Project Tag: Ceramics

06
Jan
2024
COURTNEY M. LEONARD | BREACH: LOGBOOK 24 | STACCATO

COURTNEY M. LEONARD | BREACH: LOGBOOK 24 | STACCATO

Courtney M. Leonard:
BREACH: LOGBOOK 24 | STACCATO

University Museum of Contemporary Art at UMASS | Amherst, MA
February 14 – May 10, September 19 – December 9, 2024

RE-OPENING RECEPTION:

September 19, 5:30-8:30

5:00 p.m. Artist Talk in Frederick C. Tillis Performance Hall 
UMCA and Bezanson Recital Hall

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

The artist Courtney M. Leonard, a citizen of the Shinnecock Nation of Long Island, explores marine biology, Indigenous food sovereignty, migration, and human environmental impact through visual logbooks that investigate the multiple definitions of the term “breach.”

BREACH: LOGBOOK 24 | STACCATO is the result of a multi-year artist residency initiated by the UMCA in collaboration with the UMass College of Natural Sciences and partially funded by the National Endowment for the Arts. The installation will fill the UMCA’s Main, East and West Galleries. It includes paintings, sculptures, and video exploring the life and kinship ties of Staccato, a North Atlantic Right Whale killed by a ship strike in 1999, whose remains are housed in the UMass Natural History Collections.

BREACH: LOGBOOK 24 | STACCATO was created in partnership with the UMass College of Natural Sciences and is supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, The Office of the Provost, The Class of 1961 Artists’ Residency Fund, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the UMass Natural History Collections and the UMassFive College Credit Union. Significant research and exhibition contributions came from Kathrine Doyle, staff in the UMass Biology Dept and Vertebrate Collections Manager for the UMass Natural History Collections, Tristram Seidler, Curator of the UMass Herbarium, and Michelle D. Staudinger, Ph.D., UMass Department of Environmental Conservation. Emily Volmar, a UMass undergraduate Natural Resource Conservation major, was a summer Art & Science research assistant for this project. Her work and that of UMass Postdoctoral Researcher Amy Teffer was supported by the Northeast Climate Adaptation Science Center.

View the press release HERE

Courtney M. Leonard, "Breach: Logbook 24 | Staccato", Installation at the University Museum of Art, UMASS, Amherst, MA, 2024, Photos courtesy of UMass Amherst University Museum of Contemporary Art
Courtney M. Leonard, "Breach: Logbook 24 | Staccato", Installation at the University Museum of Art, UMASS, Amherst, MA, 2024, Photos courtesy of UMass Amherst University Museum of Contemporary Art
Courtney M. Leonard, "Breach: Logbook 24 | Staccato", Installation at the University Museum of Art, UMASS, Amherst, MA, 2024, Photos courtesy of UMass Amherst University Museum of Contemporary Art
Courtney M. Leonard, "Breach: Logbook 24 | Staccato", Installation at the University Museum of Art, UMASS, Amherst, MA, 2024, Photos courtesy of UMass Amherst University Museum of Contemporary Art
Courtney M. Leonard, "Breach: Logbook 24 | Staccato", Installation at the University Museum of Art, UMASS, Amherst, MA, 2024, Photos courtesy of UMass Amherst University Museum of Contemporary Art
Courtney M. Leonard, "Breach: Logbook 24 | Staccato", Installation at the University Museum of Art, UMASS, Amherst, MA, 2024, Photos courtesy of UMass Amherst University Museum of Contemporary Art
Courtney M. Leonard, "Breach: Logbook 24 | Staccato", Installation at the University Museum of Art, UMASS, Amherst, MA, 2024, Photos courtesy of UMass Amherst University Museum of Contemporary Art
Courtney M. Leonard, "Breach: Logbook 24 | Staccato", Installation at the University Museum of Art, UMASS, Amherst, MA, 2024, Photos courtesy of UMass Amherst University Museum of Contemporary Art

EVENTS

OPENING RECEPTION:

Feb 21, 5:00 -7:00pm
Randolph W. Bromery Center for the Arts lobby & UMCA, Amherst, MA 01003
umass.edu/umca

Opening Reception & Talk: Wednesday, February 21 | 5:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
Randolph W. Bromery Center for the Arts, 151 Presidents Drive, Amherst MA

Free and Open to All

5:00 p.m. Artist Talk in Frederick C. Tillis Performance Hall 
All are invited to hear from artist Courtney M. Leonard in conversation with poet Abigail Chabitnoy, Assistant Professor, UMass MFA program for Poets & Writers, in the Frederick C. Tillis Performance Hall.

6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. Reception in Bromery Lobby and UMCA
Enjoy appetizers in the Bromery Lobby and chat with the artist. Meet the scientific team from the UMass College of Natural Sciences who worked on this multi-year collaboration and visit the exhibition in the museum.

RE-OPENING RECEPTION:

September 19, 5:30-8:30

5:00 p.m. Artist Talk in Frederick C. Tillis Performance Hall 
UMCA and Bezanson Recital Hall

MORE INFO HERE

ABOUT COURTNEY M. LEONARD

Courtney Leonard Artist Portrait

Courtney M. Leonard is an artist and filmmaker, who has contributed to the Offshore Art movement. Leonard’s current work embodies the multiple definitions of “breach”, an exploration and documentation of historical ties to water, whale and material sustainability.

In collaboration with national and international museums, cultural institutions, and indigenous communities in North America, New Zealand, Nova Scotia, and the United States Embassies, Leonard’s practice investigates narratives of cultural viability as a reflection of environmental record.

02
Jan
2024
COURTNEY M. LEONARD | BREACH: LOGBOOK 24 | SCRIMSHAW

COURTNEY M. LEONARD | BREACH: LOGBOOK 24 | SCRIMSHAW

Courtney M. Leonard:
BREACH: LOGBOOK 24 | SCRIMSHAW

New Bedford Whaling Museum
New Bedford, MA

June 14 through November 3, 2024

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

Courtney M. Leonard (Shinnecock, b.1980) is a multi-media installation artist, ceramicist, and filmmaker, who has contributed to the Offshore Art movement. In collaboration with museums, cultural institutions, and indigenous communities in North America, New Zealand, Nova Scotia, and the United States Embassies, Leonard’s practice investigates narratives of Indigenous food sovereignty, marine life, and human environmental impact.

Leonard’s largest body of work to date, titled BREACH, is an ongoing exploration of the historical and contemporary ties between place, community, whales, and the maritime environment. The various iterations of the project, created for individual institutions and settings, investigate the multiple definitions of the term “breach.” A “breach” is a break, a gap in a wall, a river overflowing to breach its banks. Legally, breach means the failure to abide by the law or observe an agreement; it is a violation or infraction, a breach of trust. Breach also describes the act of a whale breaking the surface to rise above the open water. To “step into the breach” implies moving into the unknown. BREACH is an ongoing artistic exploration of these multiple meanings, engaging environmental vulnerabilities and the settler state’s failure to uphold relations and treaties with coastal Indigenous nations.

Leonard’s works conjure the remains of whales, waterfront industrial infrastructure, and oyster shells, evoking community ties to water, Shinnecock scientific knowledge, and current practices for mitigating coastal erosion and water contamination. Such works enact healing and celebrate resiliency and joy on unceded lands and waters. Leonard will produce an entirely new body of work for the installation at the New Bedford Whaling Museum, which continues her interest in coastal communities and historical whaling, while engaging the museum’s history, collections, and community partnerships with culture bearers from the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe, also known as the People of the First Light.

BREACH: Logbook 24 | SCRIMSHAW will be opening with the twined exhibition “The Wider World and Scrimshaw,” which takes the Museum’s scrimshaw collection (objects carved by whalers on the byproducts of marine mammals) and places it in conversation with carved decorative arts and material culture made by Indigenous community members from across the Pacific and Arctic.

