Published in 2015 by Ferrin Contemporary, North Adams, MA
Sin-ying Ho’s aesthetic is a mash-up of Chinese traditional and global contemporary culture. Classical Chinese motifs are juxtaposed with a visual vocabulary that incorporate contemporary symbols that trace the complex universal human traits of greed, hope, and technological transformation.This piece highlights four of her pieces.
12-page, full-color catalog
$10
Sergei Isupov, “Ring of Fire”, 2004, porcelain, 20 x 10 x 8″.
Published in 2006 by Ferrin Gallery, Lenox, MA
This visual survey marks the tenth anniversary of the working relationship between the artist and Ferrin Gallery.
Features works from 1996–2006 with short biographical essay and curriculum vitae.
Sergei Isupov Catalog 1996-2006
32-page, full-color exhibition catalog
Sergei Isupov, “Say Nothing”, 2008, stoneware, stain, glaze, 33 x 16 x 11″.
Published in 2009 by Mesa Contemporary Arts Center, Mesa AZ
• Essay by Sonya Bekkerman, Senior Vice President, Russian Art, Sotheby’s
• Introduction by Patty Haberman, Curator, Mesa Contemporary Arts
• Project Summary by Leslie Ferrin, Director, Ferrin Gallery
64-page softbound book with 36 color plates
Published in 2006 by New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, CT
• Forward by Douglas Hyland, Director, New Britain Museum of American Art.
• Essay by Bruce W. Pepich, Executive Director and Curator of Collection, Racine Art Museum, Racine, WI
32-page, full-color exhibition catalog
20-page, full-color exhibition catalog
$15.00
Jason Walker, On the River, Down the Road cover
Published in 2014 by Bellevue Arts Museum, Bellevue, Washington
• Forward by Stefano Catalani
• Interview with Jason Walker and Stefano Catalani: A Conversation on Rivers, Roads, and the Split Down the Middle
• Exploring the ecological and existential themes informing the site specific installation
20-page, full-color exhibition catalog
group show of ceramic figural sculpture by masters 1965–present originally presented at 1315 MASS MoCA Way, North Adams, MA, from June 18 to September 5, 2016
* offered from private collections
EXPOSED: Heads, Busts, and Nudes is an exhibition of figural ceramic sculpture from 1965 to the present and features masterworks from estates and private collections alongside recent work direct from artist studios, which was originally presented at 1315 MASS MoCA Way, North Adams, MA, from June 18 to September 5, 2016.
This group of noted American and British sculptors explores themes that range from social realism to otherworldly surrealism to abstraction of form. The overview illustrates how early practitioners in California’s Bay Area during in the 1960s and 1970s, such as Robert Arneson, Viola Frey, and Stephen De Staebler, continue to inspire artists today. Known for their use of clay in combination with painted glaze surfaces, these artists challenge presumptions and their work defies easy categorization as sculpture, decorative arts, or studio craft.
The exhibit that took place at Ferrin Contemporary’s gallery in western Massachusetts presents a selection of available works by living and deceased artists featured in the accompanying catalog EXPOSED: Heads, Busts, and Nudes. The publication includes an introduction by curator Leslie Ferrin and an informative essay by author and independent curator Mark Leach highlighting the seminal moments and interplay between artists and their mentors.
View the catalog below and click here to purchase print catalog.
(b. 1979, Boston, MA, lives and works in Helena, MT)
Giselle Hicks is known for her hand-pinched ceramic vessels and slip-cast porcelain tiles that consider volume, repetition, and pattern. Referencing totemic ceramic forms and decorative textiles, her work examines the role of material culture in everyday life—historically and today. Hicks has participated in various artist-in-residence programs including the Anderson Ranch Arts Center, the Arts/Industry Program at the Kohler Company, The Clay Studio in Philadelphia, Greenwich House Pottery, and The Archie Bray Foundation.
Her work has been exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, (Boston, MA), Belger Arts Center, (Kansas City, MO), the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, (Sheboygan, WI), and Bellevue Art Museum, (Bellevue, WA). In 2001, Hicks completed her BFA at Syracuse University, and she received her MFA from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University in 2010.
