Ceramics Now

Ceramics Now Magazine launches Issue 2

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 01:34:00 +0200

Ceramics Now has the pleasure to invite you to the launch of Ceramics Now Magazine - Issue 2, March 29, from 6 PM, at The Paintbrush Factory (First Floor), Cluj-Napoca, Romania.

Issue Two introduces the work of over 35 international artists, beginning with Ken Eastman, Kimberly Cook, Patricia Sannit, Marianne McGrath, Annie Woodford, Suzanne Stumpf or Ruth Power, and continuing with a special feature on Romanian ceramic artists, and a preview feature for Copenhagen Ceramics gallery. The issue also inaugurates the magazines’ new review category.

Ceramics Now’s goal is to make contemporary ceramics a more visible art field through editing publications and organizing exhibitions, workshops and lectures. The online platform and the magazine unites artists from different communities and facilitates idea exchange between them and the public.

The magazine is distributed in a network of libraries, galleries and institutions all over the world and can be bought online for $15. Ceramics Now is a non-profit organization created by a team of artists and students in Cluj-Napoca, Romania.

The Paintbrush Factory is a contemporary art space located at 59-61 Henri Barbusse street.

Editorial - Issue 2, 2013

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 01:32:00 +0200

Although the number of contemporary ceramic artists is relatively small, the capacity of ceramics to encompass a broad range of concepts, techniques, and materials in comparison with other arts is surprisingly big. In this issue, as well as in our first, we present artists who work with different materials and techniques, but more importantly, each of them displays a distinct idea, a little hint of what he and his passion are made of. Through the interviews and articles we have included, we want at least a part of the artists’ ideas to be ridden, passed along, and to contribute to the advancement of contemporary ceramics.

While being creative in a field as diverse as contemporary art, it is almost impossible not to draw parallels between your work and someone else’s which was probably created in a media different from the one you use. This happens inevitably, and in my opinion, it always has a purpose – either predefined or not. Even if a parallel is found, each artistic endeavor has its own origin and, at least for the creator, a unique purpose. A new level is reached when the uniqueness of the artistic initiative is recognized and supported by an entire community.

Over the past year, Ceramics Now has become the largest online art platform dedicated to contemporary ceramics, and recently we have opened promotion to artists and galleries worldwide by application. This effort resulted from the wish to offer artists a platform to express themselves, but also from the desire to establish an accessible resource for everyone wanting to research and be inspired by contemporary ceramics. Since the launch of the first issue, we have been cited as a reference by numerous universities and colleges in the United States and Europe. This step was incredibly important for us because it has proven the value of the project and has kept us working hard. Although the current issue was published later than originally planned, what is important is that all the resources we gathered through this process have already traveled the internet in the meantime, creating a powerful community around us.

Our next goal is to become even more active in promoting contemporary ceramics on an international scale. Even though we have already organized four international exhibitions, with two being prepared for this year, all of these events so far have been held in Romania. In addition to inviting foreign artists to our beautiful country, we want to visit artists in their home countries and to organize events in as many places as possible for as many artists as possible. Key to our success will be greater financial stability and transitioning to full-time staffing of this project. It is a big step that can be possible with growing support from our readers. (An act of patronage has infinitely more value than a purchase.)

Vasi Hîrdo
Editor at Ceramics Now

vasi@ceramicsnow.org

In Harmony: The Norma Jean Calderwood Collection of Islamic Art / Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 19:07:00 +0200

In Harmony: The Norma Jean Calderwood Collection of Islamic Art / Harvard Art Museums, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge
January 31 - June 1, 2013

Harvard Art Museums present exhibition of Norma Jean Calderwood’s collection of Islamic Art
Includes Persian ceramics, illustrated manuscripts, drawings, and lacquerware

The Harvard Art Museums present In Harmony: The Norma Jean Calderwood Collection of Islamic Art, a special exhibition that showcases some 150 objects from the Persian cultural sphere, including luxury glazed ceramics of the early and medieval Islamic era, illustrated manuscripts of medieval epic poems, and lacquerware of the early modern era. The works in this little-known and largely unpublished collection represent 30 years of committed collecting by Mrs. Calderwood. In Harmony is on display January 31–June 1, 2013 at the Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, 485 Broadway, Cambridge, MA.

The exhibition is curated by Mary McWilliams, Norma Jean Calderwood Curator of Islamic and Later Indian Art, Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art, Harvard Art Museums. An accompanying catalogue, edited by McWilliams, offers illustrated entries and nine essays written by distinguished scholars and conservation scientists from a broad range of specialties.

“In the decade since the Harvard Art Museums received the Norma Jean Calderwood Collection of Islamic Art, our gratitude has only increased for this magnificent gift,” said McWilliams. “Our research on the collection has inspired an even greater admiration and respect for Norma Jean’s knowledge and achievement. With this exhibition and catalogue, we hope to share with a broader audience the understanding we have gained of this beautiful and thoughtfully formed collection.”

“There has been exponential growth in the study of Islamic art in recent decades,” said Thomas W. Lentz, Elizabeth and John Moors Cabot Director of the Harvard Art Museums, “and Harvard University and the Harvard Art Museums have been at the forefront of this movement, with faculty, curators, students, and celebrated collections providing fertile ground for the field. The Calderwood Collection is a lasting contribution from a collector who understood the heart of our educational mission.”

The Calderwoods
Norma Jean Calderwood devoted much of her life to studying and teaching Islamic art and the complex of cultures in which it arose. She pursued graduate study in Islamic art at Harvard University, where she specialized in Persian manuscripts, and taught for many years at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and at Boston College. A gifted lecturer, she was also an intrepid traveler, crossing North Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia to study the art and architecture of Islamic lands. For three decades beginning in 1968, she systematically acquired examples of the artistic tradition that captivated her.

Stanford and Norma Jean Calderwood were energetic and generous philanthropists in their adopted city of Boston. Institutions that have benefited directly from the Calderwoods’ generosity include the Boston Athenaeum, Boston College, the Cambridge Art Association, the Harvard Art Museums, the Huntington Theatre, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the MacDowell Colony (Peterborough, NH), the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and public broadcaster WGBH. Their private art collection was the most tangible and personal expression of the Calderwoods’ lifelong involvement in the arts, but also the one least known to the public.

The Calderwood Collection
The Calderwood Collection covers more than a thousand years of artistic achievement in the Persianate world during the Islamic era, principally through the media of ceramics, works on paper, and lacquer. The majority of objects were produced between the 9th and 19th centuries in Iran, Iraq, and parts of Central Asia. Initially attracted to luxury ceramics, Norma Jean Calderwood amassed 57 examples within a decade before shifting her attention to works on paper—illuminated and illustrated manuscript folios as well as single-page compositions. A handful of lacquer objects rounds out the collection. The collection was gifted to the Harvard Art Museums in 2002, and a subsequent exhibition of 46 objects, titled Closely Focused, Intensely Felt: Selections from the Norma Jean Calderwood Collection of Islamic Art, was held August 7, 2004–January 2, 2005 at the Sackler Museum. That exhibition marked the first public showing of a major portion of the collection.

In Harmony
To convey to her students the effect of a Persian painting, Norma Jean Calderwood said that its many visual elements “united to form a harmony.” The theme is eloquently expressed in some of the finest works in the Calderwood Collection, as well as in the total assembly, with objects resonating through contrasts and connections. This exhibition celebrates the scope of Calderwood’s achievement and the harmony of purposes that led to the gifting of the collection to the Harvard Art Museums.

To reflect the collection’s breadth and variety, the exhibition is ordered along a flexible chronology, beginning with earthenware from the 9th and 10th centuries, and closing with lacquerware from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Interspersed are several thematic clusters, as well as groupings of folios from four illustrated manuscripts that Mrs. Calderwood endeavored to reassemble when they were dispersed on the art market.

Highlights of the ceramics on view: Bowl with rooster and fish (Iraq, Basra, 10th century), is decorated with luster painting, the greatest contribution of Islamic potters to the history of ceramics. Bowl inscribed with sayings of the Prophet Muhammad and ʿAli ibn Abi Talib (Uzbekistan, Samarkand, 10th century), a superb example of epigraphic wares, bears Arabic inscriptions attributed to two of the most important figures in the history of Islam. The decoration of arabesques and interlaced lines on Bowl with radial interlace design (Iran, Kashan, late 12th–early 13th century), is created in the polychrome mīnā’ī technique—a costly and complex overglaze process that required multiple firings. The colorful decoration on Bowl with inscription and birds (Iran, Nishapur, 10th century) is carefully composed and laid out in three registers: an Arabic word meaning “harmony” (al-wifāq) occupies the middle, and above and below it are long-necked birds with outstretched wings.