Courtney M. Leonard:
BREACH: LOGBOOK 24 | SCRIMSHAW

New Bedford Whaling Museum | New Bedford, MA
June 14 through November 3, 2024

EVENTS

Exhibition Opening Reception
Friday, June 14, 2024 | 5:00-7:00 pm

Members and invitees of the New Bedford Whaling Museum only
RSVP required
Members who would like to RSVP to the opening reception can email membership@whalingmuseum.org or call Gillian Fournier at 508-717-6853

BECOME A MEMBER OF THE NEW BEDFORD WHALING MUSEUM

Conversation with Artist Courtney M. Leonard
Friday, October 4, 2024 | 6pm
$10 for museum members, $20 for non-members

Join the New Bedford Whaling Museum on Friday, October 4 for a special edition of the New Bedford Whaling Museum’s First Friday series, featuring an artist talk, full access to the museum, a lite reception and more.

Presented in conversation with the exhibition, BREACH: Logbook 24 | SCRIMSHAW on view June 1 to November 3, 2024. Q&A to follow.

Leonard will be joined by artist HOLLY MITITQUQ NORDLUM, an Iñupiaq artist working to revitalize the tradition of Inuit tattoo in Alaska. Nordlum trained with Maya Sialuk Jacobsen, an Inuit tattooist from Greenland. A growing cadre of Indigenous female practitioners see the reclaiming of tattoo as a way to heal from colonization and as a statement of pride and cultural affiliation. Many are mentored through Nordlum’s Tupik Mi apprenticeship program.

PURCHASE TICKETS HERE

PRESS

Scrimshaw Takes Over the New Bedford Whaling Museum in Summer Exhibitions

The Wider World & Scrimshaw and Shinnecock artist Courtney M. Leonard’s BREACH: Logbook 24 | SCRIMSHAW explore sites of encounter and exchange across the Pacific and Arctic Oceans.

New Bedford Whaling Museum,

ABOUT COURTNEY M. LEONARD

Courtney Leonard Artist Portrait

Courtney M. Leonard is an artist and filmmaker, who has contributed to the Offshore Art movement. Leonard’s current work embodies the multiple definitions of “breach”, an exploration and documentation of historical ties to water, whale and material sustainability.

In collaboration with national and international museums, cultural institutions, and indigenous communities in North America, New Zealand, Nova Scotia, and the United States Embassies, Leonard’s practice investigates narratives of cultural viability as a reflection of environmental record.

01
Jan
2024
NEW AMERICAN SCENERY: The Art of Paul Scott

NEW AMERICAN SCENERY: The Art of Paul Scott

CURRENT LOCATION

Shelburne Museum, Shelburne, VT (US)

May 11 – October 20, 2024

VIEW THE EXHIBITION PAGE

CONFECTED, BORROWED & BLUE: TRANSFERWARE BY PAUL SCOTT

Paul Scott, "Cumbrian Blue(s), New American Scenery, Sampler Jug No:10, Shelburne & Sugar", 2024, Transfer print collage on pearlware jug with platinum lustre,14.5 x 15.25 x 12.25", 360mm x 390mm x 290mm. Shelburne Museum Collection. Artwork by Paul Scott, Photography by Chris Lewis.
Paul Scott, "Cumbrian Blue(s), Indian Point cup plate, 4/50", 2021, transferware print on pearlware cup plate, 4.25 x 4.25 x .5". Collaborative work with Paul Holdway (former head of engraving at Spode). Tissue print transfer taken from a copper plate engraved by Paul Holdway, Paul Scott 2021.

NAS | GUIDE & GLOSSARY

New American Scenery has been exhibiting internationally since 2019. 

View Artworks & Expanded Series

Initially guided by the images depicted in the historic transferware, Paul traveled to cities, explored natural landscapes, met collaborators, and produced a body of work now known as PAUL SCOTT: New American Scenery. First shown in the newly renovated porcelain room at RISD Museum curated by Elizabeth Williams, the exhibition traveled next to Albany Institute of History & Art in 2022 and selected works featured in exhibitions at other locations in both the USA and UK and four open now in the USA.

Paul Scott, New American Scenery Artwork Series Brochure, 2023, Pg 3-4, Spread featuring about Paul Scott with a portrait of the artist with a ceramic sampler jug, a row of two plates, and a paragraph of captions for the artworks in the brochure.
Paul Scott, New American Scenery Artwork Series Brochure, 2023, Pg 1-2, featuring article by Jo Dahn on left with ceramic sampler jug
Paul Scott, New American Scenery Artwork Series Brochure, 2023, Pg 2, featuring 3 rows of sets of plates from the series.
Paul Scott, New American Scenery Artwork Series Brochure, 2023, Pg 2, featuring 3 rows of the backs of sets of plates from the series

VIEW/READ PDF

Paul Scott is a leading figure in the international field of ceramics and print. He is known for his manipulation of transfer-printed designs on factory-made domestic tablewares, which thus become vehicles for socio-political commentary. New American Scenery is permeated with his response to the ‘American’ transfer-printed tablewares that were produced in Staffordshire during the first part of the nineteenth century, exclusively for export to America. They have a common format of a central motif framed within an ornamental border and are decorated with imagery that celebrates the new republic. Scott’s New American Scenery work often maintains the same traditional format, while his surface imagery highlights a range of contemporary themes and issues. On the reverse of each piece can be found his maker’s mark, information about the printed edition to which it belongs and his signature; several pieces also offer substantial narrative accounts of the subjects depicted.

Paul Scott: New American Scenery, was made possible by an Artist In Residence grant from the Alturas Foundation, with additional support from Ferrin Contemporary, RISD Museum, Arts Council England, and Albany Institute of History & Art.

In New American Scenery, Scott scrutinizes the American landscape from a contemporary perspective, one that grapples with issues of globalization, energy generation and consumption, capitalism, social justice, immigration, and the human impact on the environment. The images that Scott creates for his ceramics depict unsettling views of nuclear power plants, aging urban centers, abandoned industrial sites, wildfires, and isolating walls. As representations of the American landscape, they suggest a subversion of the picturesque aesthetic—the unpicturesque picturesque—and a new, disturbing norm.

“NAS” includes the following bodies of work, many of which were conceived on location and/or with insights from significant collaborators. Each highlighted title below represents a sub-series containing multiple iterations and/or designs.

New American Scenery Expanded Series & Information:

Across the Borderline

Across the Borderline

Series of platters depicting the border between the US and Mexico using imagery culled from the Wedgwood archive and popular media to address the theme of immigration.

READ MORE/VIEW PDF

Paul Scott, “Cumbrian Blue(s), New American Scenery, Trumpian Campaigne, Legacy No:1, (Across the Borderline, Portland, Black Lives Matter)”, 2021, in-glaze decal collage on pearlware platter (after Enoch Wood), 15.4 x 12.2 x 2″, 39 x 30.5 x 5cm.

Paul Scott, Cumbrian Blue(s), New American Scenery, Across the Borderline (4) (Trumpian Campaigne), 2020

The Angola 3

The Angola 3

souvenir plate drawing reference to inmates in the Louisiana State Penitentiary who were held in solitary confinement for the longest period in American history. It is suspected that this unethical treatment was retaliation for the inmates’ connection to the Black Panther Party.

Paul Scott, “Scott’s Cumbrian Blue(s), New American Scenery, Angola 3″ 2019, in-glaze screen print (decal) on salvaged Syracuse China with pearlware glaze, 11 x 11 x 1”.

Paul Scott, “Scott’s Cumbrian Blue(s), New American Scenery, The Angola 3″ back, 2019, in-glaze screen print (decal) on salvaged Syracuse China with pearlware glaze, 11x 11 x 1”

Albany (Souvenirs & Views of New York)

Albany (Souvenirs & Views of New York)

souvenir plate of an urban landscape viewed through a roadside screen of trees and brush.

