Mike Kays (b. 1981, Piscataway, NJ) is a ceramic artist based in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.

In his recent series of chain-link sculptures, Kays unites extruded pieces of ceramic with lengths of found material gathered from his environment. The result is a series of structures that transform static ceramic forms into mutable textile beings. Each segment of every chain expresses the attention paid to the moment of that segment's creation - to one minute of an hour - one hour of a day - one day of a year. The series is an allusion to the values of taking life one day at a time and building personal strength in incremental steps. It addresses mental health, addiction, and the way that Kays's life has been shaped by communities of recovery. Impulse Control both honors the ideological process of recovery and seeks to transcend it with more expansive modes of living in a post-recovery existence.

At RIC, Kays's interest in glaze chemistry has deepened and transformed into a central concern of his work. Subtle shifts in the chemical composition of each glaze are evidence of Kays's experimentation, which are as crucial to the work as their sculptural properties. The graduations of color and methods of glaze application reflect the key influence of mid-to-late 1990s graffiti subculture in New Jersey and New York. The attention he pays here with clay, glazes, oxides, and found glass to the surface of ceramic are akin to those once paid to layers of paint on weathered steel and cracked brick. Kays's interest in the documentation and exploration of forgotten spaces position these sculptures as lines of abandoned freight train cars, as crumbling brick walls, and as the piles of rubble and refuse that surround them.They lead to the abandoned mill structures surrounding Pawtucket and to the impetus behind Kays's reclamation of material and himself.

- Teo von Baeyer