GISELLE HICKS
ON HER WORK
“I make a range of things with clay, including floral Still-Lifes, full-scale ceramic tables and beds, decorative wall tiles inspired by textiles and pinched vessels. I enjoy a studio practice where I can move from one body of work to another where each process satisfies a different creative impulse, always with the intention of making something beautiful for one to encounter or live with.
These hand-pinched vessels are inspired by iconic forms found throughout ceramic history. They are formal explorations in shape, volume, color and composition. The slow and rhythmic forming process employs very few tools, yielding fresh, dynamic silhouettes. The opaque glaze is soft to the touch like a worn river stone. Fingerprints remain in the clay surface celebrating the slight imperfections of the handmade object.”
DIRECTOR NOTES ON GISELLE HICKS
“Due to the extended run of Nature/Nurture, we have had the opportunity to reflect on paths taken, connections made and shared experiences in our weekly series of FC News & Stories with each issue focusing on an individual artist in the exhibition. The ON NURTURE statements written by each artist acknowledges family, artist mentors, education and for Giselle Hicks, the importance of the residency system and the network it has built for her at mid-career.
Giselle and Leslie Ferrin met in the late summer of 2005 at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center where she was a resident in the Arts/Industry Program, working in the factory for the first time. We both recall the casual meeting that led to her move to Western Massachusetts, working for the gallery and start her independent studio practice as one of the first resident artists at ProjectArt. Hicks is one of the artists included in this exhibition for whom the role the gallery plays in nurturing careers, is really one of co-nurturing. These long relationships grow and form strong personal friendships that motivate us both to strive for mutually beneficial professional goals.” – Leslie Ferrin, 2020.
ON NURTURE
“My creative interests and curiosities were nurtured early on by my parents and teachers. I was exposed to a variety of visual and performing arts growing up with my mom who enjoyed learning about and collecting art, while my dad was a big proponent of Joseph Campbell’s ‘follow your bliss’ mantra. He thought, if you do something you love, doors will open. What a gift to offer your child. My announcement that I wanted to study art, particularly ceramics, was met with encouragement. I came out of the womb driven to achieve, so my parents must have trusted that I would figure out a way through a career in the arts.
Fortunately, the path had been paved by some incredible makers that continue to serve as inspiring models – Ruth Duckworth, Lucie Rie, Marguerite Wildenhain, Louise Bourgeois, Eva Hess, Viola Frey, Agnes Martin. I’ve been fortunate to have as many wonderful male mentors and teachers – David McDonald, Errol Willett, and Doug Casebeer to name a few. However, it is the female mentors – Beth Lipman, Leslie Ferrin, Linda Sikora, Ann Currier and Andrea Gill – that gave me space, support and permission to develop my voice as a woman, teacher, and full-time studio artist.” – Giselle Hicks, 2020.
ON PROCESS | PINCHED VESSELS
This series of coiled-and-pinched vessels came from a self-imposed assignment to make something using only a few tools. My hope is that the finished piece reflects my skill and control of the material while acknowledging the limitations and idiosyncrasies of my hands and body.
I begin a day in the studio by making a few sketches, wedging clay and rolling a pile of coils. I work on eight to ten forms at a time, rotating from one to another as they stiffen enough to continue building up the thin walls. It takes about two days to finish a group of vessels. Typically, I work in this rhythm for two weeks before I have enough work to fire. Once the vessels are dry, they are loaded and fired in a bisque kiln, allowed to cool for a day, then sanded and washed in preparation for the glaze application. I dip the pots into a large bucket of glaze to get a thick and even coating. All the work is then fired in an electric kiln to 2230 degrees (cone 6).
ON PROCESS | DECORATIVE WALL TILES
This series of work is influenced by decorative textiles such as quilts, weavings, and embroidered tapestries. I think the labor dedicated to creating these textiles, particularly the quilt, is a beautiful gesture to the significance of these everyday objects which are integral to the rituals of daily life. I want this work to reflect the same care, attention, and labor that went into making the original textiles.
The process of slip-casting has its roots in industry and is used to make a form repeatedly, often on a mass scale. When I begin a new project, I first make a prototype of a pillow by carving a block of plaster into the shape of a soft pillow. Next, I make a two-part plaster mold of the prototype. Once the molds are prepared, I pour colored porcelain-slip into the molds, where it sits for an hour at which point I pour out the excess slip. The plaster mold absorbs the moisture from the porcelain slip, resulting in a hollow form with quarter-inch thick walls. When the form comes out of the mold, I draw the pattern into the surface with a sharp stylus. Once the carving is complete I paint a colored slip over the whole design, wipe the excess off, and what slip remains is inlaid into the carved pattern. The unglazed porcelain looks soft and invites the touch.