Scott’s Cumbrian Blue(s), New American Scenery, “View of Albany”, 2019, In-glaze screen print (decal) on salvaged Syracuse China with pearlware glaze, 11 x 11 x 1″, 28 cm dia.

Paul Scott, “Scott’s Cumbrian Blue(s), New American Scenery, Near the Oxbow (after Thomas Cole)”, 2019, in-glaze screen print (decal), on shell-edged pearlware platter c.1850, 13.5 x 16.75 x 2″.

Fleur.de.Sel's New York

Fleur.de.Sel’s New York

series of souvenir plates depicting New York City streetscapes drawn from the Instagram account @Fleur.de.Sel that appear timeless, illustrating the small businesses and cultural diversity that are increasingly at risk with the city’s dangerously inflated wealth gap.

READ MORE/VIEW PDF

“New American Scenery, New York and Transferwares”

In the early part of the nineteenth century, tens of thousands of printed blue and white tablewares from England were exported to North America. Scenes of the newly independent United States were used in a myriad of designs and were characterized by a deep blue semiotic. Alongside printed wallpapers and textiles these transferwares formed part of the new media of their day. Pictorial in nature, their vitrified designs remediated prints from book or magazine illustration, melding them with floral and botanical borders. By the end of the century, they became highly collectible and the subject of a number of books, including RT Haines Halsey’s classic ‘New York on Dark Blue Staffordshire Pottery’. Published in 1899, the limited edition tome plotted the history of the genre, illustrated by sumptuous photogravures in blue depicting a comprehensive range of pictorial transferwares. 120 years later, in my New American Scenery series of artworks I updates some of these early subject matters of New York using 21st century alternatives.

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Scott’s Cumbrian Blue(s), New American Scenery, “Fleurs.de.sel’s New York”, 2019, (set of twelve plates), In-glaze screen print (decal) on salvaged Syracuse China with pearlware glaze., 11 x 11 x 1″, 11″ or 28 cm diameter (each plate)

Stop, Keat’s & Palm Too… 511 Too… Chicken Place…Mexicana… Laundry Project 23, ChelseaHypermarket, Chelsea Square… Canal Street…. Stairs 361… Hot Dogs…. Village Pizza… Pizza Park… Ray’s Pizza, Jakes Saloon, Meatballs.

California Wildfires

California Wildfires

souvenir plate addresses ecological precarity by referencing the most severe wildfire season in California’s history that occurred in 2020.

Paul Scott, “Cumbrian Blue(s), New American Scenery, California Wildfires No:1″, 2019, in-glaze screen print (decal) on partially erased ‘Beauty Spots of California’, Staffordshire souvenir transferware plate, 9.75 x 9.75 x 1.25”.

Back of Paul Scott, “Cumbrian Blue(s), New American Scenery, California Wildfires No:1″, 2019, in-glaze screen print (decal) on partially erased ‘Beauty Spots of California’, Staffordshire souvenir transferware plate, 9.75 x 9.75 x 1.25”.

Cup Plates

“Cup Plates”

In the early part of the nineteenth century, transfer printed blue and white tablewares from Staffordshire were exported to North America in their tens of thousands. Pictorial in nature, their vitrified designs remediated print from book or magazine illustration, melding with floral and botanical borders. Scenes of the newly independent United States formed a significant part of this material. These transferwares included ‘Cup Plates’, tiny coasters used to protect furniture from marks whilst the diner drank coffee or tea from the cup’s accompanying saucer. Measuring between 9 to 11 cm (3.5 to 4 inches) across, the plates are characterised by deep cobalt blue prints melted into a pearlware glaze. Images and patterns were sometimes specifically designed and made for the small form, others (above) were collaged from tissue print details of larger patterns. Because of their small scale, flaws in the prints or their application are more obvious than on larger wares and they have their own aesthetic.

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Cumbrian Blue(s), Indian Point cup plate, 4/50. Transferware print on pearlware cup plate, 104mm. dia. Collaborative work with Paul Holdway (former head of engraving at Spode). Tissue print transfer taken from a copper plate engraved by Paul Holdway, Paul Scott 2021.

Paul Scott, “Cumbrian Blue(s), New American Scenery, Indian Point (detail)

Flint, Belle Island, & The Ghost Gardens of Detroit

“New American Cites, Flint, Belle Island & The Ghost Gardens of Detroit”

I grew up in Birmingham, Britain’s ‘Motor City’, where the local economy relied on car manufacturers…. Austin, Morris (later British Leyland), Mini, Rover and all the associated motor suppliers. As a student in the early 1970’s, holiday working included ‘industrial cleaning’ in the huge Austin works in Longbridge… then two summers were spent in an engineering factory in Balsall Heath, assembling brake pipe adjuster clamps (amongst other things). When car production eventually ceased in the city, unemployment, and the impoverishment of communities swiftly followed. I clearly recall the dereliction, then later demolition of huge industrial sites, and the yawing empty spaces. A few years later, similar scenes also became familiar to me in the Staffordshire pottery towns as the British ceramics industry all but collapsed. I was thus well aware, from first hand experience, of the effects of deindustrialisation on urban environments and communities. A series of early Cumbrian Blue(s) artworks reflected the ruin and decay of my home town in prints and tiled panels…

READ MORE/VIEW PDF

Paul Scott, “Cumbrian Blue(s), New American Scenery, Detroit Ghost Gardens No:2″, 2019, in-glaze screen print (decal) on salvaged Syracuse China with pearlware glaze, 12 x 12 x 1.25”, 30.48 x 30.48 x 3.18cm.

Paul Scott, “Scott’s Cumbrian Blue(s), New American Scenery, Belle Island Bridge, Detroit” 2019, in-glaze screen print (decal) on salvaged Syracuse China with pearlware glaze, 11 x 11 x 1″.

Pattern Samplers

Pattern Samplers

Paul Scott, “Cumbrian Blue(s), New American Scenery, Pattern Sampler No:4 (Adams)”, 2019, in-glaze decal collage on shell-edge, pearlware platter c.1820, 10 x 13 x 1.5″.

Paul Scott, “Cumbrian Blue(s), New American Scenery, Pattern Sampler No:1″, 2019, in-glaze screenprint (decal) on pearlware shell-edged platter c.1820, 11.75 x 14.75 x 1.5”

Posy Vases

Posy Vases

Cumbrian Blue(s) New American Scenery, Set of five posy vases. Comprising, Fleurs de Sel’s New York Canal Street & Village Pizza, Souvenir of Portland (Black Lives Matter) & Selma, Broken Treaties & Leonard Peltier, No Human Being is Illegal & Across the Borderline San Antonio, Fracked & California Wildfires. Each vase 165mm x 125mm x 85mm. Paul Scott 2022.

