What types of art do you specialize in?

We specialize in contemporary ceramics from the 1950s onward, including clay and porcelain sculptures.

Do you offer collection services?

Yes, we work with private collectors and artist archives to organize, document, and appraise ceramic art collections for deacquisition or placement.

Can you help with exhibition development?

Absolutely, we collaborate with museums and cultural institutions to develop and present ceramic art exhibitions.

Do you provide touring programs?

Yes, we curate and organize touring exhibitions for contemporary ceramic artists.

What are legacy projects?

Legacy projects include customized services for artists, such as retrospective catalogs, exhibitions, and museum acquisitions.

News

Press releases, coverage and blog

Aug

2013

SCENE + SEEN: Sunday Visiting Friends and Old Growth Forest

Porcelain Art in the home of Artists Mara and Roy Superior

Home of Mara and Roy Superior, cabinet – Roy, Porcelain – Mara

Home of Mara and Roy Superior, cabinet

Home of Mara and Roy Superior, Paradise by Mara Superior

Home of Mara and Roy Superior, cabinet – Commission – “The Pursuit of Happiness”

Old Growth Forrest at Guyette Farm – Franklin County Land Trust

SCENE + SEEN

Visiting Friends on Sunday Afternoon -ROY AND MARA SUPERIOR have lived in Williamsburg, Massachusetts since the mid 70’s. They’ve been making and collecting art and objects, filling their home with a chronology of their lives – his sculpture and furniture, her porcelain tableware and constructed vessels, his cabinets filled with her ceramics – ledges, shelves, side tables – framed works on paper – their home is an installation and lifetime collaboration. Her work features images and phrases from an idealized life with titles prominently featured. “Paradise” and shows a porcelain heaven, the new work, a commission is on the table “In Pursuit of Happiness” is based on Jefferson in the form of the White House.

For MORE on Mara Superior.

For MORE on Roy Superior.

OLD GROWTH FOREST – A WALK IN THE WOODS and a rain shower – “I don’t know if you can see this in the photo but …” walking near Project Art in the old growth forest this afternoon, it rained AND the sun was shining, AND I found chanterelles AND I was listening to Ben Carter’s interview with Vipoo Srivilasa AND at the end of the two hour interview, they spoke about when I met Vipoo at the Subversive Clay, 2012 Australian Ceramics Triennale Adelaide. It is a small world when you can walk through the forest in Cummington, Massachusetts and listen to a podcast by someone who is at Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts in Montana who is talking to someone from Thailand who lives in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia knowing that within a year, he will probably show up at Project Art in Cummington, MA. The “ANDS” could go on from here but I think you get the picture. Podcasts by Ben and Brian R. Jones make the world a smaller place. Vipoo and Mara are have works on view at Ferrin Contemporary located at Project Art in Cummington, MA. Gallery open by appt and during public programs. The next Artist Salon is Tuesday, August 13 6-8 p.m.

FOR MORE on Mara Superior and Vipoo Srivilasa onview at Ferrin Contemporary – Selected works from Current Procects
For MORE on Brian R. Jones and the JonesCast

For MORE on Ben Carter and Tales of the Red Clay Rambler

Jul

2013

SCENE + SEEN: Summer 2013 | Project Art and Ferrin Gallery

SCENE+SEEN:

SUMMER 2013 at Project Art and Ferrin Gallery

Summer brings ART + ARTISTS from far away places around the world Adelaide, Australia, Jingdezhen, China, Seoul, Korea, to the small village in Cummington, MA, USA on the Eastern edge of the Berkshires, in the heart of the Hilltowns and just west of the Pioneer Valley.

The former mill building, on the bank of the Westfield River, became Project Art in 2007 and home base for Sergei Isupov and Leslie Ferrin. Now with Ferrin Contemporary located there, and Sergei and his wife Kadri traveling to Estonia in the summer, the studio hosts resident artists and new projects get launched. This year the sessions run July – September.

Adjacent to the group studio on the first floor, Ferrin Contemporary exhibits selections from current projects and houses the library, offices and warehouse.

