In a process of cutting and scoring her clay, applying it to the vessel like paper or ‘magazine cut-outs’ then layering colours, patterns, images, tendrils, baubles and pendants, she creates complex self-portraits, so full of movement, they’re almost performative. ‘My ceramics are not so far from my performance art,’ agrees Muzquiz, whose international reputation was established as one half of the art band Los Super Elegantes, performing for 15 years at museums, art fairs and the Whitney Biennial (2004).

Trained at the California College of Fine Arts, San Francisco, Muzquiz then completed an MFA at the Art Centre College of Design, Pasedena, tutored by legendary conceptual artist Mike Kelley. ‘There was a kind of a Californian eco-system, where we’d visit UCLA and Cal Arts for talks, and guys like Chris Burden, Ed Ruscha and John Baldessari would come to see us. But mostly I was learning from Mike.’ They remained close until Kelley’s death in 2012, aged 57, and he left her with ‘a monumental piece of advice. After all the theory he taught me, it was: Just do something with your hands.’

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