NAS | PROGRAMMING

PAUL SCOTT | ARTIST NEWS

PRESS & PUBLICATIONS

VIDEOS & LECTURES

PAUL SCOTT | ARTIST CATALOGS

CURRENT + RECENT EXHIBITIONS

NAS | TOUR SCHEDULE

FOR MORE

View Paul Scott’s Artist Profile

Paul Scott, "Cumbrian Blue(s), New American Scenery, Sampler Jug No:10, Shelburne & Sugar", 2024, Transfer print collage on pearlware jug with platinum lustre,14.5 x 15.25 x 12.25", 360mm x 390mm x 290mm. Shelburne Museum Collection. Artwork by Paul Scott, Photography by Chris Lewis.
Paul Scott, "Cumbrian Blue(s), New American Scenery, Posy Vase No: 2, No Human Being is Illegal", 2022, transfer print collage on pearlware posy vase, 6.5 x 4.5 x 3.25", 165mm x 125mm x 85mm.
Paul Scott, "Cumbrian Blue(s), New American Scenery, Broken Treaties, Standing Rock, After Ryan Vizzions, with Mega Mae Plenty Chief, Lakota Oyate on horseback, No. 3", 2022, transfer print collage on Wm Penn's Treaty transferware plate by Thomas Goodwin c.1835, 10.5 x 10.5 x 1.25". Red, blue, and white transferware plate, with updated decal imagery of Standing Rock, ND. The imagery is of Mega Mae Plenty Chief, a Lakota Oyate on horseback, posed in front of the police and military present and opposing. They are the single figure if front of the entire army presence, signifying the resistance to drilling for oil in the US on Native American Lands. Subject matter for the artwork includes the following artist series: New American Scenery, Native American, Antique, Energy, Environment, Race, Indigeneity
Paul Scott, "Cumbrian Blue(s). New American Scenery, California Wildfires No:5.", 2024, Transfer print on partially erased Beauty Spots of California transferware souvenir plate made in Staffordshire England c.1910 for Rowland Marsellus, 9.75 x 9.75 x 1.25". Artwork by Paul Scott, Photography by Chris Lewis.
Paul Scott, Cumbrian Blue(s), New American Scenery, Hudson River, Indian Point, 2017, transfer print collage on shell-edge, pearlware platter c.1855, 10.5 x 12.75 x 1.5". blue and white transferware plate with view of Hudson River New York and the Nuclear Power Plant at Indian Point.

NAS | ALL LOCATIONS

PAUL SCOTT | CURRENT & RECENT

NEW AMERICAN SCENERY IN THE US

“Paul Scott: New American Scenery” at the Albany Institute of History & Art, Albany, NY, August 13, 2022 to December 31, 2022.
“Paul Scott: New American Scenery” at the Albany Institute of History & Art, Albany, NY, August 13, 2022 to December 31, 2022.
“NEW AMERICAN SCENERY: The Art of Paul Scott”at the Albany Institute of History & Art

Visit these museums in the US that have recently acquired work from Scott’s American Scenery series.

Birmingham Museum of Art
Boston MFA
Brooklyn Museum
Carnegie Museum of Art
Chipstone Foundation
Crocker Art Museum
Hood Museum of Art
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts
Mount Holyoke Art Museum
Newark Museum
RISD Museum
Shelburne Museum
Yale Art Museum

IN PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

Mount Holyoke College Art Museum: (right) George Inness, American (1825-1894), “Saco Ford: Conway Meadows” 1876, oil on canvas. (center top) Homer Dodge Martin, American (1836-1897), “A Glimpse of Lake Placid,” 1887, oil on canvas. (center bottom) Paul Scott, “Scott’s Cumbrian Blue(s), American Scenery, Hudson River, Indian Point No. 4, ” 2015, ceramic transfer decal. (left) Albert Bierstadt, American (1830-1902), “Hetch Hetchy Canyon,” 1875, oil on canvas

ADDITIONAL US COLLECTIONS

Alturas Foundation, San Antonio, TX
Arizona State University Art Museum, Tempe, AZ
Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Boston MA
Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, AL
Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA
Chipstone Foundation, Milwaukee, WI
Copeland Borough Council Collection, Oregon College of Art and Craft Collection, Portland, OR
Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA
Denison University, Granville, OH
Kohler Company, Kohler, WI
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery, AL
Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, South Hadley, MA
New York Historical Society, New York, NY
Newark Art Museum, Newark, NJ
Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania, PA
RISD Museum, Providence, RI
Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC

NAS | AT MUSEUMS

PAST EXHIBITIONS

Pearlware, Polish, and Privilege: Artwork by Paul Scott

AT LSU MUSEUM OF ART | Baton Rouge, LA | October 27, 2022 to February 26, 2023

"Pearlware, Polish, and Privilege: Artwork by Paul Scott", Featuring works from New American Scenery, on view October 27, 2022–February 26, 2023 at LSU Museum of Art, Baton Rouge, LA.
"Pearlware, Polish, and Privilege: Artwork by Paul Scott", Featuring works from New American Scenery, on view October 27, 2022–February 26, 2023 at LSU Museum of Art, Baton Rouge, LA.
"Pearlware, Polish, and Privilege: Artwork by Paul Scott", Featuring works from New American Scenery, on view October 27, 2022–February 26, 2023 at LSU Museum of Art, Baton Rouge, LA.
"Pearlware, Polish, and Privilege: Artwork by Paul Scott", Featuring works from New American Scenery, on view October 27, 2022–February 26, 2023 at LSU Museum of Art, Baton Rouge, LA.
"Pearlware, Polish, and Privilege: Artwork by Paul Scott", Featuring works from New American Scenery, on view October 27, 2022–February 26, 2023 at LSU Museum of Art, Baton Rouge, LA.
"Pearlware, Polish, and Privilege: Artwork by Paul Scott", Featuring works from New American Scenery, on view October 27, 2022–February 26, 2023 at LSU Museum of Art, Baton Rouge, LA.
"Pearlware, Polish, and Privilege: Artwork by Paul Scott", Featuring works from New American Scenery, on view October 27, 2022–February 26, 2023 at LSU Museum of Art, Baton Rouge, LA.
"Pearlware, Polish, and Privilege: Artwork by Paul Scott", Featuring works from New American Scenery, on view October 27, 2022–February 26, 2023 at LSU Museum of Art, Baton Rouge, LA.
"Pearlware, Polish, and Privilege: Artwork by Paul Scott", Featuring works from New American Scenery, on view October 27, 2022–February 26, 2023 at LSU Museum of Art, Baton Rouge, LA.
“Pearlware, Polish, and Privilege: Artwork by Paul Scott”, Featuring works from New American Scenery, on view October 27, 2022–February 26, 2023 at LSU Museum of Art, Baton Rouge, LA.
“Pearlware, Polish, and Privilege: Artwork by Paul Scott”, Featuring works from New American Scenery, on view October 27, 2022–February 26, 2023 at LSU Museum of Art, Baton Rouge, LA.
“Pearlware, Polish, and Privilege: Artwork by Paul Scott”, Featuring works from New American Scenery, on view October 27, 2022–February 26, 2023 at LSU Museum of Art, Baton Rouge, LA.
“Pearlware, Polish, and Privilege: Artwork by Paul Scott”, Featuring works from New American Scenery, on view October 27, 2022–February 26, 2023 at LSU Museum of Art, Baton Rouge, LA.
“Pearlware, Polish, and Privilege: Artwork by Paul Scott”, Featuring works from New American Scenery, on view October 27, 2022–February 26, 2023 at LSU Museum of Art, Baton Rouge, LA.

Paul Scott: New American Scenery

at Albany Institute of History & Art | Albany, NY | August 13, 2022 – December 31, 2022

“NEW AMERICAN SCENERY: The Art of Paul Scott” at the Albany Institute of History & Art, 2022-2023. Installation images by John Polak Photography.
“NEW AMERICAN SCENERY: The Art of Paul Scott” at the Albany Institute of History & Art, 2022-2023. Installation images by John Polak Photography.
“NEW AMERICAN SCENERY: The Art of Paul Scott” at the Albany Institute of History & Art, 2022-2023. Installation images by John Polak Photography.
“NEW AMERICAN SCENERY: The Art of Paul Scott” at the Albany Institute of History & Art, 2022-2023. Installation images by John Polak Photography.
“NEW AMERICAN SCENERY: The Art of Paul Scott” at the Albany Institute of History & Art, 2022-2023. Installation images by John Polak Photography.

