RAYMON ELOZUA:
STRUCTURE/DISSONANCE
Structure/Dissonance celebrates nearly five decades of work by New York-based artist Raymon Elozua, who first came to prominence in the 1970s with detailed trompe l’oeil ceramic sculptures of decaying industrial landscapes. The artist’s first major museum exhibition since his 2003 retrospective at the Mint Museum, Structure/Dissonance focuses on three conceptual bodies of work that explore the combined physical properties of three elemental materials: ceramic, glass, and steel. This exhibition contextualizes these vital sculptures within Elozua’s intellectual landscape through the inclusion of a series of collections and research projects that are inextricably linked to his artistic output.
Elozua’s insatiable appetite to uncover the hidden cultural meanings attached to his chosen materials has led him to obsessively collect esoteric objects like gas stove burners and rusted enamel cookware, as well as photographs and ephemera related to topics as varied as labor history and decaying “borscht belt” bungalow colonies. These collections and obsessions help to construct a more accurate picture of the complex intellect that gives depth and meaning to Elozua’s singular expressive sculptures.
PROGRAMMING
Opening Night Reception
Friday, September 9, 2022
6 to 8 pm | free for members | $15 non-members
Visit the Everson Museum HERE
The Everson Museum of Art was founded in 1897 as the Syracuse Museum of Fine Arts, and was the first museum dedicated to collecting American art.
The Everson is home to over 11,000 works of art including paintings, sculpture, works on paper, photographs, a pioneering video art collection, and one of the largest ceramics collections in the country.
View PDF of the Press Release HERE
GUIDE
Raymon Elozua studied political science, sculpture and theater at the University of Chicago. These diverse and varied interests still hold a place within his visual arts practice, encompassing glass and ceramics-metal sculptures, photography and overall interest in historical ephemera.
Elozua is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2015 Virginia Groot Foundation, as well as numerous National Endowment for the Arts Grants in Sculpture, Ceramics, and Paintings. Elozua is widely represented in private, corporate and museum collections throughout the USA.
SERIES GLOSSARY
To find a form that accommodates the mess, that is the task of the artist now. – Samuel Beckett
We are each a collection of experiences, memories, dreams, actions, sins, fears, interests and so forth. We move along, gathering more and more experiences in our perceived continuum of time. Ultimately they all devolve into hazy fragments. Our lived experiences become puzzles to decipher. How do we integrate all we are into a cohesive whole or soul so that we can be peaceful and holistic?
Clarity in Confusion is a body of work that seeks inspiration from the artist’s personal interior landscape. I create entropic sculptures that decay, are always flaking, cracking, and disintegrating. This is a reminder and reflection of the human condition and ultimately our death. Rather than struggle to assemble the shards of our experiences and history, the task is to accept the confusion and uncertainty. In that acceptance comes a sense of clarity.
In 2018, I decided to return to glass again in conjunction with ceramic and steel. Once more, I worked with Lorin Silverman; this time at Urban Glass in Brooklyn. In addition to blown glass, I was interested in using mirror strips similar in nature to the enamelware photographic setups. The glass was created first. I then constructed a steel structure to suspend the glass shapes, which are removable for the kiln firings. Clay was added and the sculpture was fired for bisque the color. Metal angles were then welded at various angles as a support for two sided mirror strips, which were glued in place.
This series is entitled “Tri-Harmonic” referring to the relationship between glass, ceramic and steel, materials that all use fire and heat as an essential means in their creation.
In the 5th grade at Our Lady Gate of Heaven, our teacher created a contest. Pointing to an image of a state on a map of the USA, each student, standing at the back of the classroom, would have to name the capital of that state.
I studied and studied and was reasonably certain I could win. The only problem, I could not discern the shapes of the state from the back. I asked the nun to keep moving forward until I could clearly see the shapes. Soon I was literally 6 feet away. I knew every capital but I do not recall if she awarded a prize. What I do know is that she called my parents and told them I needed glasses.
Soon I received a pair of new prescription glasses for near sightedness. Already branded a “teacher’s pet, I was now immediately also called “4-eyes.” Despite the negative social implications, what mattered now was that I could see clearly for the first time. Everything was sharp, ordered, and definitive. Eyesight gave me a clarity, even a harshness of vision: the line, the curve, the edge with “level” and “perpendicular” defining space and volume.