The works on paper include illustrated manuscripts of medieval Persian poems, most notably the Shāhnāma (Book of Kings) by Firdawsi, and the Khamsa (Quintet) by Nizami. A painting of great importance is Afrasiyab and Siyavush Embrace, from one of the most celebrated illustrated manuscripts in Islamic art—a large-scale and lavish copy of the Shāhnāma that was created in Tabriz, Iran, c. 1520–40 for Shah Tahmasp I, the second ruler of the Safavid dynasty in Iran. This brilliant painting illustrates a rare moment of harmony between the warring peoples of Iran and Turan. From another manuscript of the Shāhnāma comes Solomon Enthroned (c. 1575–90), one of the Calderwood Collection’s finest examples of painting from the Iranian city of Shiraz, which for three centuries was a major center for the production of illuminated and illustrated manuscripts. This painting depicts the famously multilingual King Solomon presiding wisely over an incongruous retinue of humans, demons, angels, and animals. The rising importance of single-page compositions is reflected in Young Dervish (Iran, Isfahan, c. 1630) which shows a comely youth sporting the domical wool hat and staff of a dervish. Signed by Riza `Abbasi, the most influential artist of 17th-century Iran, the painting demonstrates his calligraphic draftsmanship and subtle sense of color. Midway through the exhibition several of the works on paper will be rotated. Those works will be on view beginning Tuesday, April 9, 2013.

Catalogue
A fully illustrated hardcover catalogue, edited by Mary McWilliams, accompanies the exhibition. Nine essays by diverse experts explore issues of conservation as well as the cultural and historical significance of various objects in this largely unpublished collection. Topics include the vestiges of pre-Islamic cultural traditions in Iranian ceramic decoration, artistic practice and process in Shiraz manuscript painting, strategies of imperial self-representation in Safavid Iran and Mughal India, and conservation issues in Islamic ceramics. Illustrated entries are divided into three categories: three-dimensional objects, works on paper, and the study collection. Published by the Harvard Art Museums and distributed by Yale University Press. Price: $75, comes with slipcase. Available mid-January 2013 at the Harvard Art Museums shop in the Arthur M. Sackler Museum lobby, or order via our website at: www.harvardartmuseums.org/shop

Connected events
Wednesday, March 27, 2013, 3:30 – 4:30 pm
Gallery Talk: From the Laboratory to the Gallery: The Conservation and Technical Study of Islamic Art, with Katherine Eremin, Anthony Sigel, and Penley Knipe, Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies, Harvard Art Museums. Free with the price of admission.

This exhibition and its accompanying catalogue have been made possible through the generous support of the late Stanford Calderwood.

For more information, visit the exhibition page or download the press release.

CONTACT
Jennifer Aubin, Public Relations Manager
jennifer_aubin@harvard.edu
Tel. 617-496-5331
General info tel. 617-495-9400

Harvard Art Museums
Arthur M. Sackler Museum
485 Broadway
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States
www.harvardartmuseums.org

Above:
First image
Bowl with inscription and birds, Iran, Nishapur, Samanid period, 10th century. Earthenware covered in slip and painted under glaze. Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, The Norma Jean Calderwood Collection of Islamic Art, 2002.50.92. Photo: Harvard Art Museums, © President and Fellows of Harvard College.

Second image
Bowl inscribed with sayings of the Prophet Muhammad and ʿAli ibn Abi Talib, Uzbekistan, Samarkand, Samanid period, 10th century. Earthenware covered in slip and painted under glaze. Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, The Norma Jean Calderwood Collection of Islamic Art, 2002.50.88. Photo: Harvard Art Museums, © President and Fellows of Harvard College.

Third image
Bowl with radial interlace design, Iran, Kashan, Seljuk-Atabeg period, late 12th–early 13th century. Fritware painted over white glaze. Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, The Norma Jean Calderwood Collection of Islamic Art, 2002.50.114. Photo: Harvard Art Museums, © President and Fellows of Harvard College.

Fragile! In Transit / Traveling exhibition around Europe

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 16:29:00 +0200

Fragile! In Transit / Traveling exhibition around Europe
2012-2013

Next stop: Milkwood Gallery, Cardiff, Wales
41 Lochaber Street, Roath, Cardiff CF24 3LS

Dates: March 14-25, 2013
Opening Reception: March 22, from 6 pm.

Fragile! In Transit is the initial project of the Project Network 3 (three) collective, a group of 9 ceramic artists from across Europe. Throughout the course of one year, the artists are sending 9 pieces of work on a journey by post to each of their countries of residence. Fragile! In Transit engages with and responds directly to the notion of place, identity and culture. All the work is designed to fit into a prescribed box of similar format and together forms an exhibition centering on the balance between reality, fiction and perception of place. The project has already travelled to Ireland, Denmark and England. Upcoming destinations include Finland and Italy.

Artists: Elodie Alexandre - France/India, Roberta Giussani - Italy, Joseph Hopkinson - Wales, Katja Kotikoski - Finland, Claire Muckian - Northern Ireland, Eglė Pakšytė - Lithuania, Jill Shaddock - England, Helene Søs Schjødts - Denmark, Katie Spragg - England.

The group met at a six week symposium for recent ceramic graduates at Guldagergaard International Ceramic Centre in Denmark last year.

Follow the exhibition on its journey at www.facebook.com/FragileInTransit

CONTACTS
Joseph Hopkinson
josephjhopkinson@gmail.com

Elodie Alexandre
elo.alexandre@gmail.com

Project Network 3 (three)
projectnetwork3.tumblr.com

Above: Eglė Pakšytė, Untitled, 2012, Stoneware, underglaze. Photo by Edward Chadwick.

More exhibitions »

Call for applications: First edition of Cluj International Ceramics Biennale (CICB 2013)

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 02:07:00 +0200

CLUJ INTERNATIONAL CERAMICS BIENNALE (CICB 2013)

First edition, October 9 - November 3, 2013
Cluj-Napoca, Romania

Applications deadline: May 30, 2013
www.ceramicsbiennale.com/apply

Cluj International Ceramics Biennale is the first contemporary ceramics biennale organized in Romania, and is aiming to become an international meeting place for ceramic artists. Artists from all over the world are invited to apply and participate at the biennale with their ceramic works. Apply now (Applications deadline: May 30, 2013).

Expressing artistic sensibilities using the means of ceramic art is on a growing scale amongst artists all over the world, and in the last years the contemporary ceramics field started to be seen as a contribution to the major arts. The first edition of the biennale has the potential to change old mentalities, focusing on the contemporary context and presenting the diversity of concepts and techniques in the innovative field of contemporary ceramics.

Cluj International Ceramics Biennale (CICB 2013) is organized by Ceramart Foundation and Ceramics Now Association, in partnership with Cluj-Napoca Art Museum, the University of Arts and Design Cluj-Napoca, and The Romanian Fine Artists Union. The ceramics biennale will be held in several locations in the city of Cluj-Napoca, Romania, during October 9 - November 3, 2013.

The CICB’s goal is to become a contemporary meeting point for ceramic artists from all over the world. This artistic event will introduce the Romanian public to contemporary ceramic artists, practices and new concepts in the field. The biennale will also get round national and international institutions to work together with the aim of creating a living environment for ceramics in the city of Cluj-Napoca.

The profound changes in the world today, whether socio-economic, political or techno-scientific, have strongly influenced the artists’ search for new ways of expression, and engendered a change in how the creative act is viewed, both in terms of means of expression and in terms of message.

Sensitive to the slightest changes of artistic canon in the global Agora of contemporary arts, ceramic art evolves toward an interdisciplinary and integrative strategy. The new concepts that are gaining ground in the field attest to an aesthetic simbiosis with forms of expressivity specific to other artistic fields, while at the same time, retaining and accentuating - an experimental development specific to the field. The outcome could form an ingenious and resourceful alchemy.

For more information, please read more on www.ceramicsbiennale.com or email office@ceramicsbiennale.com

The jury for the first edition of CICB:
Zehra Çobanlı - Artist and Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts, Anadolu University, Eskişehir, Turkey.
David Jones - Artist and Senior Lecturer in Ceramics at the University of Wolverhampton, England.
Les Manning - Artist and former Vice-President of the International Academy of Ceramics Geneva and Founding Director of the Banff Centre for the Arts, Canada.
Cristina Popescu Russu - Artist and Vice-President of the Romanian Fine Artists Union, Romania.
Ting-Ju Shao - Artist and writer, former committee consultant for the Taiwan Ceramics Biennale and Taipei Ceramic Awards.
Blazenka Soic Stebih - Artist, President at KERAMEIKON and Director of the International Festival of Postmodern Ceramics and Ceramica Multiplex, Varazdin, Croatia.

Organizing committee:
Arina Ailincăi - Romanian Fine Artists Union
Marius Georgescu - University of Arts and Design Cluj-Napoca, Ceramart Foundation
Vasi Hîrdo - Ceramics Now Association
Călin Stegerean - Cluj-Napoca Museum of Art
Gavril Zmicală - Romulus Ladea Fine Arts High school

Applications are open for ceramic symposiums in Latvia

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 00:49:47 +0200

Leading Latvian and worldwide well known award winning porcelain and ceramics artists Ilona Romule and Peteris Martinsons invite artists to spend the summer together in Latvia, Zvartava manor.

During 21 – 31 July, 2013 in Zvartava manor will be held Masterclass “Lithophane” – a practice based workshop in lithophane technique by Ilona Romule for participants with figurative and narrative ideas.

„Lithophane” Masterclass will be followed by a Symposium “Masculine and feminine ceramics” which will take place from 2 – 12 August, 2013. The symposium will be led in tandem by Ilona Romule and Peteris Martinsons.

Three money prizes have been established for the best works created during the Symposium “Masculine and feminine ceramics”. Symposium masters - Ilona Romule and Peteris Martinsons - together with each Symposium participant will select one of the created artworks to be dedicated for the symposium exhibition and afterwards to be left at disposal of Symposium organizers.

