Sasson Rafailov
Sasson Rafailov
Portrait © Jeremy Bilotti


Sasson Rafailov is a designer who engages with a variety of materials and traditional techniques to enrich his projects and close the cycle of waste which can be typical of craft studio practices. Materials come together in unexpected ways in his studio: stone dust from his sculpture practice is mixed into the clay he uses to build his functional line of ceramics; alabaster dust is chemically reconstituted into plaster to be reused in sculpture studies; and wood ash from the remnants of his custom furniture projects becomes a base for ceramic glazes.

Through his work, he attempts to facilitate intimate connections between human agents and an interconnected material world. He hopes that such interactions inspire people to see the potential for life in the objects which condition their daily experiences, and to recognize the phenomenal privileges afforded to us by our own material existence. His training is in architecture and design philosophy, having earned degrees from Cornell and Harvard University before embarking on a PhD. Sasson is originally from Brooklyn, New York.


See the artist's one of a kind clay vase combined with marble dust.