Project Tag: Mara Superior

26
Mar
2026
A Golden Age for Whom?

A Golden Age for Whom?

A Golden Age for Whom?

Figge Art Museum
Davenport, IA

May 30, 2026 – September 20, 2026

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

Exhibition description coming soon…

FEATURED ARTWORKS

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

BETH LIPMAN

American, b. 1971, New York, NY
lives and works in Sheboygan Falls, WI

Beth Lipman is an American artist whose sculptural practice generates from the Still Life genre, symbolically representing the splendor and excess of the Anthropocene and the stratigraphic layer humanity will leave on earth. Assemblages of inanimate objects and domestic interiors, inspired by private spaces and public collections, propose portraits of individuals, institutions, and societies.

Temporality and mortality-primary concerns linked to the Still Life tradition are heightened through materiality. Works in glass, wood, metal, photography, and video disrupt the mechanisms of fixed, grand narratives in order to emphasize evanescence at the heart of ‘vanitas’. Sculptural processes become analogies for life cycles, pointing to systems both natural and human that must continually adapt in order to survive.

The works are a meditation on our relationship to Deep Time, a monumental time scale based on geologic events that minimizes human lives. Each installation is a reimagining of history, created by placing cycles often separated by millennia in proximity, from the ancient botanical to the cultural. The incorporation of prehistoric flora alludes to the impermanence of the present and the persistence of life. The ephemera of the Anthropocene become a symbol of fragility as the human species is placed on a continuum where time eradicates hierarchy.

Lipman has received numerous awards including a USA Berman Bloch Fellowship, Pollock Krasner Grant, Virginia Groot Foundation Grant, and a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Grant. She recently completed One Portrait of One Man, a sculptural response to Marsden Hartley for the Weisman Art Museum (MN). Lipman has exhibited her work internationally at such institutions as the Ringling Museum of Art (FL), ICA/MECA (ME), RISD Museum (RI), Milwaukee Art Museum (WI), Gustavsbergs Konsthall (Sweden) and the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum (DC). Her work has been acquired by numerous museums including the North Carolina Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum of Art (NY), Smithsonian American Art Museum (DC), and the Corning Museum of Glass (NY).

MARA SUPERIOR

American, b. 1951, New York, NY
lives and works in Williamsburg, MA

Mara Superior is an American visual artist who works in porcelain. Her ceramic high relief platters and sculptural objects reflect the artist’s passion for art history and the decorative arts, and her painterly motifs range from the pleasures of the domestic to serious political and environmental issues as points of departure to comment on contemporary culture and its relationship to history. Superior has received numerous awards including a National Endowment for the Visual Arts Fellowship, the prestigious Guldaggergård Residency in Denmark, and numerous individual artist grants from the Massachusetts Cultural Council.

Superior has exhibited at the American Museum of Ceramic Art, (Pomona, CA), Scripps Women’s College, (Claremont, CA), and the Fuller Craft Museum, (Brockton, MA) among many other institutions. Her work can be found in the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, (Washington, DC), the Museum of Arts and Design, (New York, NY), the Peabody Essex Museum, (Salem, MA), Philadelphia Museum of Art, (Philadelphia, PA) the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, (Los Angeles, CA), White House Collection of American Craft, (Little Rock, AK). In 2018, through the generous support of the Kohler Foundation, gifts of art by Mara Superior were made to fifteen museums throughout the USA, increasing the public holdings of Superior’s artworks  and including an in depth collection acquired by the Racine Art Museum, (Racine, WI) and shown in 2020 in Collection Focus: Mara Superior. In 2010 she was interviewed for the oral history program of the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art, (Washington, DC).

Superior studied at the Pratt Institute and Hartford Art School, completing her BFA in painting from the University of Connecticut followed by a MAT in ceramics from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. She is represented by Ferrin Contemporary.

KURT WEISER

American, b. 1950
lives and works in Tempe, AZ

Kurt Weiser’s ceramic work draws inspiration from rich evocations of plant life to narratives derived from myth and history, placed into highly detailed tropical landscapes. These images are meticulously painted onto porcelain teapots, globes and other vessels. As Weiser notes “the painting is the three-dimensional reality”.

His most recent body of work includes linoleum-cut prints, inspired by decades of drawings from his sketchbooks. He has paired these prints with black and white vessels, relying on his graphic and fantastical style as the means for relating these rich narratives.

Weiser has shown internationally and throughout the United States, including solo exhibitions at the Montgomery Museum of Art (Montgomery, AL) the Museum of Contemporary Craft (Portland, OR) and the Holter Museum of Art (Helena, MT). His work can be found in numerous public collections, including Smithsonian Institution, Alfred University School of Ceramics, and the Los Angeles Museum of Art among many others. Weiser received his M.F.A. from the University of Michigan and recently retired from the position of Regents Professor of Art at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona.

