Chinzalée Sonami

Instagram: @_hi_pala_

Website: https://www.palaceramics.com

Bio: Chinzalée Sonami is an Oakland-based visual artist working primarily with clay. Sonami's clay objects and installations are often grounded in themes of boundedness, containment and permeation drawn from her spiritual practice, interest in celestial bodies, and mythology. Her works also reflect her cultural roots spanning across the Bay Area, France and Tibet. Sonami's ceramic practice is dedicated to her father and named "Pala" after the Tibetan word for father.

Statement: My sculptures explore the shifting line between openness and restriction. Nets, lattices, and vessels serve as recurring forms — structures designed to hold, yet defined by their voids. I’m interested in how boundaries operate: how they protect, contain, and divide, but also how they let light, air, and uncertainty through. Each piece investigates a state of tension, suspended between order and collapse. The spaces between the lines become as significant as the material itself, revealing that containment is never complete. Through this balance of fragility and strength, I aim to evoke questions about what it means to hold, to release, and to exist within the limits we construct for ourselves.