Our next open house and artist salon is Tuesday, August 14, 6 – 8:00, but other days, we are open by appointment. Call 413.446.0614 or email leslie.ferrin@gmail.com

SERGEI ISUPOV at Ferrin Contemporary

Sergei Isupov, “High Heel Shoes Teapots” 2013, detail, porcelain slip, glaze, 6.5 x 9.5 x 5″

Sergei Isupov, Women with Cats Series, 2013

Sergei Isupov, “The Hero’s Mother”, 2012, Porcelain, Glaze, Stain, 8.5 x 12 x 4″

SERGEI ISUPOV at Ferrin Contemporary

The Personal is Professional by Sarah Buttenweiser in American Craft magazine

Sergei Isupov in Nature is Right Outside My Door, by Brooke Mason, Financial Times

Summer at Project Art, Cummington, MA

Joon Park, Moon Jar Stephen Bowers, Walk the Plank

Joon Park, “Moon Jar”, 2012, clay, crate, pallet, resin, 22 x 22″ (ceramic), 58 x 24″ (complete)

Stephen Bowers, “Walk the Plank” 2013, handmade surfboard (shaped by Peter Walker from paulownia timber), painted decoration, fiber-glass, resin, 7’7” x 22″

Ceramic works by Stephen Bowers, Sergei Isupov, Joon Park, and other artists installed at Project Art in Cummington, Massachusetts

Current Projects of Ferrin Contemporary at Project Art

Front Design, “Blow Away Vase” 2008, Royal Delft porcelain, 11 x 12 x 9″

SMALL WORKS AND CURRENT PROJECTS …

SERGEI ISUPOV – portrait plates and small sculptures featured in Small Works at Ferrin Contemporary, at Project Art, Cummington, MA, USA.

Selected works from our current projects, “Walk the Plank”, surfboard from New Blue and White by Stephen Bowers and Peter Walker and Moon Jar by Joon Park, one of the summer residents at Project Art.

Link to MORE …

PROJECT ART VISITING AND RESIDENT ARTISTS

JULY: Robin Best | Joon Park | Molly Weiss

AUGUST: Joon Park | Tanya Rudenjak | Wendy Gingell

Link to MORE on Project Art …

READ FROM THE MEDIA:

Link to “The Personal is Professional in American Craft Magazine by Sarah Buttenweiser

Link to “Nature is Right Outside My Door” in the Financial Times by Brook Mason

Jul

2013

SCENE + SEEN: Meet Me At … Boston, July 2013

Robin Best’s presentation at Harvard Ceramics, July 2013

Emily Zilber discussing Giselle Hicks “And then it was Still II” in New Blue and White at the Museum of Fine Art Boston

Robin Best, “The British East India Company – Trade and War”, 2012, cast translucent white porcelain, on-glaze painting, silver foil, 12 x 41.25 x 4.25″

Robin Best, “The British East India Company – Trade and War”, 2012, reverse, cast translucent white porcelain, on-glaze painting, silver foil, 12 x 41.25 x 4.25″

Robin Best, “The British East India Company – Trade and War”, 2012, cast translucent white porcelain, on-glaze painting, silver foil, 12 x 41.25 x 4.25″

Giselle Hicks, “And Then It Was Still II” 2012, detail, vitreous china porcelain,wood, 48 x 60 x 24″

Claire Curneen, “Blue” (detail), 2013, porcelain, cobalt, gold luste, 24 x 21 x 6″

Stephen Bowers, “Walk the Plank” 2013, handmade surfboard (shaped by Peter Walker from paulownia timber), painted decoration, fiber-glass, resin, 7’7” x 22″

Paul Scott, “Cumbrian Blue(s) – Spode Works Closed, Italian Blue, 03/10/09/09l,” 2013, in-glaze decal, gold lustre on small Spode casserole, (marked Made in Portugal) salvaged from the kiln area in the closed Spode factory 07/09, 3.5 x 9 x 11.25″. Rhode Island School of Design Collection.

Front Design, “Blow Away Vase” 2008, Royal Delft porcelain, 11 x 12 x 9″

SCENE +SEEN:

Robin Best is a visiting artist for the month at Project Art in Cummington, MA and one of the artists whose work was featured in New Blue and White at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. Upon arrival from Jingdezhen via London, she visited Boston, spoke at Harvard Ceramics and met curator, Emily Zilber for one last tour of the exhibition with artists, collectors and writers. While the show at the museum closed on July 14, selected works from the exhibition are being shown this summer at Project Art by Ferrin Contemporary.