22
Jan
2025
PORCELAIN LOVE LETTERS: The Art of Mara Superior

PORCELAIN LOVE LETTERS: The Art of Mara Superior

May 10 – October 26, 2025

Curated by Kory Rogers
Francie and John Downing Senior Curator of American Art

SHELBURNE MUSEUM
6000 Shelburne Road
PO Box 10
Shelburne, VT

Ceramics Gallery, Variety Unit

For a list of available works, please email info@ferrincontemporary.com

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

Porcelain Love Letters: The Art of Mara Superior

Artist Mara Superior has a deep love for porcelain—a dedication that compels her to work with this ancient and often unpredictable material. She works with slab construction and fires her pieces in a high-temperature reduction atmosphere, techniques that make the process even more challenging and increase the risk of warping or breakage.

Trained as a painter, Superior discovered the beauty and creative possibilities of porcelain in the late 1970s. Since then, she has focused entirely on this bright but delicate material, appreciating both its fragility and its strength. She describes porcelain as a “magical three-dimensional canvas,” where she carefully paints detailed, whimsical images and adds sculpted designs to create pieces that are both visually striking and rich with meaning. 

Superior’s art draws inspiration from many sources, including Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics, illuminated manuscripts, Renaissance art, historical ceramics, and Americana. She blends these influences to create her distinctive and romantic style. Each piece feels like a love letter to the world—reflecting her deep affection for home, good food, the environment, and her country.

This exhibition showcases a wide range of Mara Superior’s work, from her early explorations to her latest creations. It features commissioned pieces from private collections along with deeply personal works from her own home—many of which have never been shown before. Superior considers these her most treasured pieces, reflecting both her artistic skill and creative imagination.

PROGRAMMING

Member Event: Fired and Inspired: A Conversation with Porcelain Artist Mara Superior

Saturday, June 7 | 4pm – 5pm
Pizzagalli Center for Art and Education Auditorium

Shelburne Museum welcomes its Member community to a special evening with acclaimed ceramic artist Mara Superior for an illustrated panel discussion exploring her nearly five-decade career working in porcelain. She will be joined by Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen, the Anthony W. And Lulu C. Wang Curator of American Decorative Arts at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Kory Rogers, the Francie and John Downing Senior Curator of American Art at Shelburne Museum.

Together, they will examine the autobiographical nature of Superior’s work, her artistic influences, and the historical precedents that inform her practice. The conversation will also consider the evolving themes in her art—including the significance of home, food, travel, fine and decorative arts, and activism—as well as what lies ahead in the next chapter of her remarkable career.

Open to Shelburne Museum Members.

Registration coming soon!

Not yet a Member? Join HERE for access to this exciting Member event!

Webinar: Artistic Eye – Seeing the World through Mara Superior’s Ceramic Art

Tuesday, April 8, 2025
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
Zoom
Mara Superior, acclaimed ceramic artist known for blending delicate ceramic pieces with sharp social commentary, joins curator Kory Rogers for an engaging hour-long webinar discussion about her life, her art, and her creative inspirations. Discover how Mara’s passion for art history and world travel shapes her work, how historical subjects inspire contemporary conversations, and how she reimagines traditional forms like teapots into striking 3D sculptures. Don’t miss this exploration of creativity and innovation and learn more about Mara prior to the opening of her 2025 exhibition, Porcelain Love Letters: The Art of Mara Superior.

This event was presented live via Zoom on April 8 at 12:00 pm EDT. 

EXHIIBITION CATALOG

Mara Superior, “Porcelain Love Letters: The Art of Mara Superior”, Shelburne Museum Catalog

“Porcelain Love Letters: The Art of Mara Superior” celebrates the extraordinary ceramic work of Mara Superior, featuring essays, photography, and archival material from her career. Produced in partnership with Shelburne Museum and Ferrin Contemporary, this book offers insight into one of America’s most accomplished contemporary ceramic artists.

  • Copyright© 2025
  • Published by Ferrin Contemporary in association with Shelburne Museum, 2025
  • Exhibition curator: Kory Rogers, Francie and John Downing Senior Curator of American Art
  • Artwork Photography: John Polak
  • Catalog Design: Mikulak Design
  • Porcelain Love Letters: The Art of Mara Superior is made possible by Merle and Barry Ginsburg, with additional support from Donna and Marvis Schwartz.
  • Photography made possible by the Kohler Foundation.
  • ISBN 978-0-9904312-3-7

 

PURCHASE THE CATALOG HERE

PRESS

WAMC INTERVIEW: “Porcelain Love Letters: The Art of Mara Superior”

The exhibition, “Porcelain Love Letters: The Art of Mara Superior” opens at The Shelburne Museum on May 10.