From all selected artworks for the exhibition, Symposium masters will take the decision on 3 best works to be awarded with following money prizes – 250 EUR for the 1st place, 200 EUR for the 2nd place and 150 EUR for the 3rd best artwork.

For participation fees and application procedure, please see the official website www.symposiums.lv

You are also welcome to follow the updates on their Facebook page.

CONTACT
Linda Rasenbauma
creativitymecca@gmail.com

Molly Hatch: REVERIE / Philadelphia Art Alliance

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 22:43:04 +0200

Molly Hatch: REVERIE / Philadelphia Art Alliance, United States
February 7 - April 28, 2013

“In a continued effort to claim the functional surface of the dinner plate as a painting surface, REVERIE includes a new collection of historically sourced plate paintings. In response to the domestic nature of the galleries at the Philadelphia Art Alliance, I have designed “Tea for Two” a historic teacup inspired fabric wallpaper installation.

For REVERIE I worked closely with curators at The Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, MA to source their largely unviewed collection of historic teacups for “Tea for Two”, a fabric wallpaper installation. The story of Francine and Sterling Clark personally collecting hundreds of teacups over a lifetime now housed in the Clark Art Institute archives resonated with my own personal Metcalf family history of collecting and coveting decorative arts.

Rather than seeking source material from an additional museum collection for my new plate paintings in REVERIE, I chose to mine my own family’s collection of ceramic objects. My own family history of collecting resonated with the Francine and Sterling Clark cup collection. Thanks to the generosity of my family, my new plate paintings will be exhibited alongside the originals on loan for the duration of the exhibition.

REVERIE is a personal exploration of the relationship between the historic and the contemporary with artworks crossing over categories of decorative art, design and fine art. Fascinated by how we live with objects, how and why we acquire objects and what happens to them throughout history, I see this exhibition as a reflection of the life of surface pattern through the decorative art continuum.” Molly Hatch

“No art is simply, blithely contemporary. That would be like saying our parents had no influence on us. Today’s art responds to and reacts against yesterday’s art. Hatch serves up the magisterial landscape on a grid of 30 hand-painted ceramic dinner plates. The grid of circles cleverly breaks up and abstracts the scene, but doesn’t abandon its coherence. Indeed, it spotlights the mark-making.” Boston Globe Review of COVET: Modern Riffs on Old Ideas by Cate McQuaid, May 30, 2012

Artist and designer Molly Hatch grew up on an organic dairy farm in Vermont surrounded by a startlingly diverse set of visual influences: the earthy reality of rural life, and the mysterious, disembodied luxury of antique decorative objects from her mother’s family, prosperous Boston merchants who used Chinese export porcelain as ballast in their ships. Inspired by these two seemingly disparate family narratives, Hatch became an artist with a life-long passion for the decorative arts and the dialog between old and new. She has developed a robust studio practice that encompasses both works of art and design for industry, keenly aware of the different concerns and goals of each, while engaging with the ambiguity of objects that seem to exist in both the decorative and fine art realms.

“Reverie,” her first exhibition at the Philadelphia Art Alliance, is inspired by what Hatch describes as her “continued effort to claim the functional surface of the dinner plate as a painting surface.” Drawing from 18th and 19th century plates from her family’s own collection, Hatch has created a series of “plate paintings” in which design elements from “source” plates are drastically scaled up and applied in a matrix on a grid of new plates, forming an image all its own. In response to the domestic history of the Philadelphia Art Alliance—once a private home—Hatch has also created wallpaper called “Tea For Two.” Working closely with curators at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, MA, Hatch studied the teacup collection of Francine and Sterling Clark, and began painting teacups and designing a pattern that employed both their intricate surface designs and their silhouettes. The resulting wallpaper invites the viewer to contemplate this complex identity—is it a work of art, or is it decoration, and can it be both?—and provides no definitive answers, only provocative questions.

In addition to her exhibition at the PAA, Hatch’s work is featured in “New Blue and White” exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and her exuberant designs for Anthropologie in ceramics, textiles, and glass may be seen in shops across the United States and Canada, Europe, and the UK. Hatch studied drawing and ceramics at the Museum School in Boston, and received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 2000. After several ceramic residencies and apprenticeships in the United States and abroad, she received her Masters of Fine Arts degree in ceramics at the University of Colorado in Boulder in 2008. In 2009, Hatch was awarded the prestigious Arts/Industry Residency in Pottery at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Wisconsin. She is represented by Ferrin Gallery in Pittsfield, MA.

CONTACT
molly@mollyhatch.com
Tel. 413-896-5830

info@philartalliance.org
Tel. 215-545-4302

Philadelphia Art Alliance
251 South 18th Street
Philadelphia, PA
United States
www.philartalliance.org

Above:
First image
Molly Hatch, Reverie, 2013, 28 hand-painted plates with glaze, underglaze and 11 carat gold luster, 70” W x 40” H x 1.5” D. Photo by John Polak.

Second image
Molly Hatch, Dresden I, 2013, 16 hand-painted plates with glaze, underglaze, 40” W x 40” H x 1.5” D.

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Containment: 2012 Cicely & Colin Rigg Contemporary Design Award / The Ian Potter Centre: NGV, Melbourne, Australia

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 21:47:15 +0200

Containment: 2012 Cicely & Colin Rigg Contemporary Design Award / The Ian Potter Centre, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia
November 23, 2012 - July 21, 2013

The theme of ‘containment’ will be explored by fourteen Victorian artists for the 2012 Cicely & Colin Rigg Contemporary Design Award.

The Award focuses on contemporary design practice in Victoria and is arguably the most prestigious offered to a contemporary practitioner in Australia with a prize of $30,000 provided through the Cicely & Colin Rigg Bequest, managed by ANZ Trustees.

Tony Ellwood, NGV Director, said, “This year’s Award presents an exciting mix of Victorian artists and reflects the NGV’s ongoing commitment to contemporary design. The NGV is only able to stage this important event thanks to the vision of the Trustees of the Rigg Bequest and the foresight of the generous benefactors, Cicely and Colin Rigg.”

Teresa Zolnierkiewicz, Head of Philanthropy, ANZ Trustees, said, “The Rigg Bequest is a generous legacy of the late Colin Rigg (1895-1982). He was inspired by the Felton Bequest to create something in his own will that developed the arts in Victoria. This award, designed by the Trustees in partnership with the NGV, serves as a demonstration of the power of philanthropy to nurture and support artists and designers, vital to a thriving society.”

The participating artists in 2012 are: Garry Bish, Robin Bold, Emma Davies, Mark Edgoose, Neville French, Titania Henderson, Marian Hosking, Richard Morrell, Ian Mowbray, David Pottinger, David Ray, Owen Rye, Yhonnie Scarce and Katherine Wheeler.

Amanda Dunsmore, Curator, International Decorative Arts & Antiquities, NGV, said, “The choice of a theme for this year’s Award, rather than a specific area of practice, allows great scope for interpretation. Many of the works employ a sculptural aesthetic while remaining inherently functional, yet they play with the possibilities of what might be, beyond their practical value. Other works are presented in the context of a traditional concept.”

Previous recipients of the Cicely & Colin Rigg Contemporary Design Award are Neville Assad-Sadha (1994) for ceramics, Robert Baines (1997) for metalwork, Louise Weaver (2003) for textiles, Sally Marsland (2006) for jewellery and Simone LeAmon (2009) for seated furniture.

Emma Mayall, Assistant Curator, Contemporary Art, said, “This year’s group of artists represents a diverse mix of emerging and established practitioners. The vibrancy of Victorian design is highlighted through the wide range of practice and media represented, including ceramics, glass, metalwork, plastics and natural materials.”

The recipient of the 2012 Cicely & Colin Rigg Contemporary Design Award is Marian Hosking. The prize of $30,000 was awarded to Ms Hosking for her work Clearing. Ms Hosking said, “It’s an honour to be chosen for an award that celebrates the diversity and vibrancy of contemporary Victorian craft and design. I’m overwhelmed to be selected from such a stellar group and appreciate that craft is visible within the National Gallery of Victoria.”

Hours: Tuesday - Sunday, 10 am – 5 pm. Admission is free.

CONTACT
Elisabeth Alexander
elisabeth.alexander@ngv.vic.gov.au
Tel. 03 8620 2347, 0439 348 357
General info tel. 03 8620 2222

The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia
Federation Square
Cnr Russell & Flinders Streets
Melbourne, VIC 3000
Australia
www.ngv.vic.gov.au

Above: Katherine Wheeler, born Australia 1979, Tea set, 2010–12 (detail), Fine silver, sterling silver, porcelain, polyester cotton thread, paper, polyvinyl acetate, enamel paint, (1-15) 5.0 x 6.5 x 5.0 cm to 7.0 x 34.0 x 22.0 cm. Collection of the artist, Castlemaine. © Katherine Wheeler

> More exhibitions (view list)

New Blue and White / Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Sat, 09 Mar 2013 22:37:00 +0200

New Blue and White / Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
February 20, 2013 - July 14, 2013

New Blue and White at The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, showcases inventive works in blue and white by 40 international artists and designers.

