Project Tag: contemporary ceramics

04
May
2017
KURT WEISER: The Nature of Imagination

KURT WEISER: The Nature of Imagination

The Nature of Imagination
solo exhibition of recent works by Kurt Weiser

October 4 – 30, 2013
Cross MacKenzie Gallery, Washington, DC

Artist Lecture: October 3, 7 pm
Hammer Auditorium, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washinton, DC

In collaboration with Ferrin Contemporary, Cross MacKenzie Gallery is proud to present a solo exhibition by noted ceramic artist, Kurt Weiser.   Internationally recognized as an innovator in the field, Weiser is known for his technical virtuosity with porcelain forms, and his pioneering use of china painting techniques in his distinct contemporary style.  Inspired by the 19th century illustrators of natural history like John James Audubon, Mark Catesby and William Bartram, Weiser develops the explorers’ imagery in clay.

The artist infuses the exquisite mastery of porcelain from the Ming and Qing dynasties and Meissen court painting, with the private reveries lifted from the pages of his nature-filled notebooks.  His subject matter is lush, mysterious landscapes and distorted narratives set amidst color-saturated flora and fauna that read as voyeuristic snapshots into a surreal new world.  Into his jungle scenes, figurative elements appear in his work, drawn both from fantasy and art history. Weiser’s figures, often nude and distorted across the planes of his vessels, move through steamy, Eden-like landscapes, interacting with the natural world they encounter. Themes of lust, predation, scientific curiosities, and the vulnerability of both man and nature abound in these scenes, resonating curiously with the cultivated vessel forms and refined medium Weiser has chosen.  The vessel forms have morphed into globes of the world where the artist maps out his fantastic drawings of the earth of his vivid imagination. Recently, the artist’s forms have evolved into cubist inspired volumes creating multiple surfaces for his supremely rendered blue and white explorations.  This exhibition presents work from 2009 – 2013.

Kurt Weiser is currently Regents Professor of Art in the Herberger College of the Arts, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ.  Born in 1950 in Lansing, Michigan, Weiser trained in ceramics at the Kansas City Art Institute under Ken Ferguson and received his MFA at the University of Michigan.  He was director of the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, Montana before moving to Arizona.  Weiser’s work is included in numerous books and catalogs, cited in dozens of magazine articles and represented in significant museum collections worldwide.

Kurt Weiser is represented by Ferrin Contemporary.  Read more and see more…

Kurt Weiser, “Nightshade” 2013, china painted porcelain, 19 x 12 x 8″
Kurt Weiser, “Nightshade” 2013, reverse, china painted porcelain, 19 x 12 x 8″
Kurt Weiser, “Wildfall” 2013, reverse, china painted porcelain, 9.5 x 8 x 4″
Kurt Weiser, “Wildfall” 2013, reverse, china painted porcelain, 9.5 x 8 x 4″
Kurt Weiser, “Fruit Story” 2013, china painted porcelain, 19 x 13 x 7″.
Kurt Weiser, “Fruit Story” (reverse) 2013, china painted porcelain, 19 x 13 x 7″.
Kurt Weiser, “Pair of Cubist Vases (2)” 2013, porcelain, cobalt pigment, glaze, 23.5 x 12 x 10″.
Kurt Weiser, “Pair of Cubist Vases (1)” 2013, porcelain, cobalt pigment, glaze, 23.5 x 12 x 10″.
Kurt Weiser, “Tea Pot” 2013, china painted porcelain, 8 x 9 x 4″.
Kurt Weiser, “Hear No Evil Double Bottle” 2013, porcelain, 18 x 16 x 8.5″
Kurt Weiser, “Hear No Evil Double Bottle” 2013, porcelain, 18 x 16 x 8.5″
04
May
2017
UNCANNY CONGRUENCIES

UNCANNY CONGRUENCIES

Uncanny Congruencies

September 10–December 15, 2013
Palmer Museum of Art

A group exhibition including Christa Assad, Jason Walker, and other artists.

The power of art is often found in those uncanny spaces between formal abstraction and the narratives of representation. Inseparable parts of a more complex whole, the form of abstraction and the content of representation are the collaborative conditions that have created the most compelling works of art since antiquity. Uncanny Congruencies investigates these elliptical crisscrossings, and offers a nuanced dialogue with its audiences through the seemingly dissimilar work of eighteen alumni of the Penn State School of Visual Arts—all of which intersects and dialogues with one another in surprising ways.

The tyranny of certainty and the increasing fear of ambiguity in our age of instant messaging and immediate gratification are challenged by the exhibition’s curatorial invitation to see beyond the obvious. Viewers are encouraged to engage with works of art in relation to one another. Where do these disparate sensibilities intersect and connect? More important, how do these artists distinguish themselves in our highly complex and competitive world?

Uncanny Congruencies is being presented as part of the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the College of Arts and Architecture at Penn State and was guest co-curated by Micaela Amateau Amato, professor emerita of art and women’s studies. The exhibition and related events are being co-sponsored by the Palmer Museum of Art and the School of Visual Arts at Penn State.

