Rachel Heibel: Habits @ Small Works

Rachel Heibel presents a collection of works that bubble and sprout and grow; sensuous, feminine and organic, Heibel animates her pieces, transforming clay into creatures from unknown ecosystems. Her whimsical experimentation with material, form and function push her works beyond simply ceramic sculpture. Habits is Heibel’s first SF solo presentation.

Rachel Heibel is a sculptor and ceramic artist based in San Francisco. Her work moves between sculpture and functional objects, using clay to think through the body, repetition, ritual, time, and the ways we make meaning through use.

Working primarily by hand, Heibel is interested in the intelligence of materials and the accumulation of gestures that happens through making. Her practice draws from craft traditions, everyday rituals, and the physical experience of living in a body; treating function not as separate from sculpture, but as another way of activating it.

She received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2024 and her BFA from the University of Michigan in 2022.