Now that my vision is diminishing with age, I remembered this event. I decided to re-create the experience of seeing out of focus. In 2010, utilizing a table top set up of old and new enamelware, I produced a series of richly colored “blurry” images that recalled my first visual experiences.
In 2016, I thought it would be interesting to take these photos, to replace the glowing amorphous shapes in ceramic and steel. I was not successful, hence the title, “Hubris.” Eyesight and clarity prevailed.
Working in the ceramic medium, I have always been interested in the synthesis of different materials. From 1989 through 2002, I used steel rod and wire combined with 04 terracotta in my sculptures. The “skeleton” of the steel provided a way to utilize clay in a more spatial and gravity-defying manner.
The medium of glass is attractive but I never had an occasion to explore it. In 2013, I met Lorin Silverman, an expert glassblower and artist. He worked then for Corning Museum as a technician helping artists to realize their vision in glass. We researched and developed a way to blow glass into a metal armature.
Glass is perhaps the most difficult medium I have utilized. Once the glass shapes were created, using CAD drawings I constructed a steel and wire structure, which was then covered with terra cotta and fired multiple times for color to Cone 04. The glass forms were then independently affixed to the sculptures.
The tension between the fractured ceramic with the reflective glass is fascinating, a feeling of beauty born out of decay.
The work of R&D Sculptures 2014: Ceramic, Steel and Glass was constructed, March 2013 – May 2014.
Video by the Everson Museum of Art/ Music by: The High Llamas
Raymon Elozua: STRUCTURE & DISSONANCE
Everson Museum of Art Exhibition Catalog
Structure/Dissonance celebrates nearly five decades of work by New York-based artist Raymon Elozua, who first came to prominence in the 1970s with detailed trompe l’oeil ceramic sculptures of decaying industrial landscapes. Elozua’s first major museum exhibition since his 2003 retrospective at the Mint Museum, Structure/Dissonance focuses on three conceptual bodies of work that explore the combined physical properties of three elemental materials: ceramic, glass, and steel. This exhibition contextualizes these vital sculptures within Elozua’s intellectual landscape through the inclusion of a series of collections and research projects that are inextricably linked to his artistic output.
- September 10—December 31, 2022 at the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, NY – curated by Garth Johnson
- Catalog features essays by Johnson, Maria Porges, and Thyrza Nichols Goodeve, 2022
- Published on
RAYMON ELOZUA: Evolution of Steel and Ceramics
This catalog is a record of a portion of Raymon Elozua’s varied explorations into photography, websites, collections, and sculpture made of glass, steel, and ceramic. It documents Elozua’s relentless curiosity and enormous capacity for diverse inquiry, interpretation, and mastery.
RAYMON ELOZUA: Word Sculptures
Using digital technologies, Raymon Elozua extracts layers of colored shapes from abstract expressionist paintings. He then re-materializes the digital imagery into steel and ceramic sculptures. The work shown here was constructed during 2001 in New York City.
RAYMON ELOZUA, Hubris: Images Made Flesh
“Hubris” presents a juxtaposition of Elozua’s blurry photographic images with the precise, hard edges of his ceramic and steel sculptures. The photos recreate both a childhood nearsightedness and the deteriorating vision that comes with aging. “In 2016, I thought it would be interesting to take these photos and to replicate the glowing amorphous shapes in ceramic and steel. I was not successful, hence the title, ‘Hubris.’ Eyesight and clarity prevailed,” said Elozua of this body of work.
CONSTRUCTING ELOZUA: A Retrospective
This catalog was published on the occasion of the exhibition Constructing Elozua: A Retrospective, 1973–2003 organized by the Mint Museum of Craft + Design, Charlotte, North Carolina, and presenting the work of sculptor Raymon Elozua.
Foreword by Mark Richard Leach
Essays by Garth Clark, Melissa G. Post, and Edward Leffingwell
RAYMON ELOZUA: R&D Sculptures 2014
In 2014, visual artist Raymon Elozua created a new body of mixed media sculpture, the R&D series, incorporating glass, ceramics, and steel. He received a Virginia A. Groot Foundation grant for this work. This catalog is a comprehensive documentation of this work.
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