Contemporary sculpture, ceramics, fashion, glass, furniture, and more offer a new twist to age-old imagery

Over the past millennium, blue-and-white ceramics have become an international phenomenon—familiar as Dutch Delftware, Ming vases, and Blue Willow china, among other forms. Today, the popular ceramic medium continues to offer inspiration, especially to the more than 40 international artists and designers whose works are presented in New Blue and White at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA). On view from February 20 through July 14 in the MFA’s Henry and Lois Foster Gallery, the exhibition highlights nearly 70 objects made over the course of the past 15 years across a wide array of media. Many of these works offer a contemporary twist to traditional blue-and-white imagery using abstraction, digital manipulation, contemporary subject matter, and even trompe l’oeil to surprise and delight. They range from small porcelains to room-size installations and include never-before-seen creations by artists such as Mark Cooper, Annabeth Rosen, Pouran Jinchi, and Kurt Weiser, and recent MFA acquisitions of work by fashion label Rodarte and ceramic sculptor Chris Antemann. Also on view are ceramics by Nakashima Harumi, Robert Dawson, and Steven Lee. The exhibition is presented with generous support from The Wornick Fund for Contemporary Craft. Additional support is provided by The John and Bette Cohen Fund for Contemporary Decorative Arts, and the Joel Alvord and Lisa Schmid Alvord Fund.

“The works in New Blue and White deftly show how one remarkable set of material traditions, which have had a profound international impact, can inspire new generations of artists. They make surprising, beautiful connections across time and cultures, helping us understand our history and our present,” said Malcolm Rogers, Ann and Graham Gund Director of the MFA.

At its simplest, blue and white refers to the application of cobalt pigment on white clay. It originated in 9th-century Mesopotamia and subsequently captured the imaginations of artists throughout Asia. Through a frenzy of trade networks and stylistic exchange, these coveted works made their way to Europe and eventually the New World. With them went multiple narratives focused on ideas as varied as wealth, power, beauty, family, exoticism, colonialism, and commerce. Inspired by this rich and varied global legacy, today’s artists create works that tell contemporary stories incorporating cultural, social, and historical references. To illustrate this, four themes will be presented to guide visitor engagement with the objects in the exhibition: Cultural Camouflage; Memory and Narrative; Abstract Interpretations; and Political Meaning.

Exhibiting artists: Ann Agee (US), Chris Antemann (US), Katsuyo Aoki (Japan), Felicity Aylieff (England), Robin Best (Australia), Stephen Bowers (Australia), Boym Partners [Constantin Boym (Russian) and Laurene Boym (American)], Caroline Cheng (England), Mark Cooper (US), Claire Curneen (Ireland), Robert Dawson (England), Barbara Diduk (US), Michelle Erickson (US), Front Design (Sofia Lagerkvist, Anna Lindren, Katja S’vstr’m, Charlotte von der Lancken) (Sweden), Gésine Hackenberg (Germany), Molly Hatch (US), Giselle Hicks (US), Sin Ying Ho (China), Pouran Jinchi (Iran), Hella Jongerius (Netherlands), Charles Krafft (US), Steven Lee (US), Li Lihong (China), Beth Lo (US), Livia Marin (Chile), Harumi Nakashima (Japan), Rodarte (Kate and Laura Mulleavy) (US), Annabeth Rosen (US), Richard Saja (US), Eduardo Sarabia (US), Paul Scott (England), Richard Shaw (US), Tommy Simpson (US), Caroline Slotte (Finland), Min-Jeong Song (Korea), Vipoo Srivilasa (Thailand), Kondô Takahiro (Japan), Brendan Tang (Canada), Studio Van Eijk & Van der Lubbe (Neils Van Eijk, Mirian Van der Lubbe) (Netherlands), Peter Walker (US), Kurt Weiser (US), Ah Xian (China).

SPECIAL PROGRAMS
Gallery Talks
- Thursday, March 14, 1–2 p.m., “New Blue and White,” led by exhibition curator Emily Zilber, Ronald L. and Anita C.
Wornick Curator of Contemporary Decorative Arts at the MFA
- Thursday, April 4, 1–2 p.m., “New Blue and White,” led by Emily Zilber
- Wednesday, May 15, 6–7 p.m., “Past/Present: Blue and White, Old and New,” led by Thomas Michie, Russell B. and
Andrée Beauchamp Stearns Senior Curator of Decorative Arts and Sculpture at the MFA, and Emily Zilber
- Thursday, June 13, 1–2 p.m., “New Blue and White,” led by Emily Zilber

Artist Demonstration
Ceramic Art with Molly Hatch
- Sunday, March 17, noon – 3 p.m.
- Wednesday, March 20, 5:30 – 8 p.m.
Free with Museum admission. Made possible by The Lowell Institute.

Participants can explore the world of ceramics with Molly Hatch, one of the artists featured in the New Blue and White. Using her grouping of plates inspired by the Baroque painting, The Swing, she will demonstrate how she translates two-dimensional drawings and paintings into three-dimensional ceramic forms. The artist will share her techniques for drawing in clay, including slip inlay and carving. Visitors can try some of the techniques during the demonstration. Hatch graduated with her BFA from Tufts University and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston in 2000 and her MFA from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2008. She has taught numerous workshops and courses and exhibits her work both nationally and internationally. In addition to working as an artist, she is an active product designer for the Philadelphia based company Anthropologie. For more information visit: www.mollyhatch.com

Read more about the exhibition or download the press release.

CONTACT
Karen Frascona
kfrascona@mfa.org
Tel. 617 369 3442
General Information Tel. 617-267-9300

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Avenue of the Arts
465 Huntington Avenue
Boston, Massachusetts 02115
United States
www.mfa.org

Above:
first image
Harumi Nakashima, Work 0808, 2008, Glazed stoneware. Collection Samuel and Gabrielle Lurie, New York. Photo by Geoff Spear, New York. © Harumi Nakashima. Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

second image
Gesine Hackenberg, Delft Blue ‘Plooischotel’ Necklace, 2012, Wall plate of Delfts Blue earthenware by De Porceleyne Fles, nylon thread. Courtesy Seinna Gallery and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

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"In women's hands" artwork by Italian artist Clara Garesio, donated to the United Nations Office

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 23:52:38 +0200

In Women’s hands, an artwork by Italian artist Clara Garesio, created specifically for the High Level panel “The Power of Empowered Women” was donated by the delegation of the European Union on February 25 to the United Nations Office at Geneva where it will remain part of the permanent collection.

Clara Garesio created the ceramic artwork specifically for the High Level panel “The Power of Empowered Women”, an initiative of the 40 women ambassadors to the UN, aimed at showcasing the experience of engaged women from politics, business and civil society who have overcome obstacles and developed approaches to move gender equality forward.

Unveiling the work, a ceremony in the presence of UNOG Director-General Mr. Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, the EU Head of Delegation Mariangela Zappia said: “It is a special day for the European Union – as we offer the very first donation to the United Nations – and it is special for me as a woman since this beautiful piece of art is about the beauty, the simplicity and strength of women as positive transformative forces of our societies.”

Vincent Leroy / Galerie NeC nilsson et chilglien, Hong Kong

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 23:33:41 +0200

Vincent Leroy exhibition / Galerie NeC nilsson et chilglien, Hong Kong
March 15 - April 27, 2013

Opening reception with the artist: March 14, 2013, from 6 pm.

Moving under the influence of Japanese pop culture and New Realism. Kinetic artist Vincent Leroy forms poetry with his technology. Movement and repetition redefine natural order and commanded creation. Electric Flowers absorbs a haunting and fascinating rhythm that reinforces the endless repetition of motifs. Thus this field of mechanical flowers whose petals turn tirelessly on their rolling pins becomes an unlikely ode to the fragility of nature.

Born in 1968, into a farming family in Avranches, in France’s Normandy region, Vincent Leroy graduated from the Ecole Nationale Superieure de Creation Industrielle in 1995. In his work as an industrial engineer, he maintains an overall perspective on the manufacturing process slecting shapes, materials, colors and technical properties. Active on the international contemporary art scene, Vincent Leroy is among those artists who refuse to be categorized.

“Creating an object usually starts with finding the right materials, but the starting point for my work is kinetics. I play around with the speed and the way actions have casting effects. Movement was the basis for my piece I created in London for The Sketch, the restaurant and gallery space developed by Mourad Mazouz. I installed a flexible geometrical shape powered by two large motors between two mirrored walls. The material used is made to ripple, and the movement is reflected infinitely in The mirrors. Similarly, in Berlin I showed three balls made of translucent material that were made to move completely independently. I installed a tiny camera inside one of them, to give visitors a random, unimpeded perspective, with no vertical reference points, a little like astronauts in the weightlessness of space, when they’re moving around the shuttle. I wanted to let the public experience the phenomenon with just the bare minimum of technological resources.

Simple movements still remain the basis of my work. Ten years ago my sculpture was more mechanically focused, the technology was present, more visibly a subject matter. Today the movement in my work is more fluid, and natural. I’m at a happy medium with this balance of nature verses machine, or nature as machine. We must come to mix and not oppose. My creative process is driven by a natural need to experiment. To question, guess, try, play, solve, function. Even if it is as basic as a piece of cardboard, glue and a toolbox. I am always surprised with the magic that emerges from these unexpected moments.

