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CURRENT + RECENT EXHIBITIONS

About Face: Contemporary Ceramic Sculpture at the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts

February 2 – May 12, 2019

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DIRECTIONS: SERGEI ISUPOV

DIRECTIONS: SERGEI ISUPOV April 28–July 22, 2018 Ferrin Contemporary 1315 MASS MoCA Way, North Adams, MA RECEPTION & DEMONSTRATION Saturday April 28, 4-6 pm Ferrin Contemporary presents DIRECTIONS: Sergei Isupov,...

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SELECT PAST EXHIBITIONS

• Sergei Isupov: Hidden Messages
• EXPOSED: Heads, Busts & Nudes
• Gardiner Museum | Animal Stories
• Barry Friedman Ltd. | Clay Bodies
• Museum of Arts and Design | Body & Soul
• InCiteful Clay
• Sergei Isupov | Call of the Wild
• The New York Ceramics Fair | Bacchanalistas, American Scenery, Contemporary Ceramics
• RAM COLLECTION FOCUS: SERGEI ISUPOV
• John Michael Kohler Arts Center 40th anniversary
• Sergei Isupov at Vallauris Bienale
• Promenade: New Work by Sergei Isupov at Perimeter Gallery
• A Clay Bestiary at Hunterdon Art Museum
• Kasher | Potamkin
• NCECA 2015 Conference: “Lively Experiments”
• Family Affair: Sergei Isupov, Kadri Pärnamets, & Roosi Isupov
• Sergei Isupov at Kasher | Potamkin
• New York Ceramics & Glass Fair 2016
• Sergei Isupov in “Head On” at de Menil Gallery
• MENDED WAYS | The Art of Inventive Repair
• RE—Reanimate, Repair, Mend and Meld
• SERGEI ISUPOV | THE RISING at PULSE NY
• New York Ceramics & Glass Fair 2017
• Sergei Isupov: Selections from Hidden Messages
• Alice in Wonderland
• New York Ceramic & Glass Fair 2018

“My work portrays characters placed in situations that are drawn from my imagination but based on my life experiences.  My art works capture a composite of fleeting moments, hand gestures, eye movements that follow and reveal the sentiments expressed.  These details are all derived from actual observations but are gathered or collected over my lifetime.  Through the drawn images and sculpted forms, I capture faces, body types and use symbolic elements to compose, in the same way as you might create a collage.  These ideas drift and migrate throughout my work without direct regard to specific individuals, chronology or geography.  Universalism is implied and personal interpretation expected.   Through my work I get to report about and explore human encounters, comment on the relationships between man and woman, and eventually their sexual union that leads to the final outcome – the passing on of DNA which is the ultimate collection – a combined set of genes and a new life, represented in the child.”  Often called an erotic Surrealist for his daring representations of sexuality, relationships, and human encounter, Isupov takes narrative subject matter and merges it with ceramic sculptural form. Drawing on personal experience, and human observation, he creates works that integrate autobiography with universal narrative. He states, “Everything that surrounds and excites me is automatically processed and transformed into…an artwork. […] The essence of my work is not in the medium or the creative process, but in the human beings and their incredible diversity. When I think of myself and my works, I’m not sure I create them, perhaps they create me.” While the robust, and racially distinct facial traits make each sculpture unique, they also make the body of work capable of representing universal experiences. The bold color palette, heavily tattooed faces, and textured surfaces relate these works to the aesthetics of traditional Russian art, as well as to contemporary styles of illustration.

SERGEI ISUPOV

Sergei Isupov (b. 1963, Stavrapole, Russia, lives in Cummington, MA) graduated from the Art Institute of Tallinn, Estonia in 1990 with a BA/MFA in Ceramics. In 1994 he immigrated to the United States. Isupov has a long international resume with work included in numerous collections and exhibitions, including the National Gallery of Australia, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (TX), Museum of Arts and Design (NY), Racine Art Museum (WI), Museum of Fine Arts Boston (MA) and most recently Hidden Messages, a 20-year career survey was presented at the Erie Art Museum in 2017.

His work is featured in numerous books, catalogs and magazines including Postmodern Ceramics, Sex Pots: Eroticsm in Ceramics, The Ceramic Surface; Shy Boy, She Devil, and Isis: The Art of Conceptual Craft; Confrontational Ceramics. He teaches workshops and lectures internationally at museums, universities and art centers. Recent residencies include Archie Bray Foundation, Helena (MT), The International Ceramics Studio, Kecskemét, Hungary and Guldagergaard, International Ceramic Research Center, Skælskør, Denmark.

In 2001 was awarded the Louis Comfort Tiffany Biennial Award. He works in porcelain using traditional hand building and sculpting techniques to combine surface and form with narrative painting using stains and clear glaze.

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