Anat Shiftan is on view at Hostler Burrows, Los Angeles
July 11 – August 25
Hostler Burrows is pleased to present a new exhibition by Anat Shiftan at the gallery.
Anat Shiftan’s work in clay explores the subject of ambivalence in floral and zoological imagery and the representation of nature in art. Born in Israel in 1955, Shiftan studied English Literature and Philosophy at the Hebrew University and Ceramics at Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Eastern Michigan University and Cranbrook Academy of Art and Design. She previously worked at Pewabic Pottery in Detroit, Michigan, as Instructor, Production Manager, Senior Designer, and Director of Education. Shiftan taught at Bezalel Academy of Art and Design and since 2003 she has been teaching at SUNY New Paltz, where she is head of the Ceramics Program.
Shiftan has exhibited her work extensively and has twice received the Michigan Grant for Individual Artists. She collaboratively organized Contemporary Issues in Clay: A British Perspective in 2006 and Why Clay in 2008, and organized Beyond Hand Made in 2008 — all symposiums that examined theoretical, social, and economic trends that are the context in which creative practice in visual arts occurs today.
Artist statement
The format for the Flora series is that of a centerpiece. It echoes a long tradition of arranging a still life (bowl with fruit or floral arrangement) as a center presence on a table. That arrangement is seemingly neutral but is actually symbolic. Virginia Woolf uses the bowl of fruit as a metaphor for harmony in To the Lighthouse, and in the history of painting there is a long tradition of the seemingly objective/natural still life to suggest a critical view of the human condition.
When I make my floral piles, I explore the ambivalent condition of our relation with nature. As I attempt to look at nature I realize it is not there for me to view. Nature as an authentic, unpredictable, and uninterrupted phenomenon is not present in our world. Our “nature” is stylized and cultured. Further, nature as a cultural concept is placed in contrast to the mechanized world yet nature is in fact mechanical and predictable. Finally, nature is not neutral or objective but rather powerful and “opinionated.” Nature embodies the texture of sexuality, life and death, of power and subversion, and is very similar to complex political and social phenomena.
For these reasons the form of my flowers is an invented one rather than made through observation. In Flora, the floral objects are flower-like but are not attempting to represent any specific species. The stem has a geometric hexagon core that alludes to the mechanical way of making these flowers as well as the geometry and predictability of nature as witnessed. In the end, Flora celebrates my fascination with nature. I capture nature as something that is ambivalent and get as close as possible to presenting nature the way it is in our world today.
Contact
la@hostlerburrows.com
Hostler Burrows
6819 Melrose Avenue
Los Angeles CA 90038
United States
Photos by Jesse Stone