New American Scenery: Printed Ceramics by Paul Scott at Aberystwyth Arts Centre

Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth, England | July 9, 2022 – September 25, 2022

Paul Scott, Installing New American Scenery at Aberystwyth Arts Centre, July 1 2022.
Paul Scott, New American Scenery installation at Aberystwyth Arts Centre, July 1 2022.
Paul Scott, Installing New American Scenery at Aberystwyth Arts Centre, July 1 2022.
Detail, New American Scenery installation at Aberystwyth Arts Centre, July 1 2022.
Paul Scott, New American Scenery installation at Aberystwyth Arts Centre, July 1 2022.
Paul Scott is internationally known for his provocative ceramics that highlight political and cultural issues. Familiar designs associated with traditional domestic tableware are subversively manipulated to comment on our life and times. The exhibition includes exciting new work inspired by the blue and white ‘American’ transferware-printed earthenware that was made in Staffordshire during the 19th century and decorated with celebratory views of the emergent American republic.
Many of the pieces on display have resulted from periods of travel and research in the USA, where Paul’s activities were, in his words, ‘driven by issues and institutions as much as a desire to experience particular landscapes.’ He studied examples of American transferware in museum collections and visited many of the locations depicted, subsequently producing up-dated views that reflect current events as well as historical, environmental and social change. These ceramics have often involved a high degree of technical wizardry, whereby visual motifs are magically altered and meanings are transformed. The exhibition marks 20 years since Paul Scott first showed his work in the Ceramics Gallery at Aberystwyth Arts Centre.
Research in the USA supported by the Alturas Foundation.
Research in the archives at Wedgwood, Spode and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, supported by Arts Council England.

Raid the Icebox Now with Paul Scott: New American Scenery 

at RISD MUSEUM |Providence, RI | September 13, 2019 – December 31, 2021

Rhode School of Design Museum, Raid the Ice Box Now, Paul Scott, “New American Scenery” 2019, Installation view.
Rhode School of Design Museum, Raid the Ice Box Now, Paul Scott, “New American Scenery” 2019, Installation view.
Rhode School of Design Museum, Raid the Ice Box Now, Paul Scott, “New American Scenery” 2019, Installation view.
Rhode School of Design Museum, Raid the Ice Box Now, Paul Scott, “New American Scenery” 2019, Installation view.
Paul Scott, New American Scenery, Installation at RISD, design by Hans Teensma

This installation juxtaposes early 19th-century Staffordshire ceramic transferwares drawn from the shelves of the RISD Museum storage with new Cumbrian Blue(s) artworks. Replacing the porcelain works typically on view in the Lucy Truman Aldrich gallery, New American Scenery melds historic printed tablewares, altered antique ceramics, and reclaimed Syracuse China plates with new screenprints to update early transferware subjects for the 21st century.

In the early nineteenth century, imported Staffordshire blue-and-white printed transferwares formed part of the new media of their age. Collected at the beginning of the twentieth century as iconic depictions of the early, independent United States, many were later donated to public art museums inspiring a new wave of pictorial wares.

Over the last five years, Paul Scott has been investigating these transferwares as well as the contemporary landscape of the United States. An ongoing dialogue between documentary, historical, travel and artistic research has led to the creation of a new substantive body of artwork, New American Scenery.

In it, Scott references archives, objects, the motives, and thinking of original collectors as well as the post-industrial landscapes of twenty-first-century America. The new work deals with issues surrounding globalization, energy generation and consumption, capitalism and immigration, and other legacies of history. The artwork includes antique tablewares re-worked by selective erasure, re-glazing, and the addition of newly printed decals. Others involve the re-use of cut, broken fragments using collage and traditional restoration processes, as well as prints and other works on paper.

– RISD installation photography by Erik Gould. All other photography by John Polak.

• RISD K-12 VIRTUAL CURRICULUM

• FC IN CONVERSATION | MELTING POINT, RISING WATERS: Courtney M. Leonard, Paul Scott, Norwood Viviano, and curator Jami Powell, PhD

• FC IN CONVERSATION | RAID THE ICEBOX: Paul Scott, Beth Katleman, and curator Elizabeth A. Williams

• Founders’ Hour featuring Paul Scott introduced by Mint Museum’s curator of decorative arts, Brian Gallagher

• LECTURE & TOUR: presented by The Pottery and Porcelain Club at RISD, Providence, RI

• LECTURE: Paul Scott, Artist: New American Scenery, Transferwares for the 21st century presented by American Ceramic Circle 2019 Symposium

VIEW SELECT PAST RISD EVENTS
CLOSE

NAS | PAST

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

Virtual Tour by 3d Virtual Spaces
Courtesy of The Bowes Museum

THE BOWES MUSEUM

Barnard Castle, County Durham, England | September 26, 2020 – April 11, 2021

Paul Scott by the main display case of his ‘New American Scenery’ installtion at the Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, September 2020.
Detail, Central Case, end view 2, ‘New American Scenery’ at the Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle County Durham, UK, September 26, 2020 – January 9, 2022
Detail, ‘New American Scenery’ at the Bowes Museum, Sampler Jug, California Wildfires and Rowland Marsellus jug.
Detail, ‘New American Scenery’ at the Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle County Durham, UK, September 26, 2020 – January 9, 2022
Detail, Souvenir Wares, ‘New American Scenery’ at the Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle County Durham, UK, September 26, 2020 – January 9, 2022

New American Scenery showcases the latest ceramic works by the contemporary Cumbrian artist Paul Scott, featuring works of historical transferwares that have been updated for today’s audience.

Scott spent five years investigating early blue and white transferwares that were shipped from Staffordshire to the United States in the 19th century. He works with familiar blue and white ceramics, which were available cheaply so more commonly used than collected, to tell modern stories based on his trips around America. He reworks antique wares, erasing, adding and recreating new patterns by reusing cut and broken fragments or adding newly printed decals.

The exhibition will allow visitors to see the contrasts between the old and new shapes and forms and think about decoration and what it means.

14
Dec
2023
SERGEI ISUPOV: ALLIANCES Exhibition Catalog

SERGEI ISUPOV: ALLIANCES Exhibition Catalog

Ferrin Contemporary is proud to present new works from internationally renowned sculptor Sergei Isupov. SERGEI ISUPOV: ALLIANCES

Isupov’s artworks form alliances with one another as they move between media, explore scale, and are presented in curated exhibitions. Recent opportunities to create public works like his fire sculpture production and performances, along with solo exhibitions that show the full scope of Isupov’s creative versatility and process, have led to new works on paper, prints and wall installations combining ceramics with other materials.

  • Catalog release: December 1, 2023.
  • 15-page, full-color catalog
  • Installation Images & Artwork Highlights, All images by John Polak Photography
  • Exhibition Essay by Leslie Ferrin, Show Statements & Editorial by Ferrin Contemporary
  • Copyright© 2023 and published by Thorne-Sagendorph Gallery, Keene State College, Keene, NH
  • Design by Erica Pritchett.

Special thanks to co-curators, Paul McMullan, professor at Keene State College and Leslie Ferrin, director, Ferrin Contemporary and for editorial support by Alexandra Jelleberg, associate director, Ferrin Contemporary.

03
Jul
2023
COURTNEY M. LEONARD

COURTNEY M. LEONARD

The Heckscher Museum of Art and Planting Fields Foundation are pleased to present the work of artist Courtney M. Leonard (b. Shinnecock, 1980), on Long Island this summer, through COURTNEY M. LEONARD: Logbook 2004–2023 at The Heckscher Museum and BREACH: Logbook 23 | ROOT at Planting Fields Foundation. 

Visit Heckscher.org and Plantingfields.org for more information about these two dynamic exhibitions, including new commissioned work by Leonard, and related programming at each location.

Leonard’s powerful work in ceramics, painting, video, and installation engages with Long Island’s colonial history; celebrates Indigenous knowledge and resilience; and addresses urgent ecological issues. The exhibition debuts Contact, 2,023…, a new work that The Heckscher Museum has commissioned from Leonard. The large-scale work is a map of Long Island made up of thousands of individual porcelain thumbprints resembling shells. Leonard glazed them in colors and patterns that reference both wampum and delftware. The exhibition also features loans from the artist and from public and private collections.

