LOS ANGELES, CA.- Sharing a cup of tea with someone can be an intimate, resonant experience, and through the eyes of Los Angeles art collectors Gloria and Sonny Kamm, the dutiful, historically-laden teapot itself can be a site of great visual and tactile expression, where the focus becomes evocative abstraction of its most standard features.

The Kamms are known and respected for collecting and commissioning studio craft teapots by a wide range of artists. Envision a teapot made of perforated clay or another made of heavily embroidered fabric or even one made of metal mesh and pistachio shells! Form complicates function.

Gloria Kamm has called these concept teapots “delightfully useless” in terms of practical function. And yet in partnership with her husband Sonny, the Kamms see the function of a teapot less as a device for serving the legendary beverage, but rather as a celebrated vehicle for expression. The hospitable and iconic teapot has a 500-year history and has been widely and wildly interpreted by artists and production houses alike. Tea for Two features a curated selection giving insight into the inclinations and motivations of the renown Los Angeles art collectors, whose collection also ranges beyond that of their teapots. The couple is also featured in one of the newest Craft in America episodes, Collectors.

Gloria Kamm regards contemporary, one-of-a-kind teapots as “containers full of ideas” where the artist has transmuted, by their hands, their worries, celebrations or ponderings into the object. The wide scope of styles and materials in the curated selection not only causes visitors to marvel, but to also give greater consideration to the structure of a teapot: pot, handle and spout. The irreverent and whimsical interpretations of these integral parts provide entertaining musing for viewers of all ages.

These unique teapots—made by recognized contemporary designers, architects, painters, sculptors, ceramicists and craftspeople, often with a non-traditional approach to media—are the main thrust of this significant collection. The support that the Kamms have given to hundreds of artists through their direct purchases and commissions is immeasurable.

With foresight, Sonny Kamm formed a non-profit foundation that archives and catalogues the world’s largest and most comprehensive teapot collection of over 17,000 items. The Foundation is a charitable trust, with its purposes being to acquire, preserve, maintain and arrange for the exhibition of teapots, tea sets and teapot-related ephemera.

Exhibition curated by Emily Zaiden