Artists in the exhibition include Brian Alfred, Cara Judea Alhadeff, Christa Assad, Kenn Bass, Judith Bernstein, Gerald Davis, Robert Ecker, Suzan Frecon, Krista Hoefle, Marina Kuchinski, Helen Harrington Marden, Beverly McIver, Tim Roda, Malcolm Mobutu Smith, Allen C. Topolski, Jason Walker, Henry Wessel, and David W. Young.
Christa Assad and Jason Walker are represented by Ferrin Contemporary.

Jason Walker, “Expecting” 2010, porcelain, underglaze, 15 x 9 x 10″.
Jason Walker, “Standing in the Grass” 2009, porcelain, underglaze, plastic tubing, resin, 19 x 20 x 7″.
Jason Walker, “Desert Frog” 2008, porcelain, underglaze, 21 x 10 x 10″.
Christa Assad, “Detroit River” 2011, porcelain, underglaze, glaze, 8.5 x 10 x 7″.
Christa Assad, “Benxi, China” 2011, porcelain, underglaze, glaze, 7 x 10 x 7″.
Christa Assad, “North Sea Canal” 2011, porcelain, underglaze, glaze, 9 x 11.5 x 7″.
03
May
2017
Jason Walker at Ceramic Biennalie 2017 in Korea

Jason Walker at Ceramic Biennalie 2017 in Korea

JASON WALKER in Korean Biennale

Jason Walker is an invited artist in “Story Telling: About Life” at the 9th Gyeonggi International Ceramic Biennale 2017 in Korea, presented by the Korea Ceramic Foundation (KOCEF) from April 22 to May 28, 2017 at Icheon World Ceramics Center in Icheon Cerapia, Gyeonggi Province.

Click here to view more works by Jason Walker.
Click here to inquire about available works.
Click here for more on Korean Biennale.

01
May
2017
STEVEN YOUNG LEE: Red, White and Blue

STEVEN YOUNG LEE: Red, White and Blue

Steven Young Lee: Red, White and Blue
April 11 – May 12, 2013
Jane Hartsook Gallery

July 31–September 1, 2013
Ferrin Contemporary at Independent Art Projects

May 27–August 16, 2013
Ceramic Top 40 at Harvard

The Jane Hartsook Gallery at Greenwich House Pottery is pleased to present Montana-based artist Steven Young Lee in New York City Solo Exhibition debut. Lee explores identity through the appropriation of historical style. Though his approach is characteristically postmodern and he addresses identity through the substance of existence via cultural constructions, his approach is refreshingly not ironical.

“My work investigates how individual realities are formed. I am fascinated in concepts and development of self that are based on identification with environment, traditions and superstitions while often straddling cultural boundaries…challenge[ing] preconceptions that can reshape our sense of identity and culture.

The pieces I create appropriate elements of form, decoration, color, image and material that are distinct from specific cultures or periods in history…I see these as reminders of the past, but also as objects that I have become emotionally invested in discovering my own sense of place.”—Steven Young Lee

Steven Young Lee is the Resident Artist Director of the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, Montana. A native of Chicago, Lee received his MFA from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University in 2004. In 2004-5, he lectured and taught at numerous universities throughout China. While there, he created a new body of work as part of a one-year cultural and educational exchange fellowship in Jingdezhen, Jianxi Province. A former Bray resident, Steven also spent a year teaching at the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Vancouver, B.C. in 2005-2006.

In the United States, he has taught classes at Alfred University, Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan, the Clay Art Center in New York and the Lillstreet Studio in Chicago. His work has been exhibited in China, Canada and throughout the United States and is held in private collections in New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois and Montana.

Lee maintains an active studio practice rooted in both functional and sculptural ceramics. His current work examines cultural references and how individuals draw realities based on experiences and environment. Through his sculpture and vessels, he challenges pre-conceptions of style, form, symbolism, superstitions and identity.

Contact: Adam Welch
212.242.4106, ext. 22
16 Jones Street, New York, NY 10014
www.greenwichhousepottery.org

This program is supported by the Windgate Charitable Foundation, Greenwich Collection LTD., by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and the New York State Council on the Arts.

Photo Caption: Cup Panels (Red Blue White), 46 x 50 x 4″ each, 2013, Porcelain, Glass Shelving

To see more about Steven Young Lee

Steven Young Lee, “Blue Cup Panel” 2013, porcelain with cobalt inlay, 46 x 50 x 4″.

01
May
2017
Raymon Elozua: Hubris: Images Made Flesh

Raymon Elozua: Hubris: Images Made Flesh

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.

Click to see more of Elozua’s work. 

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30
Apr
2017
Raymon Elozua: R & D Sculptures 2014

Raymon Elozua: R & D Sculptures 2014

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.

$30

The 32-page, full-color catalog was published in 2014 by Encore Une Fois Press, Mountaindale, NY

PURCHASE
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30
Apr
2017
EXPOSED: Heads, Busts, and Nudes figural ceramic sculpture from 1970 to the present

EXPOSED: Heads, Busts, and Nudes figural ceramic sculpture from 1970 to the present

EXPOSED: Heads, Busts, and Nudes figural ceramic sculpture from 1970 to the present

Work by 25 contemporary artists “working in clay and for whom the figure has been a rich and enduring motif.” Catalog includes work from the exhibit at Ferrin Contemporary as well as pieces available from private collections and artist studios.

  • Introduction by Leslie Ferrin, Director, Ferrin Contemporary
  • Essay by Mark Leach, author and independent curator
  • 75 page, full-color catalog
  • $30