Courtney M. Leonard: Logbook 2004–2023

The Heckscher Museum of Art | 2 Prime Avenue, Huntington, NY 11743
June 10, 2023 – November 12, 2023

BREACH: Logbook 23 | ROOT

Planting Field Foundation | 1395 Planting Fields Road, Oyster Bay, NY 11771

Courtney M. Leonard, "BREACH | Logbook 23", 2023, installation at Planting Fields Foundation.
Courtney M. Leonard, "BREACH | Logbook 23", 2023, installation at Planting Fields Foundation.
Courtney M. Leonard, "BREACH | Logbook 23", 2023, installation at Planting Fields Foundation.

FEATURED ARTWORK: CONTACT 2,023

Courtney M. Leonard, “Contact, 2,023…”, 2023, porcelain, enamel and red iron oxide transfers, artificial sinew, canvas, brass, 4 x 8 x 2′.

The Heckscher Museum of Art. Museum Purchase: Partial Funding from the Town of Huntington Art Acquisition Fund. Photo courtesy of The Heckscher Museum Art.

EXHIBITION CATALOG

Courtney M. Leonard is an exhibition catalogue that documents Leonard’s site-specific commission at Planting Fields, as well as a mid-career retrospective at the Hecksher Museum of Art. It also features an interview with Courtney M. Leonard, new photography, and essays from various contributors. The book was designed by Jeffrey Jenkins, edited by Gina J. Wouters, and features contributions from Courtney M. Leonard, Shavonne Smith, Karli Wurzelbacher, Emily Leger, and more. New photography of the site-specific commission at Planting Fields and the exhibition at the Heckscher Museum of Art were captured by David Almeida.

Courtney M. Leonard is available for purchase ($25 plus tax) in-person at the Planting Fields Foundation Visitor Center. It it also available on the Ferrin Contemporary online shop.

PURCHASE THE CATALOG HERE

READ MORE ABOUT THE CATALOG HERE

PAST PROGRAMMING

Panel: Shinnecock Art & Activism

Saturday, October 21, 2023
10:30 – 11:30 am

Shinnecock artist Courtney M. Leonard and Full Spectrum Indigenous Birth Worker (doula), Ahna Red Fox, discuss how motherhood has informed their work as activists. Leonard’s powerful work in ceramics, painting, video, and installation addresses urgent ecological issues and explores historical ties to water, land, and material culture. Her first retrospective exhibition, COURTNEY M. LEONARD: Logbook 2004-2023, is currently on view at The Heckscher Museum.

Members Free; Shinnecock Nation Members Free; Non-Members $10

Space is limited, advance registration required.

LEARN MORE HERE

EVENT: Book Signing with Courtney M. Leonard

Saturday, October 21, 2023
11:30 – 12:30 pm

Meet Courtney M. Leonard as she signs copies of her exhibition catalogue, published by Planting Fields Foundation and The Heckscher Museum of Art. Books available for purchase, $20 Members and $25 Non-Members.

PRESS

“Loving whales, Shinnecock artist explores climate change through Indigenous knowledge” | WSHU Public Radio | 6.22.2023

VIDEO: “Shinnecock artist Courtney Leonard showcases work at Heckscher Museum of Art” | NewsdayTV | 6.2023

15 Art Shows to See in New York This September | Hyperallergic | 9.13.23 

ABOUT COURTNEY M. LEONARD

Courtney M. Leonard is an artist and filmmaker, who has contributed to the Offshore Art movement. Leonard’s current work embodies the multiple definitions of “breach”, an exploration and documentation of historical ties to water, whale and material sustainability.

In collaboration with national and international museums, cultural institutions, and indigenous communities in North America, New Zealand, Nova Scotia, and the United States Embassies, Leonard’s practice investigates narratives of cultural viability as a reflection of environmental record.

30
Mar
2023
SERGEI ISUPOV

SERGEI ISUPOV

ARTWORK

FEATURED WORKS

USSR

All Were Once Children

Sergei Isupov, "All Were Once Children", 2019, porcleain, slip, glaze, 15 x 11 x 9".

Friendly Fight

Overwork

NEW WORKS FROM THE STUDIO

Ancestor

Sergei Isupov, "Ancestor", 2023, oil ink print on paper, 98 x 98". Photo by John Polak Photography.

Lips, Eyes, Ear, Eyebrows

"SERGEI ISUPOV: Alliances", Exhibition Installation at Thorne-Sagendorph Art Gallery, Keene State College, Keene, NH, October 25-December 6, 2023 Installation of Sergei Isupov, "Lips Eyes Ear Eyebrow", 2023, carving on plywood, ceramic, oil ink, 96 x 96". Image by Ferrin Contemporary.

AVAILABLE ARTWORKS & SERIES

SERGEI ISUPOV: PAST & PRESENT

2022 | Solo Exhibition at Ferrin Contemporary

Ceramic sculptures are presented with both a multi-dimensional, mixed-media wall installation and independent pedestal-based works. Isupov and Ferrin Contemporary have had exhibitions internationally since 1996. This was the artist’s third solo show in our North Adams gallery location.

Both of Isupov’s 2022 exhibitions include works in porcelain and mixed-media drawings produced at Project Art in Cummington, MA. 

Past & Present

Full Moon Addiction

Like An Eternity

Marriage for the Ages

Momentary Darkness

Nature is Within Us

ANDROGYNY

HEADS & BUSTS

The Androgyny series of heads and busts, often with surrealistic features and complex facial expressions, was first presented by Ferrin Gallery in 2008 (Pittsfield, MA Location). The works were exhibited in his groundbreaking solo show at Mesa Contemporary Arts Center (Mesa, AZ) and traveled to the Daum Museum of Art (Sedalia, MO) in 2009. Isupov returns to this scale and series with the most recent work Heritage featured in Alliances (Keene, NH) in 2023. Select pieces remain in the artist’s archive available for exhibition, public and private collections. 

Soul of the Planet

Sergei Isupov, "Soul of the Planet", 2008-2010, stoneware, stain, glaze, 28 x 28 x 22". Photo by John Polak Photography

Heritage

Sergei Isupov, "Heritage", 2023, stoneware, stain, glaze, 32 x 29 x 16". Photo by John Polak Photography.
Sergei Isupov, "Heritage", 2023, stoneware, stain, glaze, 32 x 29 x 16". Photo by John Polak Photography.

2009 | “Androgyny: New Work by Sergei Isupov”, Daum Museum of Contemporary Art, Sedalia, MO, October 3 – December 6, 2009

2009 | “Androgyny”, Mesa Contemporary Arts Center, Mesa, AZ, April 10 – August 2, 2009

2008 | “Androgyny, The Preview, Solo Exhibition: Sculpture, Painting, Drawing”; Ferrin Gallery, Pittsfield, MA

“My work is about contrasts and relationships. I explore contrasts of human condition with my story lines such as male-female and human-animal relationships, and accompanying emotions of warmth and aggression, love and rejection, and nurture and abandonment. Dynamic and interactive narratives are developed using two and three dimensions at the same time with the sculpted form and painted surface. I use a visual vocabulary and classic tools of design, proportion, perspective and silhouette to both sculpt and paint. Eyes show emotional relationships. Facial and figural gestures develop personalities. Illusionary objects and perspectives suggest motion. As a viewer moves around the work, they see each angle and focus point leading to new chapters and story lines. Combined, these clues tell an overall story.”

Busker

Chosen One

Sergei Isupov, "Chosen One", 2009, stoneware, stain, glaze, 29 x 22 x 23". Photo by John Polak Photography

Guardian

Sergei Isupov, "Guardian", 2009, stoneware, slip, glaze, 25.5 x 20 x 17.5". Photo by John Polak Photography

Horsepower

Sergei Isupov, "Horsepower", 2009, stoneware, slip, glaze, 32 x 19 x 17". Photo by John Polak Photography

Man

Sergei Isupov, "Man", 2009, stoneware, stain, glaze, 27.5 x 23 x 13". Photo by John Polak Photography

Midnight Son

FIGURAL SCULPTURE

“Art is a life style for me.  Everything that surrounds and excites me is automatically processed and transformed into the final result: an artwork.  It is fascinating to watch the transitions from life to art. The essence of my work is not in the medium or the creative process, but the in 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.