I think my audience is primarily people who are on top of the latest trends in art and in music, who are found in major cities. It’s also companies like Arkema and Renault, Nissan and Canal+ I’ve had the opportunity to work with. In many cases it’s an audience that doesn’t judge the work on the basis of whether it’s consistent with some artistic movement. They’re people who are capable of being won over or astonished by what they see. It gives me great pleasure to be able to reach such a wide audience.” Vincent Leroy

Gallery Hours: Tuesday - Saturday, 11 am - 8 pm. Sunday, 1-6 pm.

CONTACT
galerienec.hk@galerienec.com
Tel. +852 2547 0000

Galerie NeC nilsson et chiglien Hong Kong
g/f 218 Hollywood Road
Sheung Wan, Hong Kong
www.galerienec.com

Above: Vincent Leroy, Moucharabiehs sur socle, 2008, Perforated sheets, Steel, Electric motors, 22 and 40 cm. Variable configurations. Courtesy Galerie Baumet Sultana, Paris and Kinetica Museum, London.

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Theaters - Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre In the early 20th...

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 23:01:00 +0200

Theaters - Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre

In the early 20th century, following the development of the entertainment industry, hundreds of theaters were built across North America. Major entertainment firms and movie studios commissioned specialized architects to build grandiose and extravagant auditoriums. From the 60’s, TV, multiplexes and urban crisis made them obsolete. During the following decades, these theaters were either modernized, transformed into adult cinemas or they closed, one after the other; many of them were simply demolished. Those which remain, escaping this fate, have been converted to serve varied purposes. Now, many are reused as churches, retail space, flea markets, bingo halls, discos, supermarkets or warehouses. Some others just sit abandoned. (via)

NCECA 2013 National Student Juried Exhibition / Glassell School of Art, Houston

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 03:40:00 +0200

NCECA 2013 National Student Juried Exhibition / Glassell School of Art, Houston, USA
February 15 - March 23, 2013

Reception: Thursday, March 21, 6-8 PM.

NCECA’s National Student Juried Exhibition (NSJE) is open to all full time undergraduate, graduate and post-baccalaureate students enrolled in the United States of America, except for those enrolled at the institutions of the jurors. Applicants must have been working towards a degree or be a post-baccalaureate in art at the time of submittal.

In conjunction with NCECA’s 47th Annual Conference in Houston (March 20-23), The Glassell School of Art of The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston hosts NCECA’s 2013 National Student Juried Exhibition from February 15 – March 23, 2013. A reception takes place on Thursday, March 21, 2013 from 6:00- 8:00 pm. New this year NCECA has included the 2013 NSJE artists in the 2013 NCECA Biennial catalog featuring color reproductions of works by all participating artists. This catalog may be pre-ordered on the NCECA’s Online Store.

Participating artists: Sasha Alexandra, Molly Allen, Samantha Bachman, Cori Crumrine, Stephanie Galli, Tyler Houston, Kahlil Irving, Michelle Laxalt, Kathryn Whistler, Tiffany Bailey, Melisa Cadell, Heather Davis, Virginia Eckinger, Thomas Edwards, Marty Fielding, Marisa Finos, Donna Flanery, Anastasia Gabriel, Nick Geankoplis, Violet Goode, Elizabeth Head-Fischer, Natasha Hovey, Michael Hurley, Ah-Young Jeon, Kevin Kao, Lauren Karle, Margaret Kinkeade, Jennifer Kirkpatrick, Robert Kolhouse, Shasta Krueger, Yeon Joo Lee, John Loveless, Marsha Mack, Leslie Macklin, Ashley Maxwell, Spring Montes, Norleen Nosri, Sara Parent-Ramos, Alia Pialtos, Brian Pierce, Louis Reilly, Justin Schortgen, Mitchell Spain, Diana Synatzske, Kristen Tripp, Josh Van Stippen, Austin Wieland, Bill Wilkey, Wesley Wright, Crisha Yantis.

Jurors: Bonnie Seeman, Kevin Snipes.

Bonnie Seeman received her BFA from the University of Miami in 1991, and her MFA from the University of Massachusetts/Dartmouth in 1996. She is a two-time recipient of the Florida Individual Artist Fellowship, and has twice served as a panelist for the Florida Fellowship. Seeman was nominated for a USA Fellow grant in 2010 and was awarded The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation 2005 Biennial Award. A participant in numerous international and national exhibitions including Art Basel, Switzerland; Art Brussels, Belgium; and the World Ceramic Biennale, Korea, Seeman’s work is featured in many museum collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York; the World Ceramic Exposition Foundation International Collection, Icheon, Korea; the Sadberk Hanım Museum, Istanbul, Turkey; and The Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA. Seeman has taught as a summer faculty member at Anderson Ranch Arts Center and Santa Fe Clay, and has presented visiting artist workshops at numerous art centers and universities across the U.S. She currently teaches at Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL, and serves on the board of Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts.

Kevin Snipes combines his love of constructing unconventional pottery with an obsessive need to draw on everything that he produces, creating a uniquely dynamic body of work. Snipes received a B.F.A. in ceramics and drawing from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 1994 and completed graduate school at the University of Florida in 2003. Since then, Snipes has led a seemingly nomadic artistic life, constantly making no matter where he is. He has participated in several artist residency programs including the Clay Studio in Philadelphia and Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts in Newcastle, Maine; and, he received a Taunt Fellowship from the Archie Bray Foundation in Montana 2008. Exhibiting nationally and internationally as far away as Jingdezhen China, Snipes had a recent solo exhibition at the Society of Arts and Crafts in Boston. Kevin Snipes currently resides in New Mexico.

NCECA Exhibitions are funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Federal Agency.

CONTACT
glassell@mfah.org
Tel. 713 639 7500

Glassell School of Art Houston
5101 Montrose Boulevard
Houston, TX 77006
United States
www.mfah.org/visit/glassell-school

Above: Sasha Alexandra, Untitled, 2012, Terracotta, Porcelain, Nichrome Wire, Glass, Variable dimensions.

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NCECA 2013 Ceramics Biennial / Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, USA

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 03:31:27 +0200

NCECA 2013 Ceramics Biennial / Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, USA
January 26 - May 5, 2013

Award presentation & Reception: Thursday, March 21, 5:30 - 9 PM.

Held in conjunction with the Annual Conference in odd-numbered years, the NCECA Biennial is the premier juried exhibition open to all current members of NCECA (both national and international) and to all ceramic artists, 18 years and older, residing in the U.S.

Houston Center for Contemporary Craft will host the 2013 Biennial Exhibition from January 26 - May 5, 2013. The opening reception will take place on January 25, 2013 and a reception will also be held during the Houston Conference on Thursday, March 21, 2013 from 5:30 - 9:00 pm. NCECA produces a color catalog featuring work by all participating artists and may be pre-ordered through NCECA’s Online Store. Remaining copies may also be available for purchase at conference.

Participating artists: Nicole Aquillano, Christa Assad, Tom Bartel, Nicholas Bivins, Renée Brown, Josephine Burr, Gary Carlos, Lisa Cecere, Du Chau, Andréa Keys Connell, Emily Connell, Shenny Cruces, Elizabeth DeLyria, Sharan Elran, Léopold L. Foulem, Teri Frame, Chad Gunderson, Sarah House, Erica Iman, Ryan LaBar, Thomas Lane, Lauren Mabry, Ted Neal, Tybre Newcomer, Claudia Olds Goldie, Vijay V. Paniker, Joseph Pintz, Paolo Porelli, Audrey Rosulek, Joel Schroeder, Linda Sormin, Mark Nathan Stafford, Michael Strand, George Timock, Triesch Voelker

Jurors: Cristina Cordova, Namita Gupta Wiggers, Richard Notkin

Internationally acclaimed for her hauntingly, provocative figurative sculptures, juror Cristina Cordova has a well-established record of museum exhibitions including: Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, MA; Museum of Contemporary Art, Puerto Rico; Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico; Mint Museum of Craft + Design, Charlotte, NC; Mobile Museum of Art, Mobile, AL; Gretchen Keyworth, Society of Arts & Crafts, Boston, MA and the Joseph -Schein Museum, NY. A highly respected workshop teacher, Cristina has led numerous workshops in figurative art in universities and art centers such as: Armory Arts Center, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Anderson Ranch Arts Center and Penland School of Crafts where she serves as a trustee. A graduate of Colegio de Agricultura y Artes Mecánicas, Mayagüyez, Puerto Rico and New York State College of Ceramics, Alfred University; Cristina’s work challenges gender and racial boundaries while engendering discourse on intellectual conventions and social mores. Cristina recently exhibited her art in Bestiario at the Morean Arts Center, St. Petersburg, FL during the 2011 NCECA conference and in Push Play: The 2012 NCECA Invitational at Bellevue Arts Museum.

