Barry Rice creates functional ceramics with a Modernist sensibility. His work starts on the wheel, where soft stoneware is thrown into expressive shapes. Once the clay starts to harden, pieces are carved while spinning on the wheel, or meticulously sculpted by hand using sharp tools or thin wires, creating concentric grooves, repeating patterns or random facets. Simple glazes are applied to create ceramics that are both dynamic and beautiful, each entirely hand made and one of a kind.

Barry came to pottery during the Covid-19 pandemic. After years of working in residential interior design, then owning a gallery specializing in high-style furniture, lighting and art from the 1960s and ’70s, Barry applies his extensive knowledge of style, form and finish to his own creations. Each piece is embossed on the bottom with a small "b. rice" stamp made from vintage letterpress type, an homage to his early profession as a journalist and journalism professor in Chicago.

Barry lives and works in an 1879 Brownstone in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, and glazes and fires his ceramics at the nonprofit Powerhouse Arts in the Gowanus neighborhood.