Emily Zilber discussing Giselle Hicks “And then it was Still II” in New Blue and White at the Museum of Fine Art Boston
ON AND THEN IT WAS STILL
The series, And Then it Was Still, references both art and literature. In the 17th century European Still Life paintings, the fragile beauty of flowers is made permanently still in the exquisitely painted object, and thus shared across time as a concept of beauty.
In my work I am inspired to capture that sense of beauty and transience in three dimensional form in order to make solid, still and permanent, something that is fleeting and invisible, such as the characteristic or sense of a person, an exchange between a loved one, or an exuberant meal shared with family and friends. Often taking place within the domestic realm, I find beauty in these daily illuminations and I want to hold them still and give them form. Though these moments are intangible, they mark us and become a part of who we are.
In addition to the visual, I draw ideologically from themes resonate in the book ‘To the Lighthouse’ by Virginia Wolf where the main characters struggle to hold on to and make still the complex beauty they recognize in the small and fleeting, everyday moments.
And Then it was Still presents the table as a dimensional Still Life. I imagined the table blooming with flowers, then frozen in time representing the abundant beauty that I want to hold still.
Giselle Hicks, 2013
‘Nature/Nurture’, Installation view, Giselle Hick and Tricia Zimic, 2020.
Group Exhibition at Ferrin Contemporary (North Adams, MA) | 2020 & 2021
Virtual Conference at NCECA Rivers, Reflections, and Reinvention | 2021
Group exhibition of twelve contemporary female artists invited to explore the influence of gender and its impact on their practice.
Exhibition of artists under and over age 40 currently working in ceramics November 1 – January 25, 2014 presented by Ferrin Contemporary and Red Star Studios at Belger Crane Yard…
Summer brings ART + ARTISTS from far away places around the world Adelaide, Australia, Jingdezhen, China, Seoul, Korea, to the small village in Cummington, MA, USA on the Eastern edge of the Berkshires, in the heart of the Hilltowns and just west of the Pioneer Valley.
This time-lapse video shows how ceramic artist Giselle Hicks builds her Sphere Forms.
This time-lapse video shows how ceramic artist Giselle Hicks forms her Zig-Zag Forms.
Additional works may be available to acquire, but not listed here.
If interested in lists of all works and series: Send us a message
2022 | Group Exhibition at Ferrin Contemporary | North Adams, MA
Our America/Whose America? Is a “call and response” exhibition between contemporary artists and historic ceramic objects.
View the exhibition page HERE & View the historic collection HERE
Featuring Manifest Destiny
2022 | Group Exhibition at Norman Rockwell Museum | Stockbridge, MA
Imprinted: Illustrating Race examines the role of published images in shaping attitudes toward race and culture. Over 300 artworks and objects on view of widely circulated illustrated imagery will be on view, produced from the late eighteenth century to today, which have an impact on public perception about race in the United States. The exhibition will explore stereotypical racial representations that have been imprinted upon us through the mass publication of images. It culminates with the creative accomplishments of contemporary artists and publishers who have shifted the cultural narrative through the creation of positive, inclusive imagery emphasizing full agency and equity for all.
View the exhibition page HERE & View the historic collection HERE
Featuring Manifest Destiny
This series of altered Currier & Ives collector plates explores themes of westward expansion and American entitlement.
American, b. in Lincoln, Nebraska
lives and works in Syracuse, NY
As a writer, curator, artist and educator, Garth Johnson is a self-described craft activist who explores craft’s influence and relevance in the 21st century. He is the Paul Phillips and Sharon Sullivan Curator of Ceramics at the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, New York. He was formerly the curator at the Arizona State University Ceramics Research Center. He also served as the artistic director at The Clay Studio in Philadelphia, and was an associate professor at College of the Redwoods in Eureka, California.
Johnson’s works celebrate the history of ceramic objects and their ability to convey status. He often juxtaposes common vessel forms like plastic containers and soap bottles with gold or silver handles taken from fine silver coffee and teapots.