I find ceramic to be the most versatile material and it is well suited to the expression of my ideas.   I consider sculpture to be a canvas for my paintings. All plastic, graphic and painting elements of the piece function as complementary parts of the work.

In this series of two-legged figures, Statuettes, the form is classical but the characters are comical.  I like the contrast of serious to humorous – the front is cartoon like but the back of each figure features an intimate painting of the being’s spirit.  

While each one expresses an individual personality or character, as a group, they become a population, inhabitants of my imaginary world or visitors from my imagination.”

Hidden Messages

Game Changer

Sergei Isupov, "Game Changer", 2023, porcelain, underglaze, glaze, 17.5 x 8 x 6.5".
Sergei Isupov, "Game Changer", 2023, back, porcelain, underglaze, glaze, 17.5 x 8 x 6.5".

Puppeteer

Sergei Isupov, "Pupeteer", 2023, porcelain, underglaze, glaze, 18.5 x 8 x 7".
Sergei Isupov, "Pupeteer", 2023, back, porcelain, underglaze, glaze, 18.5 x 8 x 7".

Silver Anniversary

Sergei Isupov, "Silver Anniversary", 2019, porcleain, slip, glaze, 15.5 x 9.5 x 7".
Sergei Isupov, "Silver Anniversary", 2019, detail, porcleain, slip, glaze, 15.5 x 9.5 x 7".

HUMANIMALS

Humanimals, transform anthropomorphic sculptures that explore human relationships by blending the expression and gesture of the combined species.

A sculptural surrealist, Isupov first created works in the Humanimal Series around 2011, with a set of “standing figures” (animal/human hybrids) and “riders” (animal figures on animal/human hybrids)

In 2015 Isupov returned to his iconic form of the Humanimal, a series of standing oversized figurines. New groups and works emerge as the artist delves into the right form for each of his concepts. Close Your Eyes Open Your Eyes, Burden II, Butterfly Catcher, Life’s Work, and Strong hail from multiple eras in the artist’s exploration of the series.

“The animal faces and features represent the beast or natural animal instincts that are often in conflict with reason and intellect.

The hand represents the hand of a human or god – both a comforting support for humanity and a force of opposition or challenge to animal instincts.

The two sculptures explore these ideas of opposing forces of nature and humanity, man and beast, integral and constant throughout life.  There is nothing literal intended in the choice of imagery or narrative.  The images and expressions are of male/female/animal – symbolic, metaphoric, and intended to provide for individual interpretation. ”

Close Your Eyes, Open Your Eyes

Butterfly Catcher

Burden II

Sergei Isupov, "Burden II", 2021, stoneware, slip, glaze, 15.5 x 15 x 6.5". Ceramic sculpture with human and animal forms.
Sergei Isupov, "Burden II", 2021, stoneware, slip, glaze, 15.5 x 15 x 6.5". Ceramic sculpture with human and animal forms.

Life’s Work

Sergei Isupov, "Life's Work" 2011, porcelain, slip, glaze, 16.875 x 14.75 x 5.5"
Sergei Isupov, "Life's Work" 2011, porcelain, slip, glaze, 16.875 x 14.75 x 5.5"

Strong

Sergei Isupov, "Strong" 2011, porcelain, slip, glaze, 14.5 x 7.5 x 7.5".
Sergei Isupov, "Strong" 2011, reverse, porcelain, slip, glaze, 14.5 x 7.5 x 7.5".

LARGE WORKS, INSTALLATIONS, & TABLEAUS

Challenged by opportunities to expand his scale, Isupov’s recent exhibition Alliances featured a wall relief sculpture using the carved plywood printing plate (left) and the resulting print (right) bringing together ceramic sculpture, assemblage, and printmaking practices to show the full scope of creative versatility and process. Towering larger than life figures and animated life size tableaus anchor his solo exhibitions in galleries and museums. 

Lips Eyes Ear Eyebrow

Woodblock & Print | Installation

Installation of "Lips, Eyes, Ear, Eyebrows" & "Ancestor", (2023), with "Busker" (2009) and "Heritage" (2023) sculptures. Photo by John Polak Photography. "SERGEI ISUPOV: Alliances", Exhibition Installation at Thorne-Sagendorph Art Gallery, Keene State College, Keene, NH, October 25-December 6, 2023.

Directions

Coffee & Milk

On the Way

PUBLIC ARTWORK

Fire sculptures, public art, engage the public in community based projects. Isupov currently has 3 public works on view along Main Street in Cummington, MA and more around the world. 

Earth & Fire | Fire Sculptures

MORE ABOUT THE FIRE SCULPTURES

Everything is Upside Down

FOLLOW ALONG ON INSTAGRAM

Miss Comet

Sergei Isupov, "Miss Comet", 2022 Installation, Project Art, Cummington, MA Photo by John Polak Photography.

MORE ABOUT MISS COMET

ABOUT

SERGEI ISUPOV

Sergei Isupov Artist Portrait, 2021, Photo Credit: John Polak

ARCHIVE OF WORKS

SERGEIISUPOV.COM

WORKSHOPS
CV
BIO

ABOUT

Estonian-American, b. 1963 Stavropole, USSR,
lives and works between Cummington, MA, USA and Tallinn, Estonia

Sergei Isupov is an Estonian-American sculptor internationally known for his highly detailed, narrative works. Isupov explores painterly figure-ground relationships, creating surreal sculptures with a complex artistic vocabulary that combines two- and three-dimensional narratives and animal/human hybrids. He works in ceramics using traditional hand-building and sculpting techniques to combine surface and form with narrative painting using colored stains highlighted with clear glaze.

Isupov has a long international resume with work included in numerous collections and exhibitions, including the National Gallery of Australia, Museum Angewandte in Kunst, Germany, and in the US at the Carnegie Museum of Art, Crocker Art Museum, Everson Museum of Art, Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, Museum of Arts and Design, Museum of Fine Arts–Boston, Museum of Fine Arts–Houston, Mint Museum of Art, and Racine Art Museum. In 2017, his solo exhibition at The Erie Art Museum presented selected works in a 20-year career survey titled Hidden Messages, followed by Surreal Promenade e, another survey solo in 2019 at the Russian Museum of Art in Minnesota.

ON HIS WORK

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.

“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.”

ANDROGYNY SERIES

HEADS & BUSTS

The Androgyny series of heads and busts, often with surrealistic features and complex facial expressions, was first presented by Ferrin Gallery in 2008 (Pittsfield, MA Location). The works and show traveled to Mesa Contemporary Arts Center (Mesa, AZ) and the Daum Museum of Art (Sedalia, MO) in 2009, and select pieces remain in the artist’s archive for use in contemporary installations as well as available for collections and client acquisitions. 

2009 | “Androgyny: New Work by Sergei Isupov”, Daum Museum of Contemporary Art, Sedalia, MO, October 3 – December 6, 2009

2009 | “Androgyny”, Mesa Contemporary Arts Center, Mesa, AZ, April 10 – August 2, 2009

2008 | “Androgyny, The Preview, Solo Exhibition: Sculpture, Painting, Drawing”; Ferrin Gallery, Pittsfield, MA

FIGURATIVE WORKS

“Art is a life style for me.  Everything that surrounds and excites me is automatically processed and transformed into the final result: an artwork.  It is fascinating to watch the transitions from life to art. The essence of my work is not in the medium or the creative process, but the in 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.

