The New York-born artist Lola Montes moved to Sicily three years ago and soon realized there was something missing in her paintings on canvas. Perhaps they weren’t Sicilian enough, or just didn’t reflect her new environment. So she set up a kiln and a laboratory in her home, and began to make ceramics. Collaborating with local artisans, studying ancient techniques, Montes combined clay and volcanic ash from Mount Etna to create exquisite hand-painted tiles, reliefs, sculptural vessels, and candelabra. The results are ethereal. Her myth-inspired figures hover peacefully in the delicate material, as if the colors themselves were born in the kiln. From her foundry in the Mediterranean’s largest island, Montes’s work travels to Los Angeles. —Elena Clavarino