June 29, 2009
The Month in Clay: July 2009
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Yoshi Fujii’s work will be on display at Baltimore Clayworks through August 1. |
Summer is the time for travel and I hope you all have at least some short jaunts planned this summer. I am heading to the Northeast U.S. (Maine to be exact) in a couple of weeks and I am looking forward to seeing some new sights; hopefully some of them ceramic in nature. Unfortunately, the timing isn’t going to work out quite right for me to make it to the Salad Days event (see below) at Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts (Newcastle, Maine), but I plan to at least stop in to check out the resident artist’s studios since I will be close by. And I am hoping to make it to Haystack Mountain School of Craft (Deer Isle, Maine), as well; that is, if my nine-month-old doesn’t get too fed up with our extensive car time.
To help you schedule some ceramics into your vacation, I am including some highlights of ceramics exhibitions and events from around the U.S. and abroad in this the July 2009 edition of the Month in Clay. But, as usual, these events only scratch the surface of what’s out there. Be sure to peruse the Ceramics Monthly Calendar to see what else is going on. - Jennifer Harnetty, editor. |
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Chicago, Illinois “4 X 4″ is on display at Lillstreet Art Center (https://lillstreet.com/) through July 12. For this exhibition, Lillstreet invited Mary Barringer, Gail Kendall, Lorna Meaden, and Liz Quackenbush to each invite four additional women working in clay to exhibit. The end result is a dynamic show of 100 pieces by 20 exceptional artists.
“I am drawn to work that is rich in ornamentation, with lavish use of materials- both scarce in a culture of mass production,” explained Lorna Meaden (work shown at left). “Historical sources for my work include 18th century European manufactured porcelain and silver. I “While my forms are recognizable - a box, a bottle, a bowl - my intention is to evoke a deeper response, said Lisa Pedolsky (work shown at right). “My work is intended to move from my hands to another’s, and it is there that the full potential of a piece may be found.” |
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Wichita, Kansas A group exhibition of works by Nicole Cherubini, Patsy Cox, David East, Heather Mae Erickson, Erin Furimsky and Del Harrow is on view through August 9 at the Ulrich Museum of Art (www.ulrich.wichita.edu/ceramics) at Wichita State University.
“Emphasizing perspectives that challenge, the exhibition presents contemporary ceramic practices as exploring a broadened potential for expression in this ancient medium,” states Ted Adler, guest curator, assistant professor and head of ceramics at WSU. “Collectively, these artists embrace the utilitarian and the decorative, the material and the conceptual, the ephemeral and the durable. They explore both high culture and low while capitalizing on clay’s material qualities -in the process setting up complex relationships between denotative and connotative meanings in their work. |
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Download Emerging Ceramic Artists to Watch: New Pottery and Ceramic Sculpture now to see more great work and hear what the artists have to say about their motivations, inspirations and career plans.
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Newcastle, Maine With a $25 donation, visitors to Salad Days receive a handmade earthenware salad plate created by Alyssa Welch (work shown at left) from native Watershed clay, plus a buffet of |
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Washington, D.C. Georgia artist John Thigpen’s ceramic sculpture, Pod, is on view in the exhibit Flora: Growing Inspirations at the US Botanic Garden (www.usbg.gov), in Washington DC, through October 12, 2009. Mr. Thigpen’s sculpture is among the work of 34 artists represented in the exhibition, which is co-sponsored by the Washington Sculptors Group. Following a national competition, works were selected by a jury as art that best celebrates the symbolic and aesthetic role of plants in culture. The artists chosen have drawn on the diversity of plant form, and the fundamental strength of plants_ life force to create powerful metaphors that comment on both modern society and individual human existence. |
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Brussels, Belgium Work by Wouter Dam is on view through July 11 at Puls Contemporary Ceramics (www.pulsceramics.com).
Wouter Dam’s lying shapes came into being after far-reaching experiments with thrown vessel shapes which became so asymmetric that he decided to eliminate the foot. After that he created forms that were open on both sides. The assemblage of different thrown pieces and added slabs became more complex with the years. Wouter Dam says in this respect: “The abstract ceramic sculptures that I make at the moment, are the result of a quest that started off with traditional pots that were altered in a minimalist way, but slowly became more open and complex and now only consist of curling strips of clay, barely disclosing the pot origin.” |
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Helena, Montana There’s lots going on this summer at the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts (www.archiebray.org). The Resident Artist Exhibition is on view through July 25 and the 2009 Visiting Artists Exhibition is up July 11-August 1.
Plus the 13th annual Bray Benefit Auction and Brickyard Bash, the Bray’s biggest fundraisers of the year, are coming up. The events help support the residency program. The Bray’s residency program supports artists by offering rent-free studios, subsidized material and firing costs, as well as direct funding through fellowships and stipends. The auction items are on display for the duration of the exhibition (which opened on June 18) with the bidding closing at the Live Auction celebration and Brickyard Bash, July 25, 2009. New this year, is an online auction, which takes place July 18-25 and benefits the Bray residency programs. For a preview of work in the online auction, visit www.archiebray.org Courtney Murphy’s seed pod bottle (shown at left) is on display as part of the Resident Artist Exhibition. |
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Zurich, Switzerland “Porcelain: White Gold” will be on display July 10-October 25 at Museum Bellerive (http://www.museum-bellerive.ch/). “Our summer exhibition will focus on porcelain, the material that reached Europe around 1300 C.E. and, because of its high material value, was traded under the designation of white gold,” stated head curator Eva Afuhs. “At that time, it was reserved to aristocratic circles, though its use and reputation completely changed during the era of industrialization: by then, porcelain had found its way into the sitting rooms of the middle class. In the meantime, this material had not only conquered the world of the arts and design because of its hardness, transparency, and insulating property, but industry, medicine, and even aerospace. The present exhibition will show the possibilities offered by this fascinating material based on exceptional and remarkable objects. |
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Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore Clayworks (www.baltimoreclayworks.org)is hosting the exhibition “message: to whom i want,” featuring Lorima Salter Fellowship Artist, Yoshi Fujii through August 1. On display will be exquisitely carved porcelain enrobed in serene celadons and decadent lusters. Influenced by his Japanese heritage, the work has contemporary flavor and an individualistic voice. His current interest in historical tattoos is being translated into the surface of his vessels. This exhibition is the culmination of his one-year residency with the Clayworks’ studio. |
Tags: Ceramic Artists
sa | July 2nd, 2009 at 7:30 pm
very creative work and fasinating.I adored it .
Jehudith | July 4th, 2009 at 11:52 pm
Thank you very much for the wonderful and interesting data about ceramics .I’m 77 years old and this prgram anables me to learn more without having to leave my house.