Namita Gupta Wiggers is curator at the Museum of Contemporary Craft in partnership with Pacific Northwest College of Art, Portland, OR, where she directs the exhibition, collection and public programming. Her curatorial work combines her experience and training as an art historian, a museum educator, ethnographer and design researcher, teacher, writer, and studio art jeweler. Through exhibitions and programming, Wiggers considers how craft and design function as subjects and verbs, and as simultaneously distinct and intersecting practices, and how the exhibition operates as a site and space for cultural inquiry.
Recent publications include Generations: Betty Feves (forthcoming), Ken Shores: Clay Has the Last Word (2010), and Unpacking the Collection: Selections from the Museum of Contemporary Craft (2008), the first publication to document the Museum’s collection and the institution’s connections to dramatic changes in craft-based and artistic practice over the past 70 years. Wiggers edited Garth Clark’s How Envy Killed the Crafts Movement: An Autopsy in Two Parts (2009) and contributes essays for museum catalogues, including Hand + Made: The Performative Impulse in Art and Craft (2010, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston) and Innovation & Change: Ceramics from the Arizona State University Art Museum (2009, Ceramic Research Center, ASU). Her writing on contemporary jewelry includes Mining History: Ornamentalism Revisited (Metalsmith, 2009), co-authored with Lena Vigna and Curatorial Conundrums: Exhibiting Contemporary Art Jewelry in a Museum Environment (Art Jewelry Forum Website, 2010). She is the co-founder of Critical Craft Forum, and serves on the Board of Trustees, American Craft Council and the curatorial board of accessceramics, an online clay-focused database.

Richard Notkin lives and works in Helena, Montana, creating works deeply influenced by the centuries-old tradition of Yixing pottery from which he has adopted the precise working methods and a penchant for trompe l’oeil. With his artwork serving as an extension of his conscience, Richard’s ceramic sculptures and tile murals are visual explorations into social and political commentary questioning military misadventures and foreign policy around the world with particular focus on nuclear weaponry and energy. Richard Notkin received his BFA from Kansas City Art Institute and MFA from University of California, Davis. His awards include: Artist Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts, 1979, 1981, 1988; Fellowship in Sculpture, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation and the Hoi Fellowship from the United States Artists Foundation. In 2008, he was elected to The American Craft Council College of Fellows. His work is in over 60 public collections including: Metropolitan Museum of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Cooper-Hewitt Museum, Carnegie Museum of Art, Charles A. Wustum Museum of Art, Mint Museum of Craft and Design, Montreal Museum of Decorative Arts, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Shigaraki Museum of Ceramic Art and Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

NCECA Exhibitions are funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Federal Agency.

CONTACT
Tel. 713.529.4848

Houston Center for Contemporary Craft
4848 Main Street
Houston, TX 77002
United States
www.crafthouston.org

Above: Chad Gunderson, Memories of Huangshan and Asphalt, 2012, Solid cast ceramic, glaze, acrylic, 8 x 10 x 16 in.

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Emmanuel Boos and Esben Klemann: Systematic Uncertainty / Copenhagen Ceramics

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 03:20:00 +0200

Emmanuel Boos and Esben Klemann: Systematic Uncertainty / Copenhagen Ceramics, Denmark
February 28 - March 28, 2013

In ceramics the unknown is a fate for the practitioner. Emmanuel Boos and Esben both welcome unpredictability. Moreover they are provoking it. They share a playful and experimental approach to the ceramic material and their works are bred from a great curiosity towards the processes of the material.

Emmanuel Boos, now living in London, was born and grew up in France. He trained with Jean Girel, one of the big names in French ceramics, known for his works with beautiful textural glazes. Emmanuel Boos equally places the glazes at the centre of his artistic practice, but goes further. He questions the classic hierarchy, where the materials as such are regarded as undifferentiated, depending on being given form, morphe, which traditionally is considered the essential part.

For Boos form is often a pretext, a playground for glazes to develop on. His interest lies with the poetic character and sensuality of the glaze, both in a direct sense as the fusion of basic materials and in the symbolic potential of this. His works are not conceptually based; rather they express a search for beauty, that strives for a form of aesthetic contemplation appealing firstly to our senses and our emotions.

For his first show in Denmark, Emmanuel Boos will be showing both plinth and wall pieces. His intent is to draw the viewer into the glaze, inviting us to meander in its depth through poetic reverie. His forms oscillate between mysterious enclosed objects – minerals with an underlying organic presence – and thin sheets of porcelain like canvases gently folding and developing into space.

The expressive heartland in Esben Klemann’s work is clearly defined by his interest in architecture, construction and material, and a constant urge to further develop the making-processes, that are essential for the expression of the final works.

On ceramics, he states: “People envisage a lot of different things when you use the word ceramics. Images of ordinary domestic items, giant-sized-vessels, reliefs by Asger Jorn, etc. Through changes in work-methods, tools and placements, I strive to add new images to the picture, believing that ceramics has the potential to offer something more and different. I purposely draw my experiences from other sculptural areas into the ceramic process, to push it all into new directions.

You may label my work non-thematic or abstract, or see it as a formal language which communicates by establishing artistically elaborated spaces and objects, that in contrast to the ordinary, inject vitality into things.”

Klemann builds up the spatial form-curve by testing, seeing and testing again. In his experiments with the difficult material, clay, he challenges gravity in the ceramics works, trying to do things that seemingly are not possible to do. Since this is always intriguing – ceramics or not.

Emmanuel Boos has exhibited widely, f.inst. with solo shows at Jousse Entreprise in Paris: Come Back, Baby, Come Back! (2011), Crac! Boum! Hue! (2005); Design Miami-Basel (2012), PAD London, FIAC Paris (2007–2010). Other shows include: Jerwood Makers Open, London, Belfast, Edinburgh (2011–2012), La Scène Française, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris (2010).

Esben Klemann’s works are in collections of e.g. The Danish Arts Foundation, Djurhuus Collection. Recent exhibitions include: Ann Linnemann Studio Gallery, Copenhagen (2011), Puls Contemporary Ceramics, Bruxelles (2009); Bornholm Art Museum, DK, 2009 (solo show); Henningsen Contemporary, Copenhagen (2007) and ”Match Race” at Art Museum of North Jutland, Ålborg, DK (2007).

Gallery Hours: Wednesday - Friday 1–5 pm, Saturday 12 am – 4 pm.

CONTACT
Martin Bodilsen Kaldahl
martin@copenhagenceramics.com
Tel: +45 2728 5452

Copenhagen Ceramics
Smallegade 46, 2. sal tv
2000 Frederiksberg
Copenhagen
Denmark
www.copenhagenceramics.com

Above: Emmanuel Boos, Folded slab with base, 2012, Paper porcelain with glaze NSD 07/04/2, 36 x 39 x 12 cm. Photo by Jeppe Gudmundsen-Holmgreen.

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L’usage des jours. 365 ceramic objects by Guillaume Bardet / Musée de design et d'arts appliqués contemporains, Lausanne

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 03:07:41 +0200

L’usage des jours. 365 ceramic objects by Guillaume Bardet / Musée de design et d’arts appliqués contemporains, Lausanne
March 27 - May 26, 2013

Opening reception: Tuesday, March 26, 6 PM.

During the period from September 21, 2009, until September 20, 2010, the French designer Guillaume Bardet drew one object a day. As an extension of this «artistic and human performance», from fall 2010 he saw to the creation of each object. He did so in collaboration with fourteen ceramists from the Dieulefit region (Rhône-Alpes, southeast France), where he had settled in 2009 in order to flee the Parisian hullabaloo.

It took a good measure of determination, passion, enthusiasm and energy for Guillaume Bardet to become the hub of an alliance built up of individuals, companies, institutions and collectivities, all of whom agreed to join this human and creative adventure with him for an over two-year period. It also demanded a great deal of nerve and talent for the designer to bare himself, revealing not only his basic concerns and strokes of imagination, but also his weak spots, his doubts and his trial-and-error approach. And all this in order to uncompromisingly give their full due to his formal and aesthetic solutions.

Guillaume Bardet entrusted the scenography for this itinerant exhibition to his friend, the designer Vincent Dupont-Rougier, insisting nonetheless on a preconception whereby time passes very slowly (a one-year period) and very rapidly (that of a single day). And this by resorting to elements in the service of simplicity, structuring and narration, so as to bring to mind both linearity and profusion, families and uses, moods and fancies.

The exhibition also brings to light various phases of inspiration, the artist’s manner of working and his search for solutions. Interspersed among each of the seasons, information is provided alongside Guillaume Bardet’s sketches, his 3D drawings, and photographs, together with a written record of the remarkably fruitful dialogue Bardet inspired between himself and the many ceramists involved. In the words of one of the latter, Guillaume Bardet found out how to «tell a story» and «seek out the lines» in each of the forms he had designed and observed taking shape in the artisans’ hands.

This outstanding personal challenge entailed a nigh-to-monacal and introspective approach in 2009; it was followed by a more collegial phase in 2010, climaxing in the production of 365 brand new ceramic works. These have since been presented as the theme of a monographic exhibition of a new kind, shown at several museums and exhibition venues partnering this initiative. The mudac represents the last lap on the exhibition’s itinerary, which included Sèvres («City of Ceramics») in France (near Paris), Le Grand Hornu Images in Belgium, the Château des Adhémar (Contemporary Art Center) in Montélimar (France), and the Maison de la Céramique du Pays de Dieulefit in 2012.

The publishing house Bernard Chauveau has published a catalogue that, beyond accompanying this exhibition, will serve as a tangible record thereof far beyond this presentation. The publication boasts 400 color illustrations, and is bilingual (French and English). Readers are treated to 365 ceramic pieces, as photographed by Pierre-Olivier Deschamps, and to complementary essays contributed by Lorette Nobécourt, Catherine Geel and Claude Eveno (ISBN 9782363060136, 55 €).

Thanks to this ambitious project, Guillaume Bardet and his ceramist colleagues were named the winners (Prix Dialogues) of the year 2011 Bettencourt Prize for the Intelligence of the Hand.