ON HIS WORK
“My family has a huge problem with craft. My mother and father participated in just about every craft fad that I can remember. Wire art, macrame, and decoupage in the 70’s, and stained glass in the 80’s. My mother is an insane quilter, my Aunt Barbara a glass painter. One great-grandfather was a blacksmith, another collected and carved gemstones. I was born and raised on a farm in Nebraska, attended art school at the University of Nebraska, then got my MFA in ceramics at Alfred University. Craft has dogged me all my life. I love it, I hate it, I write about it because it seems totally alive to me. Craft hard!” – Garth Johnson
Selection of works recently exhibited at or in partnership with Ferrin Contemporary
2021 | Group Exhibition at Ferrin Contemporary & Heller Gallery | North Adams, MA & New York, NY
Survey of a diverse group of artists whose use of the melting point is central to their practice.
Featuring Gourd Vases with Dodos
American, b. 1975, Chicago, IL
lives and works in Helena, MT
Steven Young Lee has been the resident artist director of the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts in Helena, Montana since 2006. In 2004-05, he lectured and taught at numerous universities throughout China as part of a one-year cultural and educational exchange in Jingdezhen, Shanghai and Beijing. In 2005-6 he was a visiting professor at Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Vancouver, B.C.
Lee has lectured extensively in North America and Asia. In the Fall of 2016 he was one of four artists featured as part of the Renwick Invitational at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C. In March 2013 he participated on a panel, “Americans in the Porcelain City,” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Also in 2013, he was one of several international artists invited to participate in “New Blue and White,” an exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, MA that featured contemporary artists working in the blue-and-white tradition of ceramic production. In 2019 he will have a solo exhibition at the Portland Art Museum.
He is represented by the Duane Reed Gallery, Ferrin Contemporary and The Archie Bray Foundation Gallery. His work has been collected by the Smithsonian Museum, The Newark Museum, the Daum Museum of Contemporary Art, the Four Seasons Hotel in Seoul, Korea, as well as many private and public collections.
Lee received his BFA and MFA in Ceramics from Alfred University. Originally from Chicago, he lives in Helena with his wife, Lisa and their two children Gavin and Florence.
Steven Young Lee, “Cup Panels”, 2013, porcelain, copper inlay, glaze, shelving-glass, aluminum, 46 x 50 x 4″
ON RED, WHITE, AND BLUE CUP PANELS
This piece comprises three panels, each containing 100 hand-thrown porcelain cups in a ten-by-ten grid. It was originally created for installation at the Jane Hartsook Gallery in New York, NY. The cups are decorated with motifs appropriated from various cultures — Chinese, Korean, French, Dutch, English, etc. In the creation of all 300 cups, the patterns evolved from their original source throughout the process, paralleling the organic development of the visual language of historical pattern as it evolved with ethnic influence.
The title of the piece references three genres of decoration in ceramics — blue and white, red and white, and white on white, while also isolating the representation of color i.e. red, white, and blue to associate with contemporary connotations. In addition, the proportion of the panels correlates to a large color field painting that allows the various motifs to create a single homogenous color representation.
Lee chose to use cups as a vehicle for the decoration because of their status as an archetypal form. And as one of the more intimate ceramic forms, they are relegated to be a small but integral part of the structure of the installation. To reinforce the place of the cup in the whole, the cups are not sold individually, their meaning plays a more expanded role as part of a larger whole.
Janet Koplos reviewed a recent show of Lee’s at Greenwich House Pottery in Ceramics Art and Perception. Click here to read the article.
2023 | Korea Society | New York, NY
September 14 – December 8, 2023
View the exhibition page HERE
2023 | Ferrin Contemporary | North Adams, MA
July 15 – September 2, 2023
View the exhibition page HERE
Everson Museum of Art | Syracuse, NY
April 13 – October 20, 2024
Featuring Cristina Córdova, Paul Scott, & Steven Young Lee
Ferrin Contemporary at The Wickham House
The Valentine Museum, Richmond, VA
February 20 – April 21, 2024
LACMA, Los Angeles, CA
August 7, 2022 – May 21, 2023
August 17, 2019 – April 4, 2021
Additional works may be available to acquire, but not listed here.
If interested in lists of all works and series: Send us a message