MORE about Meet Me At … two days of behind-the-scenes with artists, curators, art professionals and collectors, Juy 9 – 10.

Link to MORE about Robin Best and works in New Blue and White at Project Art Summer 2013

Jun

2013

SCENE + SEEN: Yale University Art Gallery | Study day with collectors and art professionals

Henry Varnum Poor at Yale University Art Gallery

Sometimes when you’re visiting a collection and there is an impulse to take a photo and share everything you see, and then there is one object that conveys it all. Henry Varnum Poor’s portrait of Ben Hecht, has a face that looks like someone I know, maybe even someone I was with. Donald Clark, one of our archivists and project manager for The Marks Project, joined me at Yale. This portrait platter from 1926 appears quite contemporary and old at the same time. One of Clark’s many collections is a grouping of objects in all media that feature portraits of other people who look like him, many of them are gifts. Yale’s collection is all online 24/7.

Henry Varnum Poor,Plate with Portrait of Ben Hecht, 1926

Maker: Henry Varnum Poor, American, 1887 – 1970
Gift of Mrs. William R. Scott, John G. McCullough, Class of 1936, and Mrs. William G. Heaphy, by exchange 2004.84.1

POST FROM SCENE + SEEN – Great day at Yale with Patricia Kane and John Stewart Gordon discussing old and new, contemporary and historic decorative arts, new building and integration of the sculpture, paintings and decorative arts at Yale University Art Museum, New Haven, CT, USA. On view this summer is the Waterbury Collection of Art and through July 14, Society Anonyme, Inc.

Rooftop Sculpture Garden – Aristede Maillol – old + new architecture, view from the roof.

MORE … meet up with John Gordon and Patricia Kane

MORE … Waterbury Collection of Wood Art and other current exhibitions at Yale University Art Gallery.

Jun

2013

SCENE + SEEN: Downstreet Art, North Adams

SCENE+SEEN:

Kahn and Selesnick at MCLA Gallery 51, North Adams, MA. This show, “The Other Hudson 2” opens on June 20, the launch of Downstreet Art 2013. Extended hours during Wilco’s Solid Sound Festival, June 21 – 23 at MASS MoCA. Follow SeenArtScene on Tumblr through the weekend for collected random sounds and images of the art, the artists and the scene around them.

MORE … Downstreet

MORE … Wilco Solid Sound Festival

Nicholas Kahn and Richard Selesnick have been affiliated with Ferrin Contemporary on and off for over 20 years. Following their sculpture as it becomes photographs and installations has been a long strange journey. Great to see it altogether and presented at MCLA Gallery 51 … several of the photographs and sculptures were shown in COVET 2013 at Ferrin Gallery in Pittsfield in 2012.

MORE … FerrinGallery

Jun

2013

SCENE + SEEN: Ken Price Opening at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

SCENE+SEEN:

Carol Hochman, director, Barry Friedman Ltd. at the June 18 opening of Ken Price Sculpture at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY. On view through September 22.

Carol has excellent taste.

Jun

2013

2013 – 2014 Schedule

FERRIN CONTEMPORARY
Schedule of Programs, Exhibitions and Events
2013-2014

New Blue & White

Museum of Fine Arts Boston, MA
Group Show Curated by Emily Zilber
February 19 – July 13

Robin Best
Stephen Bowers
Claire Curneen
Michelle Erickson
Molly Hatch
Giselle Hicks
Paul Scott
Vipoo Srivilasa
Steven Young Lee
Kurt Weiser

Call of the Wild | Sergei Isupov
Barry Friedman Ltd., NYC
Solo Exhibition
May 4 – July 30

Teapot Invitational
Red Star Studios, Kansas City, MO
June 7 – August 31
Kurt Weiser and others

Horizon – Landscapes
National Museum of Decorative Arts and Design
Oslo, Norway
Group Exhibition Curated by Paul Scott
June 14 – February 23, 2014
Stephen Bowers, Paul Scott and others

ARTIST SALON with Visiting Artists and Residents at Project Art

Project Art, Cummington, MA

Tuesday, July 16
6:00-8:00pm

Robin Best | JoonPark | Molly Weiss

Robin Best | Australian by birth, living and working in Jingdezhen, China, Robin is noted for delicately painted narratives and patterns on translucent, porcelain vessel forms. Her still life “The British East India Company – Trade and War” is featured in New Blue and White, currently on view at the MFA Boston. She will present a slide show and discuss current works and projects.

