RATxCHICKS

Michelle Im is a Korean American artist working in Queens, New York. ‘RATxCHICKS’, pronounced as [ratchix] is a project name for her ceramics that is a play on the words ‘rachet’ and ‘rad chicks’. Humor is what drives a lot of the ideas she has for her decorations. In her work, she explores ideological tensions that she has experienced growing up in both the United States and South Korea. Creating intricate patterns in her ceramics is in part, a way to marry two diametrically opposed systems of culture- individualism and collectivism. She often pairs motifs that are deliberately out of the ordinary and part of the process is to encapsulate a sense of absurdity in a way that is approachable and inviting to the viewer. She graduated with a degree in Biology and Art from The State University of New York at Buffalo. She was named one of Ceramic Monthly’s 2022 Emerging Artists and she is an award recipient of the American Craft Council’s 2022 Emerging Artist Cohort Program.

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