Bibendum Tile, 2026

Micah Lewis-van Sweezie

Wood-fired stoneware.

10 in x 5.5 in x 2 in

Makers Stamp

The Michelin Man tile is a marker of the importance of material research and social activism embraced by Sweezie and many other ceramic artists today and over the last 150 years. The wall hanging tile with the Michelin Man in relief has a subtle green speckle glaze.

Micah Lewis-van Sweezie has done extensive research on the history of Michelin in Vietnam in relation to her Vietnamese cultural heritage. She travelled to Vietnam for a ceramic art residency, where she expanded her practice and learned from the talented artists and craftspeople she worked with there. In her artistic practice Sweezie examines the Michelin Man, one of the oldest and most famous brand mascots in the world. The smiling, puffy figure exudes a non-threatening charm that masks the damage done in Vietnam by the corporation and the French colonization that allowed it to do so.

Artist Biography

Micah Lewis-Văn Sweezie is a ceramic artist from Kalamazoo, Michigan. She is shaped and influenced by dichotomous elements of culture and craft from her upbringing in both Vietnam and America. She earned her BFA from The School of The Art Institute of Chicago in 2022 focused in ceramics and sculpture. Micah self-conducted a study abroad to Vietnam in 2023 to research ancient and contemporary forms of Vietnamese ceramic production - this research trip was supported in part by the NCECA (National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts) Regina Brown Undergraduate Student Fellowship. Micah's work has been exhibited in group and solo shows nationally including Eutectic Gallery, Baltimore Clayworks, and the NCECA Annual Exhibition. She's also received various grants and fellowships including the NCECA Multicultural fellowship and the Artaxis x Haystack fellowship. Micah is also recognized as a 2025 NCECA Emerging Artist Fellow and dually, a 2025 Northern Indiana Clay Alliance Emerging Artist.

Artist Statement

Sweezie produces ceramic and sculptural works to investigate themes of labor, memory, globalization, and material history. Her practice is heavily informed by historical research and is often inspired by revolutionary events and personal ancestral histories. Correlations between human intervention and industrial production are the crux of her work. These correlations broaden realities of understanding around our physical world, product origins, and our relationship to industrialized material. Sweezie's forms are posed as recognizable and minimal to reflect the origins of the forms while simultaneously contrasting themselves through alternative mediums and processes. Sweezie utilizes molded and cast forms frequently to question values tied to reproduction and authorship within industry. Material value is also central to her practice. Sweezie employs an assortment of mediums such as porcelain, latex, bronze, rubber, rice paper, cast plastic, and gold gilding. Through these materials, she aspires to reposition suppressed relational histories within global and institutional perceptions.

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