For Toronto-based Syrian-Filipino artist Tamara “Solem” Al-Issa (@___solem ), pottery is a dialogue between clay and memory. Her signature vessels are defined by sculptural precision and a "Deep Blue" cobalt glaze. Raised in Jeddah among #JoanMiró sculptures, she developed an “almost quiet appreciation for strangeness” that now informs her organic silhouettes. As she says of her medium, “Clay also has memory. It remembers how you move it. Every step of the way is a dance.”
Read more at the link in our bio. The April 2026 issue is now available on shop.vogue.ph and on newsstands.
Photographed by @vanessa_cassar , written by @ticiaalmazan , Vogue Philippines, April 2026.
Artist Spotlight: Based in Toronto, Tamara “Solem” AI-Issa is a Syrian-Filipina sculptural artist who uses old ceramic traditions of SWANA and South Asia to revisit timelines and shape vessels that echo the rituals, architecture, and histories that impacted her.
Originally studying physiology, Solem found herself turning to the wheel unpremeditatedly. What began as apprenticeship in a small studio evolved into something more permanent: a practice rooted in intuition, demand, and rhythm.
For Tamara, growth is communal. Through her travels for collaborations with fellow artists and teaching, her reservoir of creativity is pooled and refilled. “Through learning about others, I learn about myself, which shapes my worldview and supports my growth as a creative,” she shares.
What a dream to be featured in @dazedmiddleeast as a part of #dazed100 alongside so many of my heroes. Thank you @mayaabuali for the thoughtful interview. Reading through the Dazed 100 has been a well needed reminder of the bright minds that I share this community and platform with, especially through these bleak times.
Full article on @dazedmiddleeast website 🧿
Introducing the sculptural world of Tamara “Solem” Al-Issa.
Hand built and richly tactile, Solem’s ceramic works sit somewhere between ancient relic, contemporary sculpture and collectible design object. Rooted in memory, ancestry and preservation, the forms feel both familiar and otherworldly. Organic, architectural and quietly surreal, each piece carries traces of SWANA and Southeast Asian influences while embracing a deeply contemporary sculptural language.
We’re excited to welcome Solem Ceramics to TLG.
💙💛❤️
@___solem
TABLE TALK EP 03 presented by @air.hq featuring @lakeinez & @___solem
Two Toronto creatives who’ve never met, brought together over a meal at a hidden gem restaurant to share their takes on Toronto and creativity.
In this episode, we bring together Zac Schwartz, co-owner of east-end faves Lake Inez and Belle Isle, and Toronto-based ceramicist Tamara “Solem” Alissa for their first conversation at @leelaindianfoodbarongerrard 🔥
This series is presented by @air.hq , a platform built to empower creators and support the growing creative community here in Toronto.
More episodes on the way. Who should we sit down with next? 👇
#toronto #torontofood #torontocreatives #tabletalk
This Saturday join us for our workshop, Drawing Into Clay: an ongoing dialogue between clay and paper.
We’ll move fluidly between sculpting and sketching, shaping, observing, and reshaping in real time. Through this back-and-forth, we’ll explore how volume, shadow, and surface speak to one another. Using drawing not to document, but to actively see, question, and rework what’s in front of us.
Beverages by @eon_specialtycoffee and workshop materials will be provided, and if you choose to keep your ceramic piece, they will be fired and ready for pick-up at a later date.
💙ticket link in bio💙
We’re so thrilled to share that Tamara “Solem” Al-Issa will be our Artist-in-Residence in Provence this May.
Tamara is a Syrian-Filipina sculptor based in Toronto whose hand-built ceramics are acts of memory, of architecture half-remembered, of colour that carries cultural weight, of ancestral shapes brought forward into the present. Her signature Deep Blue series draws on the mystical significance of blue in South West Asia and North Africa, rendered in a striking cobalt hue.
What began as a curiosity outside of her field soon became her life’s work. Tamara has learned through mentors, through touch, and through the stubborn intuition of clay. Her pieces have been shown widely, at Scope Design Fair at Art Basel Miamiand, and in her beautiful studio in Toronto’s Junction Triangle.
In Provence, Tamara will lead a hand-built ceramics workshop under the centuries old plane trees, an invitation to slow down, to feel the material, to make something sentimental.