JoonPark | Boston based artist and summer resident at Project Art, Park will present works in process created during his residency and a short slide show.

Molly Weiss| Interdisciplinary artist, painter, sculptor, curator and art teacher from New York City will present works in process created during her residency and a short slide show.

Cumbrian Blue(s) | Paul Scott
Erie Art Museum, Erie, PA
Solo Exhibition
July 19 – November 16

OPEN HOUSE
Selections from Current Projects
Artist Focus: Giselle Hicks
Ferrin Contemporary at Project Art, Cummington, MA
Group Exhibition
Adam Shiverdecker, Mara Superior, Stephen Young Lee, other artists
July 25 – August 31

DISH + DINE
Project Art, Cummington, MA
Coinciding with Hilltown 6 Pottery Trail
Riverside, Wood Roasted Menu, Woodfired Pottery

ARTIST SALON with Visiting Artists and Residents at Project Art
Project Art, Cummington, MA
Tuesday, August 13
6:00-8:00pm
Joon Park | Tanya Rudenjak | Wendy Gignell

Selections from Ceramic Top 40 | 2013
Ferrin Gallery at Project Art, Cummington
Group Exhibition
August 31 – October 19

Uncanny Congruencies
Palmer Museum of Art
The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA
Group Exhibition
September 10 – December 15
Christa Assad, Jason Walker and other artists

Body & Soul
Museum of Arts and Design
New York, NY
Group Exhibition Curated by Wendy Kaplan
September 24 – March 2, 2014
Sergei Isupov and other artists

Body & Soul 2
Barry Friedman Ltd.
New York, NY
Group Exhibition of Figural Ceramic Sculpture
September 24 – December 30, 2013
Sergei Isupov and other artists

The Nature of Imagination | Kurt Weiser
Cross Mackenzie Gallery, Washington DC
Solo exhibition
October 4– October 30

Workshop and Lecture – Corcoran Gallery of Art
October 3 – 4

Animal Stories
Gardiner Museum, Toronto, Canada
Group Show
October 9 – January 12, 2014
Sergei Isupov, Red Weldon Sandlin, Jason Walker and other artists

InCiteful Clay
Touring Exhibition with Exhibits USA
Group Show Curated by Judith Schwartz
Sergei Isupov and other artists

January 28 – March 16, 2014
Foosaner Art Museum, Melbourne, Florida

April 06 – August 11, 2014
Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock, Arkansas

September 01 – October 20, 2014
Woodbury Art Museum, Orem, Utah

May

2013

The Personal is Professional: Crafted Lives | American Craft Magazine

Sarah Wertham Buttenweiser | “Leslie Ferrin wears three professional hats. Through Ferrin Gallery, which she established in 1979, she represents many contemporary artists, with an emphasis on figural sculpture and studio ceramics. She also has a busy roster of lectures and consulting gigs. And she’s the director of Project Art, an 8,000-square-foot live/work compound on the banks of the Westfield River in Cummington, Massachusetts, that hosts resident artists, exhibitions, salon-style talks, and potluck suppers. It’s also where Ferrin lives. We asked the multifaceted Ferrin about her decidedly artful balancing act… You have an unusual living arrangement. Can you describe where you live – and who else lives here?”

Click here to read the full article.

May

2013

Collective Design Fair, NYC, May 2013

NYC May 2013 at Collective design fair with the art dealers from left to right Lewis Wexler, Sienna Patti and Stefan Friedemann at Collective.1, New York, NY “building collections – one object at a time”

May

2013

New Blue & White at the MFA Boston

Emily Zilber, curator and Mark Cooper, artist , listening to Thomas Michie – about newly reinstalled Dutch rooms in context of New Blue and White, MFA Boston through July 14. His site specific work is one of the nearly 40 artists, designers and collaborators who are showing recent works in ceramic, glass and mixed media. #newblueandwhite meets #oldblueandwhite at #mfa #boston with #markcooper (at Museum of Fine Arts)

Emily Zilber, curator and Mark Cooper, artist – in conversation about his recent installation New Blue and White, MFA Boston through July 14. His site specific work is one of the nearly 40 artists, designers and collaborators who are showing recent works in ceramic, glass and mixed media.