Guillaume Bardet
Born in 1971, Guillaume Bardet attended ENSAD in Paris, obtaining his degree in 1999. An encounter with Jean-Marie Massaud (French architect, inventor and designer) led the two to work together until June 2001. Having decided to strike out on his own, Guillaume Bardet drew up and submitted his personal projects, collaborating with various design companies/editors (Ligne Roset, Cinna, Triode, Marianne Guedin Edition, Aquamass, De Vecchi, Livi’t, etc.).

Accepted as a resident at the Académie de France in Rome in 2002, he spent one year working at the Villa Medicis, where he drew up a 9-part project in marble—Mobilier immobile, presented at the Yves Gastou Gallery in October 2003. From 2005 to 2009, he was appointed project director at the ENSCI (Higher School for Industrial Ceramics), in Paris. In 2008, Perimeter Gallery Paris displayed his latest creations in Paris, and at respectively Art Basel and Art Miami. The following year, Art Basel featured his piece Babel, a two-meter-high porcelain tower for a suspended vegetable garden.

In parallel to his exhibition activity, Guillaume Bardet has actively pursued his interest in interior decoration, working as much on commissions by Renault as on those by private clients. Further still, he has taken up urban design, in collaboration with the architectural firm Passagers des Villes, Lyon—notably, in the French cities of Besançon in 2007 and Chambéry in 2009. He lives and works in Dieulefit (Rhône-Alpes, France).

CONTACT
Danaé Panchaud, Public Relations
danae.panchaud@lausanne.ch
info@mudac.ch
Tel. +41 315 25 30

mudac – musée de design et d’arts appliqués contemporains
Place de la Cathédrale 6
CH-1005 Lausanne
Switzerland
www.mudac.ch

Above: Guillaume Bardet, October 16, 2009, Géométrie élémentaire, composition in collaboration with Séverine Dufust, Ceramic, 57.7 x 35.5 cm. Photo by Pierre Olivier Deschamps, edited by Bernard Chauveau.

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Matthew Harris & Tim Rowan / Erskine, Hall & Coe, London

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 03:01:00 +0200

Matthew Harris & Tim Rowan exhibition / Erskine, Hall & Coe, London
February 20 - March 20, 2013

An exhibition of works on paper by Matthew Harris and ceramics by Tim Rowan.

Matthew Harris’ work on paper has been shown in many group and solo exhibitions throughout the U.K, Europe, Japan and the U.S. As drawings they are made to be seen in their own right but also to act as starting points or ‘cartoons’ for larger works that are made using dyed and painted cloth.
Working primarily from things seen, the drawings recall, interpret and explore imagery, improvising around a given theme. Matthew Harris lives and works in Stroud, Gloucestershire.

Tim Rowan was born in New York City and grew up in Connecticut along the shore of Long Island Sound. His art education began during college, receiving a BFA from The State University of New York at New Paltz before journeying to Japan for 2 years to apprentice with ceramic artist Ryuichi Kakurezaki. Upon his return he worked briefly in studios in Massachusetts and New York before receiving his MFA from The Pennsylvania State University. In 2000 he established his kiln and studio deep in the woods of the Hudson Valley.

“The works in this exhibition have all been completed over the past two years. They are made, primarily, from native clay. This is direct from the earth and unprocessed as opposed to industrially manufactured clay bodies. The forms are slowly constructed from layers, built up over days and weeks then carved. They are fired for seven days and nights in a wood fuelled kiln. No glaze is applied; the surface textures and colours are the result of the interaction of the clay, fly-ash, coals and fire.

I am constantly building on previous work – just as individual pieces evolve in the process of making, the body of work as a whole does as well. Most of my work develops from the process of making, firing, and arranging. While I may have images in my head of some specific things I have seen, for instance the remnants of an old quarry derrick abandoned in the woods near my home, once I start making, new forms emerge. There is a search and discovery.

I am particularly drawn to objects in various states of decay – either through use over time such as tools or the effects of the “elements”. Everything is in a constant state of flux. These are merely markers of a particular time and place.

It is only when I am fully engaged in the making – that the forms present themselves. There is an intuitive process of discovery – of wondering, of noticing, of physically or intellectually feeling the forms. I work on many pieces at once to enable me to become lost in the process - freely moving from one form to another. There is a complete acceptance in the process. Faith. That is the guide. We work together, informing and reacting to each other.

There are four distinct series in this body of work. The sculptures are the most ambiguous and poetic for me. Drawn from a multitude of sources, industrial detritus, tools and abstracting the fragments of a vessel. The vessels are rooted in more of a pottery vernacular. They are there to nourish. We are comforted. We have a sense of place. The cups are individual intimate moments. Each one is a separate story. Held. Caressed. Nourishment. Life-affirming. The boxes may be urns. Shelters. Forced to touch in order to experience the inside. Containment. Security. Protect me. What is revealed?

The blurry space between past and present, nature and technology, life and death. That is the interest for me.” Tim Rowan

“I start by making a black ink drawing as quickly and spontaneously as possible, bringing together and condensing a number of visual references and ideas. This drawing is designed purely as a beginning, providing the bare bones of the images to come.

As a musician might improvise around a given theme, my hastily drawn ink image becomes a starting point or template for a series of images, each an improvisation or variation on the original. I have very little idea of how each series of images might evolve beyond wishing to explore something I have seen and recorded at some point, perhaps a group of shapes or a quality of colour or mark. The making process is then very much about grappling with an image, of digging to find and recall something and of responding to that which is thrown up.

Working with pre-marked and prepared paper, using fragments sometimes carefully chosen but more often randomly picked, I work from the original ink template. By tracing and retracing areas of a drawing, working upside down and back to front, playing with the relationship of one shape to another, folding and manipulating, my aim is to bring about something new and unexpected. Infinite variety from the same source. The image is pieced together with individual fragments held in place with pins before being wrapped with a waxed thread. An image temporarily bound and held, always with the potential for change.” Matthew Harris

CONTACT
mail@erskinehallcoe.com
Tel. +44 (0) 20 7491 1706

Erskine, Hall & Coe Gallery
15 Royal Arcade
28 Old Bond Street
London W1S 4SP
United Kingdom
www.erskinehallcoe.com

Above: Tim Rowan (from left to right), 2012, TR-0017, Sculpture, 22.9 x 40.6 x 12.7 cm. / TR-0038, Teabowl, 10.2 x 12.7 x 12.7 cm. / TR-0032, Cup, 7.6 x 7.6 x 7.6 cm. / TR-0004, Box, 20.3 x 12.7 x 12.7 cm.

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Object Focus: The Bowl / Museum of Contemporary Craft, Portland

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 02:57:00 +0200

Object Focus: The Bowl / Museum of Contemporary Craft, Portland
March 7 - September 21, 2013

Curated by Namita Gupta Wiggers

The Museum of Contemporary Craft in partnership with Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA) opens the second exhibition in its Object Focus series, Object Focus: The Bowl, on March 7, 2013. This two-part exhibition, featuring nearly 200 bowls, focuses attention on the most commonplace of objects, asking us to consider the ubiquitous bowl in new ways. As artist and PNCA professor M.K. Guth has pointed out, the history of the bowl is the history of civilization. Yet because it holds our cereal, our soup, our tea, our spare change, it becomes so familiar as to be overlooked. Through a variety of engaging activities, Object Focus: The Bowl invites the viewer to connect the work on display in the Museum with the bowl in his or her everyday life. The bowls on view range from the functional to the decorative, industrially produced to handmade, and span the globe geographically and culturally.

Pablo Neruda’s Ode to Common Things, Andrea Zittel’s A-Z Container, and conversations with artists, craftspeople, and designers about how they consider this archetypal form in their own work, inspired the thinking around this exhibition. Deyan Sudjic, Director, Design Museum London, has written in The Language of Things that everyday objects like the table, chair, and lamp have been pulled into the realm of Design to become the Noguchi Table, Eames Chair, and Ingo Maurer Lamp. The bowl, perhaps too commonplace and familiar, has stubbornly refused to be co-opted in this way.

To invite a deeper consideration of the bowl, Object Focus: The Bowl will feature a number of participatory projects in the Museum and in the community, many of which engage the public in collaboration.

In Part One: Reflect + Respond, March 7-August 3, 2013, Director and Chief Curator Namita Gupta Wiggers has kick-started this process by inviting anthropologists, artists, poets, novelists, curators, and more to write 500 words on a bowl of their choosing from the exhibition. This is only the beginning. Throughout the exhibition, the Museum invites viewers to write their own 500-word pieces on the bowl in an effort to gather 50,000 words by August, 2013. 50,000 words is the average length of a novel, according to the popular National Novel Writing Month project. All contributions will be made available online at www.objectfocusbowl.tumblr.com

There will also be a drawing station in the Museum. Students from PNCA’s BFA in Illustration program will be contributing works on the bowl, and visitors are invited to contribute drawings to the exhibition as well.

The second part of the exhibition, Part Two: Engage + Use, May 16-September 21, 2013, explores the social role of the bowl through artist projects, performances, a symposium, through contributions by the region’s chefs and a project in partnership with Portland restaurants.

