Brian Molanphy: Selected works, 2020-2023
lǎo měi chá 老美茶, 2023
Panta rhei, everything flows. Taiwanese tea has flooded my life. In return, I present lǎo měi chá 老美茶 , an American take on teaware flowing from Dallas to Taipei. I work in threes, to disassemble binaries. To exceed two is to achieve abundance & to point toward infinity. The runny surfaces & forms of the teaware reflect the tea flowing within them. The watery blue & white porcelain melts both in the fabrication of clay & in the firing of the ceramic. Symbolizing resilience, resistance, & resourcefulness of intellect in response to the world’s brute forces, the “three friends of winter” (歲寒三友 Suì hán sānyǒu) inspire me to make the abstract drawings in the blue & white porcelain. The planished or dappled black stoneware traces a fluid path like a petrified riverbed. The polychrome glaze flows over the stiff stoneware core, the most resistant of the three clays. The fluid relationship, such as that between tea & tea ware, is likewise manifest in the figures & colors in the drawings on paper. Socrates said that each one comes from the other: “Figure is the only thing which always follows color… color is an effluence of form, commensurate with sight, and palpable to sense.”
Exhibition at 純Object (Simple Object), June-July 2023 (No.27., Aly. 21, Ln. 63, Sec. 2, Dunhua S. Rd. Da’an District, Taipei, Taiwan)
lǎo měi chá 老美茶 ; 2023; porcelain with glaze, black stoneware, stoneware with glaze, pencil & pastel on paper; teaware approx. 9cm x 9cm x 9cm; drawings 22cm x 29cm; photos by 純Object
Silent Partner, 2020-2021
Silent Partner is one of the 2020-2021 Nasher Public exhibitions at the Nasher Sculpture Center. The title is taken from Caterina Roma, who wrote about El arte del vacío at la Galería Artur Ramon in Barcelona: “En estas obras, los artistas presentan su particular definición del concepto de vacío, de la relación del material, la arcilla, con el espacio que contiene o que la rodea. Y es que, de hecho, ese vacío es un compañero silencioso de la cerámica a lo largo de su historia, que es también la historia de la humanidad.” Translated to English, Roma wrote: “In these works, the artists present their particular definition of the concept of the void, of the relation to the material, clay, with the space that it contains or that surrounds it. & it’s that, in fact, this void is a silent partner of ceramics throughout its history & human history.” Silent Partner draws on a dozen series from the past eight years. The void is integral to the artworks. Instead of filling a space, Silent Partner commits, at least as it is understood in the world of art since Modernism, the violation that is like a four-letter word: to decorate.
YouTube links: Nasher Public: Brian Molanphy on ‘Silent Partner’ / Nasher Public: Brian Molanphy on Different Series Within His Work / Nasher Public: Brian Molanphy on Ceramics and Inspiration
Silent Partner, 2021, four clay drawings on windows & two hundred ceramics on wall & floor in a broad range of: clays & glazes; drawing, painting, & modeling; temperatures; & firing methods; installation in 1152 sq ft / 107 sq m gallery; photos by Kevin Todora for Nasher Sculpture Center
beaker, bottle, box 燒杯 瓶子 盒子, 2021
beaker, bottle, box 燒杯 瓶子 盒子 offers a tripartite disruption of the binary understanding of the inside & outside of containers—containers into which we pour information, containers we use to pour out information, & containers that do both. The historical figures of garniture, albarelli, & lekythos inform the series. Artists important for this series are Pierre Alechinsky, Kim Hono, Elizabeth Murray, & Bror Utter.
beaker, bottle, box 燒杯 瓶子 盒子 ; 2021; stoneware & porcelain with slip & sgraffito, electric, gas, & wood fired; 33cm h x 12cm w x 12cm d 13”h x 5”w x 5”d per pot, 210cm h x 304cm w x 25cm d 84”h x 120”w x 10”d whole artwork ; photos by Chin Chin Gallery
Coven-21 不期而癒, 2021
In Coven-21 不期而癒 2021, the drawings move out of beaker, bottle, box from pot to wall. In both cases, the container or containment is paramount: the drawing contained within the arch, the arch contained within the pot or wall, & the audience surrounding the artwork in the case of the pot, compared to the artwork containing the audience in the case of the walls. The title is a response to Covid-19. The pandemic has led people to convene in the smallest groups. Or, in very few cases like Taiwan, a nation has made a coven, a safe haven for its people, by restricting international travel.
Coven-21 不期而癒2021 , 2021, porcelain clay, terra cotta, sugar plate, wood, glass, concrete, audio recording; installation in 1500 square foot / 140 square meter gallery
