art, her mother a ceramist and her father a photographer and art educator. It was no surprise that she went on to pursue a degree in Studio Art, earning a BA and an MAT in Art Education from Tufts in conjunction with The Museum of Fine Arts School. She then went on to teach silkscreen printing and spent several summers instructing studio art in France and Turkey.
Afterward, she moved to Greece and continued her artistic education, studying hand building and glazing techniques and later deepening her sculptural practice at Clay Form Sculpture School. She also attended workshops in alternative firing techniques, including raku, saggar and bucchero, with artists Theodora Chorafas, Thodoris Galigalidis and Mette Maya Gregersen. Her passion for nature and adventure then took her to the Tiapapata Art Centre in Samoa, where she advanced her practice in the art of raku, examining its technical processes, material transformations, and expressive potential.
Today, she creates her sculptures in her Oropos studio, with views of mountains and sea. Her work has been exhibited in ceramic shows across Greece, as she continues to evolve her practice through travel, study and creative exploration.
Artist Statement
My ceramic sculptures emerge from my encounters with the natural world: fossilized coral fragments, the rugged, eroded landscapes of the Mediterranean, and the vast shells and reefs of ocean waters. I am especially drawn to forms shaped over time by weather and erosion, where fragility and endurance coexist. Working with clay connects me directly to nature and allows me to express the shifting moods of my personality. Through clay, I translate these experiences into abstracted forms — vessels of memory, movement, and metamorphosis, carrying the traces of the places I have traveled and the textures I have observed.
I usually begin with tiny models, testing out ideas in simple shapes. Once I start building, I let the clay take the lead, whether through coils, slab or sculpting with my hands. I pause often to step back, question and notice what feels right. In this way, the work unfolds slowly, becoming a balance of my inner voice and the voice of the material. I mix my own glazes and experiment with surface textures using slips, crushed rocks, wood ash and combustible materials to create layered organic finishes. I embrace the unpredictably of firing, seeing it as part of the natural unfolding.
My work is an ongoing dialogue between form texture and transformation. Each creation fuels my desire to keep exploring and learning from nature’s endless possibilities. I hope to evoke stillness and wonder, carrying with it a gentle trace of the landscapes that moved it.