I find ceramic to be the most versatile material and it is well suited to the expression of my ideas.   I consider sculpture to be a canvas for my paintings. All plastic, graphic and painting elements of the piece function as complementary parts of the work.

In this series of two-legged figures, Statuettes, the form is classical but the characters are comical.  I like the contrast of serious to humorous – the front is cartoon like but the back of each figure features an intimate painting of the being’s spirit.  

While each one expresses an individual personality or character, as a group, they become a population, inhabitants of my imaginary world or visitors from my imagination.”

HUMANIMAL SERIES

Humanimals, transform anthropomorphic sculptures that explore human relationships by blending the expression and gesture of the combined species.

A sculptural surrealist, Isupov first created works in the Humanimal Series around 2011, with a set of “standing figures” (animal/human hybrids) and “riders” (animal figures on animal/human hybrids)

In 2015 Isupov returned to his iconic form of the Humanimal, a series of standing oversized figurines. New groups and works emerge as the artist delves into the right form for each of his concepts. Close Your Eyes Open Your Eyes, Burden II, Butterfly Catcher, Life’s Work, and Strong hail from multiple eras in the artist’s exploration of the series.

“The animal faces and features represent the beast or natural animal instincts that are often in conflict with reason and intellect.

The hand represents the hand of a human or god – both a comforting support for humanity and a force of opposition or challenge to animal instincts.

The two sculptures explore these ideas of opposing forces of nature and humanity, man and beast, integral and constant throughout life.  There is nothing literal intended in the choice of imagery or narrative.  The images and expressions are of male/female/animal – symbolic, metaphoric, and intended to provide for individual interpretation. ”

EXHIBITIONS

FEATURED & PAST EXHIBITIONS

50 Years in the Making: Alumni Exhibition at The Clay Studio, June 13th – September 1st, 2024, featuring Sergei Isupov, Paul Scott, and Lauren Mabry

50 Years in the Making – Alumni Exhibition

2024 | Group Exhibition at The Clay Studio | Philadelphia, PA

featuring work by Paul Scott, Sergei Isupov, and Lauren Mabry

June 13th through Sep 1st, 2024

This Alumni Exhibition showcases artwork to reflect the current practice of the This Alumni Exhibition showcases artwork to reflect the current practice of the over 150 artist who have participated in The Clay Studio’s Resident Artist Program, Guest Artist Program, and Associate Artist Program over the 50 years since its founding.

View the exhibition page HERE

Kadri Pärnamets, "Fragments of Waves", 2024, porcelain, slip, glaze

Kadri Pärnamets, “Fragments of Waves”, 2024, porcelain, slip, glaze

Sergei Isupov & Kadri Pärnamets in CLAYTOPIA Summer Festival | Guldagergaard, Skælskør, Denmark

2024 | Group Exhibition at Claytopia at Guldagergaard | Skælskør, Denmark

featuring work by Sergei Isupov & Kadri Pärnamets

July 10th through August 10th, 2024

Claytopia is Guldagergaard’s initiative geared towards engaging the public, offering a unique space within the beautiful park surrounding Guldagergaard.

Among Claytopia’s activities are outdoor art exhibitions, concerts, discussion salons, and a design boutique.

View the exhibition page HERE

Ferrin Contemporary presents Paul Scott in "Our America/Whose America?". Installation for NCECA Richmond, 2024 at the Wickham House at The Valentine Museum, Richmond, VA. Image courtesy of The Valentine Museum.

Ferrin Contemporary presents Paul Scott in “Our America/Whose America?”. Installation for NCECA Richmond, 2024 at the Wickham House at The Valentine Museum, Richmond, VA. Image courtesy of The Valentine Museum.

OUR AMERICA/WHOSE AMERICA?

2024 | Group Exhibition in the Wickham House at the Valentine Museum | Richmond, VA

February 20, 2024 – April 21, 2024

Our America/Whose America? Is a “call and response” exhibition between contemporary artists and historic ceramic objects.

View the exhibition page HERE

Ferrin Contemporary “Our America/Whose America?” Dining Room Installation at the Wickham House, Richmond, VA, 2024

ALLIANCES

Thorne-Sagendorph Art Gallery

Keene State College | Keene, NH

Oct. 25 – Dec. 9, 2023

Reception November 18, 3-5 pm

The Artist’s 22nd Solo Exhibition

Featuring Artworks from the Artist’s Archive
& New Productions from The Studio

Installation Title Wall, featuring the artist's tools and drawings from Sergei Isupov's "Lips, Eyes, Ears, Eyebrows" and works in progress drawing series. Photo by John Polak Photography. "SERGEI ISUPOV: Alliances", Exhibition Installation at Thorne-Sagendorph Art Gallery, Keene State College, Keene, NH, October 25-December 6, 2023.

Installation Title Wall, featuring the artist’s tools and drawings from Sergei Isupov’s “Lips, Eyes, Ears, Eyebrows” and works in progress drawing series. Sculptures include “Crazy”, “Duel” (2006), and “Midnight Son” (2009). Photo by John Polak Photography. “SERGEI ISUPOV: Alliances”, Exhibition Installation at Thorne-Sagendorph Art Gallery, Keene State College, Keene, NH, October 25-December 6, 2023.

Sergei Isupov, "Ancestor", 2023, oil ink print on paper, 98 x 98". Photo by John Polak Photography.

Sergei Isupov, “Ancestor”, 2023, oil ink print on paper, 98 x 98″. Photo by John Polak Photography.

Sergei Isupov, "Heritage", 2023, stoneware, stain, glaze, 32 x 29 x 16". Photo by John Polak Photography.

Sergei Isupov, “Heritage”, 2023, stoneware, stain, glaze, 32 x 29 x 16″. Photo by John Polak Photography.

Sergei Isupov, "Lips, Eyes, Ear, Eyebrows", 2023, carving on plywood, ceramic, oil ink, 96 x 96". Photo by John Polak Photography.

Sergei Isupov, “Lips, Eyes, Ear, Eyebrows”, 2023, carving on plywood, ceramic, oil ink, 96 x 96″. Photo by John Polak Photography.

Ferrin Contemporary | July 15 – September 2, 2023

Sergei Isupov, "Pupeteer", 2023, porcelain, underglaze, glaze, 18.5 x 8 x 7".

Sergei Isupov, “Pupeteer”, 2023, porcelain, underglaze, glaze, 18.5 x 8 x 7″.

Are We There Yet? 2023, Chris Antemann, Sergei Isupov, Lauren Mabry

Are We There Yet? 2023, Chris Antemann, Sergei Isupov, Lauren Mabry

Sergei Isupov, "Game Changer", 2023, porcelain, underglaze, glaze, 17.5 x 8 x 6.5".

Sergei Isupov, “Game Changer”, 2023, porcelain, underglaze, glaze, 17.5 x 8 x 6.5″.

Isupov and Ferrin Contemporary have had exhibitions internationally since 1996, including key exhibitions and monumental installations that display various themes and series, which Isupov builds upon and pulls from to compose new environments and show content.

Isupov’s exhibitions include works in porcelain and mixed-media drawings produced at Project Art in Cummington, MA. 

PAST & PRESENT

2022 Solo Exhibition | Ferrin Contemporary | North Adams, MA

Sergei Isupov: Past & Present, 2022, Installation View
Sergei Isupov: Past & Present, 2022, Installation View
Sergei Isupov: Past & Present, 2022, Installation View
Sergei Isupov: Past & Present, 2022, Installation View
Sergei Isupov: Past & Present, 2022, Installation View

CURRENT + RECENT EXHIBITIONS

NEWS & FEATURES

WORKSHOPS

SERGEI ISUPOV WORKSHOPS

We are pleased to be launching a new series of digital workshops
through Project Art 01026.com, with Sergei Isupov.

Workshop dates and more information can be found on

PROJECT ART 01026

NEWS & FEATURES