March 2012
112 posts
Galerie Besson, Retrospective of a lifelong passion / Officine Saffi, Milan, Italy
March 22 - May 21, 2012
After the closure of the historic London gallery, Officine Saffi presents an exclusive anthology of the collection in a group show from March 22 to May 21, 2012. This exhibition is a tribute by Officine Saffi to Anita Besson, her inspiration and work, in the form of a retrospective exhibition of her collection.
The exhibition provides an opportunity to see art ceramic works by some important and influential international artists: Lucie Rie, Hans Coper, Claudi Casanovas and Jennifer Lee, alongside pieces by three Italian artists, Lucio Fontana, Nanni Valentini and Carlo Zauli.
Galerie Besson was founded in London in 1988, and it rapidly became an international point of reference for the greatest ceramic artists, hosting over 150 exhibitions featuring artists from all over the world.
Officine Saffi is an exhibition space in central Milan, very close to Santa Maria delle Grazie and Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper. The gallery is dedicated to all aspects of ceramics. As well as the exhibition space, there is a workshop complete with kilns, wheels and all other equipment needed for ceramics, including high-temperature processes. The ceramics magazine La ceramica in Italia e nel mondo, the only publication of this type in Italy, also has its editorial office at the location.
Anita Besson will be present at Officine Saffi for the opening, which will be held on Thursday, 22 March 2012 at 6.00 pm (Entrance by invitation only).
Andrew Barton: Final Frontier / SODA, Istanbul, Turkey
March 1 - April 14, 2012
SODA is pleased to announce “Final Frontier”, the first solo show of internationally renowned sculptor Andrew Barton. The exhibit consists of space helmets from three major religions. The expanse of religion to our final frontier, space. Expressing a dystopian future of possible religious conflict in the heavens.
Andrew Barton was born in 1970 London, England. MFA from The Oslo National Academy of the Arts (KHiO).
Male fertility, non-loving sex, violence and cannibalism were reoccurring themes in Barton`s work from the end of the 90`s. Barton`s work then took a new direction focusing on the torso or body fragment in combination with a foreign object or abstract shape, dealing with bodily transformations and meditative states of being. His current work deals with industrial products from dystopian futures; space helmets designed for religious expansion in space, and bomb suits tailored for the mundane acts of shopping and child`s play in a future society gone bad.
SODA is a contemporary art and design space founded in Istanbul in January 2010. SODA focuses on artists and designers using different materials and medias from various disciplines and supports contemporary art jewellery, which is a globally rising trend. SODA presents artists and designers distinctive in their field and examples of contemporary movements to audiences that are open to innovation and aims to introduce a new perspective to collectors.
Gallery Hours: Monday to Saturday between 11am and 7pm.
Melissa Stern: The Talking Cure / Fetherston Gallery, Seattle, USA
March 9 – April 7, 2012
Artist Reception: Thursday, March 29, 5.00 – 8.00 pm
The Fetherston Gallery is proud to present “The Talking Cure” exhibition, by New York artist Melissa Stern, a groundbreaking interactive art exhibition integrating sculpture, contemporary literature, online audio and Smartphone technology.
Smartphone Meets Sculpture
“The Talking Cure” exhibition consists of ten of Stern’s sculptures each accompanied by an interactive audio track created by one of ten literary collaborators. Stern’s sculptures, fabricated figures combining mixed materials and found objects, with deeply drawn surfaces, possess an abundance of personality. Stern has collaborated with ten contemporary writers - poets, novelist, screenwriters, and playwrights - to each choose a sculpture and write his or her monologue of the goings on in the sculpture’s mind. The monologues are transformed into audio recordings, stored “in the cloud,” and triggered via a QR tag imbedded in the sculpture. When the viewer points a Smartphone, Blackberry or I-Phone at the QR tag it will trigger audio to hear the inner voice of the sculpture.
Interactive Multimedia in the Manner of Sigmund Freud
The viewer will also have the opportunity to record his or her own imagined monologue for the sculpture. These recording will be available for playback, creating an added interactive dimension to the work. Viewers will be creators as well as receivers of the back-story for each sculpture; the exhibition takes its title from Sigmund Freud’s original name for the practice of psychoanalysis.
Melissa Stern has worked in both sculpture and drawings for over twenty years, living and exhibiting in California, Europe, and New York City. Her work is featured in a number of prominent corporate and museum collections including Dow Jones, JP Morgan, The Arkansas Art Center and the Kohler Corporation, where she was an artist-in-residence. She has also had residences at the Serenbe Institute outside of Atlanta Ga. and at The Washington School of Glass in Washington DC. Her artwork was has been featured in Trans- Ceramic Art, 500 Figures in Clay, and American Illustration 26 – The Best American Illustrations of 2007.
Kira O'Brien
Kira O’Brien’s profile on Ceramics Now Magazine - View her works
“My work has a sculptural yet functional element to it and encompasses a sense of traditional ceramic techniques. Within this tradition is the art of storytelling and symbols which evoke certain sentiments and nostalgia but also a sense of the present environment. This environment is psychological and therefore each piece points to emotions within the narrative.
My present work is currently narrated by the symbol of the chair.
How does one define a simple thing like the chair? What makes the chair, a chair? As James Joyce says in A Portrait of a young man, “Is a chair conceived as a work of tragic or comic art?”
No other object forcefully shapes the physical, social and emotional dimensions of our lives. On the chair seats only one person at a time and responds to the body through comfort. It has a communicative function and offers a glimpse into our collective ideas about that sense of comfort and order.
One can imagine the world from a persons’ perspective as it communicates compassion. Just as its absence communicates disrespect, lack of empathy and loss, whether this loss is a physical or emotional one.” Kira O’Brien
