Shifting Paradigms in Contemporary Ceramics: The Garth Clark and Mark Del Vecchio Collection / Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

Shifting Paradigms in Contemporary Ceramics: The Garth Clark and Mark Del Vecchio Collection / Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
March 4 - June 3, 2012

New York-based scholars and gallerists Garth Clark and Mark Del Vecchio have been leaders in the ceramics field for three decades, assembling one of the most important private collections of contemporary ceramics in the world. In 2007, the MFAH acquired the Garth Clark and Mark Del Vecchio Collection of some 475 artworks, as well as the accompanying library and artist archive.

Shifting Paradigms presents nearly 160 objects—ceramics and works on paper—from this richly diverse collection, which includes major international figures such as Kenjiro Kawai, Jean-Pierre Laroque, Adrian Saxe, Peter Voulkos, and Beatrice Wood, many of whom are represented in depth, as well as examples by Anthony Caro, Lucio Fontana, Claes Oldenburg, and Grayson Perry.

The exhibition is accompanied by an illustrated catalogue, copublished by the MFAH and Yale University Press.

Generous funding is provided by:
Sara and Bill Morgan
Friends of Contemporary Ceramics
Michael W. Dale
The Schissler Foundation
The Susan Vaughan Foundation
Supporters of Garth Clark and Mark Del Vecchio

The Shartle Symposium is also presented in conjunction with the exhibition Shifting Paradigms in Contemporary Ceramics: The Garth Clark and Mark Del Vecchio Collection.

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Kathy Pallie

Kathy Pallie’s profile on Ceramics Now Magazine - View her works

“As a commercial artist designing products for retail store windows and interior displays, trade show booths and special events, I worked with many different materials to create three-dimensional objects. When I retired and started working with clay, I realized that clay was an exciting and wonderfully tactile material which I had to explore in depth. 
 
I’m intrigued with the concept that the artist’s hand can manipulate clay into a work of art which expresses an emotion, tells a story, can be functional or is purely visually appealing. At times, the clay seems to have a life of its own as it leads me, morphing from one form and concept to another. On other occasions, I can envision the completed piece before even touching the clay. 

Inspired by Nature, my work reflects the unlimited variety of textures, patterns, and energy I find in my natural surroundings. Texture and the tactile sense have always been an important part of my work. I hand build with clay slabs, coils, and extruded shapes and use various clay bodies, firing processes, glazes and cold finishes for making different forms and surface textures.

I enjoy creating artworks which not only express my love of Nature, but which also allow me to bring the essence of the outdoors into interior spaces.” Kathy Pallie

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