ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
Exhibition Dates and Locations
January 28 – March 16, 2014
Foosaner Art Museum, Melbourne, Florida
April 6 – August 11, 2014
Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock, Arkansas
September 1–October 20, 2014
Woodbury Art Museum, Orem, UT
InCiteful Clay Tour
InCiteful Clay offers an unparalleled overview of an emergent movement in contemporary ceramics dedicated to social commentary. Artists have long used their creations as powerful vehicles to confront society with major problems of the day, expanding from paintings, sculptures, prints, and photographs to installations and electronic media over the last century. Social concern has also become an area of increasing interest in contemporary craft.
Incorporating a broad range of work, this selection of 26 ceramics looks at artists who have mustered an age-old medium to issue provocative critiques of current social and political inequities. The premise of this exhibition is organized around five themes: war and politics; the social and human condition; gender issues; environmental concerns; and popular and material culture. The artists have conveyed their messages in styles that are aggressive, violent, disturbing, irreverent, and at times, humorous, but ever passionate. They rely on figurative imagery, narrative content, and a range of expressive avenues, including caricature, parody, satire, obscenity, erotica, and the grotesque.
Featured artists in the exhibition include Akio Takamori, Toby Buonagurio, Nuala Creed, Michelle Erickson, Sergei Isupov, Anne Potter, Ehren Tool, Richard Shaw, and Paula Winokur. Among the specific topics they address are the social consequences of war, the impact of declining moral values on children, capital punishment, consumerism, and global warming.
InCiteful Clay is curated by Judith S. Schwartz, Ph.D., an internationally recognized specialist in contemporary ceramics. A professor and director of craft media in the Department of Art and Art Professions at New York University, Schwartz recently published a groundbreaking study on this movement in ceramic art titled Confrontational Ceramics: The Artist as Social Critic (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008).
Sergei Isupov is represented by Ferrin Contemporary.
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