Ayumi Horie will create a bowl lending library that will allow visitors to handle handcrafted bowls in the museum and borrow objects to be used at home. For his project, Bowls Around Town, Michael Strand has created traveling trunks that contain a ceramic bowl, digital camera, and recipe book to circulate among some of Portland’s communities that come together around mealtimes. Area chefs, cookbook authors, bakers, and candymakers will make bowl selections and offer recipes at the Chefs’ Table. In addition, there will be a reprisal of Transference by Andy Paiko and Ethan Rose, as well as a series of performances by Craft Mystery Cult. Finally, there will be a symposium on Craft and Social Practice featuring some of the artists featured in Object Focus: The Bowl, planned in conjunction with Portland State University’s Open Engagement Conference.

Museum of Contemporary Craft is partnering with organizations and businesses throughout Portland for programming around Object Focus: The Bowl. Strand’s project is in collaboration with Portland Fire and Rescue, Kitchen Commons, and Project Grow. Recalling the Museum’s Souper Supper community craft dinners, the Museum is partnering with local restaurants including Irving Street Kitchen, Hotlips Pizza, and Park Kitchen, to feature seasonal menu items served handcrafted bowls.

Part One: Reflect + Respond, March 7-August 3, 2013
The first part of the exhibition pairs bowls from the Museum’s collection and local collectors with short narratives written by chefs, anthropologists, poets, critics, makers, and curators.

Part Two: Engage + Use, May 16-September 21, 2013
The second part of the exhibition explores the social role of bowls through the contemporary project-based work of Michael Strand, Ayumi Horie, and the Craft Mystery Cult.

Exhibition sponsors: The Robert Lehman Foundation, RACC and Work for Art, Nani Warren, Mary & Brot Bishop.

Museum of Contemporary Craft
Committed to the advancement of craft since 1937, Museum of Contemporary Craft in partnership with Pacific Northwest College of Art is one of Oregon’s oldest cultural institutions. Centrally located in Portland’s Pearl District, the Museum is nationally acclaimed for its curatorial program and is a vibrant center for investigation and dialogue, expanding the definition of craft and the way audiences experience it.

Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA)
As Oregon’s flagship college of art and design since 1909, Pacific Northwest College of Art has helped shape Oregon’s visual arts landscape for more than a century. PNCA students study with award-winning faculty in small classes. In the last seven years, PNCA has doubled both the student body and full-time faculty, quadrupled its endowment, and added innovative undergraduate and graduate programs. PNCA is now embarking on its boldest venture yet by establishing the Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Center for Art and Design as an anchor for the College’s vision of a new campus home on Portland’s North Park Blocks. Focusing on the transformative power of creativity, the capital campaign, Creativity Works Here, was launched in June 2012 with a lead gift from The Harold & Arlene Schnitzer CARE Foundation of $5 million. PNCA’s new home will be a bustling hub for creativity and entrepreneurship, reflecting the influential role of art and design in our 21st century economy - both in Portland and beyond.

Hours: Tuesday – Saturday, 11 am – 6 pm. First Thursdays, 11 am – 8 pm.

CONTACT
Lisa Radon, Communications Specialist
Pacific Northwest College of Art
lradon@pnca.edu
Tel. 971 255 5528
General Info Tel. 503 223 2654

Museum of Contemporary Craft
in partnership with Pacific Northwest College of Art
724 Northwest Davis Street
Portland, OR 97209
United States
www.museumofcontemporarycraft.org

Above: Lucie Rie, Untitled small brown bowl, c. 1950, Ceramic, 2 x 4 inches diameter. Promised gift from Carol and Seymour Haber to the Museum of Contemporary Craft. Photo by Dan Kvitka.

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Ancient Southwest: Peoples, Pottery and Place / University of Colorado Museum of Natural History

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 02:43:52 +0200

Ancient Southwest: Peoples, Pottery and Place / University of Colorado Museum of Natural History
February 21, 2013 - February 14, 2014

Curated by Steve Lekson, this exhibition features more than 100 rarely exhibited ceramics from the museum’s celebrated southwestern collection and takes visitors through more than 1000 years (AD 500-1600) of southwestern history. Photographs of ancient southwestern ruins by noted aerial photographer Adriel Heisey provide a visual and dramatic frame of reference for the exhibition.

Lekson explains, “The striking pottery on display illustrates the remarkable range of Native societies, and their dramatic stories. The exhibit offers a new history of the ancient Southwest based on recent research and new insights.”

With captivating and informative narrative provided by Lekson, the exhibition reduces one thousand years of what Lekson calls, “glorious, messy, and complicated human history,” into a short, coherent, and enjoyable experience that challenges the conventional views of the ancient Southwest.

The exhibition is divided into seven areas representing the primary cultural groups that defined the ancient Southwest: Hohokam, Early Pueblo, Chaco, Mesa Verde, Mimbres, Casas Grandes, and Pueblo. Senior Exhibit Developer Charles Counter explains, “With an entire gallery devoted to a vast display of pottery and images of the limitless Southwest landscape, that has always been a part of the human experience in the Southwest, the exhibition will take visitors through the rises and falls, kings and commoners, war and peace, triumphs and failures of the ancient Southwest.”

CONTACT
Andrea Kaufman Robbins, Public Programs Specialist
andrea.robbins@colorado.edu
Tel. 303.492.3396

University of Colorado Museum of Natural History
Henderson Building 218, UCB
Boulder, Colorado 80309
United States
www.cumuseum.colorado.edu

Above: Tonto Polychrome Jar from a ruin near Solomonsville, AZ. Excavated by a Colorado University expedition in 1931. A gift from to the UCMNH from D. Erdmann in 1985.

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Three Decades of West Coast Ceramics, 1956–1986 / Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 02:37:00 +0200

Three Decades of West Coast Ceramics, 1956–1986 / Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
February 23 – June 30, 2013

The years between 1956 and 1986 witnessed a fundamental shift in American ceramics, one that took place mainly on the West Coast in California and Washington. Freed from the constraints of making functional objects, ceramics artists began experimenting with abstract and figural forms, radical building techniques and surface treatments. The resulting sculptural pieces were groundbreaking, and the search for a new aesthetic changed international ceramic art.

Key figures in this revolution were Peter Voulkos and Robert Arneson. Voulkos founded the ceramics program at the Los Angeles County Art Institute (now Otis Art Institute) in 1954 and established California as the center for avant-garde ceramic art in the mid-20th century. Arneson, an admirer of Voulkos and a teacher at the University of California, Davis, was associated with the Funk art movement which is characterized by deliberately unpolished style, over-scaled imagery and rejection of formal sculpture. While coming from different perspectives, both artists established similar atmospheres of innovation at the programs they led in California. Their respective ethos spurred ceramics artists across the state and beyond to embrace this new philosophy, leading to a 30-year period of intense creativity that produced remarkable works of sculpture.

Three Decades of West Coast Ceramics, 1956–1986 showcases works from the rich MFAH collection of American ceramics made during this important period. Specifically, the exhibition focuses on teachers and students from seminal ceramics programs at four universities:

The Los Angeles County Art Institute (now Otis Art Institute), Los Angeles
At the Los Angeles County Art Institute, Peter Voulkos created an open, experimental atmosphere that encouraged radical form and innovative glazing. Voulkos’s first students and colleagues included John Mason, Ken Price, Michael Frimkess and Paul Soldner, whose work can be seen in the exhibition.

University of California, Davis
In 1962 Robert Arneson, an admirer of Peter Voulkos, began teaching ceramics at the University of California, Davis. During his 30-year reign there, Arneson, his colleagues and his students, including Clayton Bailey, David Gilhooly, Richard Notkin, Lucian Pompili and Richard Shaw, created one of the most internationally recognized, revolutionary ceramics programs in the United States. Its legacy stems from its focus on figurative ceramics and the atmosphere of innovation and experimentation that Arneson fostered.

Chouinard Art Institute, Los Angeles
The Chouinard Art Institute was known for its progressive environment, and in the ceramics department this included having students of all levels share one large studio. The program also emphasized the vessel, and under Ralph Bacerra glazing became a specialty of many of the students. Artists such as Elsa Rady, Adrian Saxe and Mineo Mizuno are some of the Chouinard alumni featured in the exhibition.

The University of Washington, Seattle
The ceramics program at the University of Washington, Seattle, gained momentum as a leader in progressive clay art under the directorship of Robert Sperry, who began his teaching career there in 1954. The arrival in 1964 of Howard Kottler further stimulated the program’s new emphasis on sculptural and expressive concerns. Kottler’s connections to the Funk movement and his mentoring of artists such as Nancy Carman and Michael Lucero, seen in the exhibition, encouraged a turn toward using realism and Pop Art imagery in ceramics as well as experimentation with slip-cast and glazed and painted forms.

This exhibition is organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. The curator is Cindi Strauss, MFAH curator of Modern & Contemporary Decorative Arts and Design.
Generous funding is provided by Sara and Bill Morgan.

Entrance to this exhibition is included with your museum admission. MFAH Members receive free general admission.

CONTACT
Tara Clayton, Marketing and Communications Coordinator
tclayton@mfah.org
MFAH Communications, Tel. 713.639.7554

Alice Pratt Brown Gallery
Caroline Wiess Law Building
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
1001 Bissonnet
Houston, TX 77005
United States
www.mfah.org

Above: Ralph Bacerra, Platter, 1984, Earthenware. The MFAH, Garth Clark and Mark Del Vecchio Collection, gift of Garth Clark and Mark Del Vecchio. © Estate of Ralph Bacerra.

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