Superior’s porcelain art combines intricate painted imagery and sculptural forms through which she explores themes of history, domesticity, and environmentalism.

Trained as a painter, Superior discovered the beauty and creative possibilities of porcelain in the late 1970s. Since then, she has focused entirely on this bright but delicate material, appreciating both its fragility and its strength.

Superior’s work is inspired by many interests, including art history, patriotism, environmentalism, and everyday life at home. We welcome Mara Superior to the show along with Kory Rogers, the Francie and John Downing Senior Curator of American Art at Shelburne Museum in Vermont.

LISTEN TO THE FULL INTERVIEW HERE

ABOUT MARA SUPERIOR

Mara Superior, Artist Portrait, 2020, Photo by John Polak Photography

American, b. 1951, New York, NY
lives and works in Williamsburg, MA

Mara Superior is an American visual artist who works in porcelain. Her ceramic high relief platters and sculptural objects reflect the artist’s passion for art history and the decorative arts, and her painterly motifs range from the pleasures of the domestic to serious political and environmental issues as points of departure to comment on contemporary culture and its relationship to history. Superior has received numerous awards including a National Endowment for the Visual Arts Fellowship, the prestigious Guldaggergård Residency in Denmark, and numerous individual artist grants from the Massachusetts Cultural Council.

Superior has exhibited at the American Museum of Ceramic Art, (Pomona, CA), Scripps Women’s College, (Claremont, CA), and the Fuller Craft Museum, (Brockton, MA) among many other institutions. Her work can be found in the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, (Washington, DC), the Museum of Arts and Design, (New York, NY), the Peabody Essex Museum, (Salem, MA), Philadelphia Museum of Art, (Philadelphia, PA) the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, (Los Angeles, CA), White House Collection of American Craft, (Little Rock, AK). In 2018, through the generous support of the Kohler Foundation, gifts of art by Mara Superior were made to fifteen museums throughout the USA, increasing the public holdings of Superior’s artworks  and including an in depth collection acquired by the Racine Art Museum, (Racine, WI) and shown in 2020 in Collection Focus: Mara Superior. In 2010 she was interviewed for the oral history program of the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art, (Washington, DC).

Superior studied at the Pratt Institute and Hartford Art School, completing her BFA in painting from the University of Connecticut followed by a MAT in ceramics from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. She is represented by Ferrin Contemporary.

ABOUT THE SHELBURNE MUSEUM

Shelburne Museum is an unparalleled and unique experience of American history, art, and design. Designed to allow visitors the pleasure of discovery and exploration, the Museum includes thirty-nine distinct structures on forty-five acres, each filled with beautiful, fascinating, and whimsical objects. Come play in our gardens and open our many doors. You are welcome here.

Click to Read More HERE

SHELBURNE MUSEUM

6000 Shelburne Road
PO Box 10
Shelburne, VT 05482

Shelburne Museum Aerial Shot of Grounds. Photo courtesy of the museum.
20
Aug
2024
ON VIEW | Ferrin Contemporary at Project Art

ON VIEW | Ferrin Contemporary at Project Art

Ferrin Contemporary exhibits artwork from represented artists and collections in the galleries at Project Art in Cummington, MA. View artists’ most recent works, installations from recent traveling exhibitions, and objects and artworks from artist archives and Ferrin Contemporary’s historic collection.

OUR INSTALLATION SPACES

THE SUMMER GALLERY

Ferrin Contemporary’s Summer Gallery is situated on the south end of Project Art and hosts curated exhibitions in a more traditional white-box setting.

Now on view in the Summer Gallery:

SHOWROOM

The showroom provides a more domestic, residential setting to view artworks. Works are displayed on both pedestals and period furniture, alongside a sitting area where visitors can peruse a selection of artist and our library of books and catalogs.

Now on view:

The Studios at Project Art exhibits small works by resident artists.

Now on view in the Studio:

  • Cups and vases by Kadri Pärnamets
  • Cups, demo works, maquettes, and small works by Sergei Isupov
  • Illustrated brooches and dishes by Roosi Isupov
01
Jan
2024
PORTLAND VASE: MANIA AND MUSE

PORTLAND VASE: MANIA AND MUSE

June 9, 2024 – September 8, 2024

CROCKER ART MUSEUM

216 O Street Sacramento, CA 95814

featuring work by

Chris Antemann
Peter Pincus
Mara Superior

MORE ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

& INSTALLATION IMAGES

The Portland Vase: Mania and Muse asks why and how a singular Classical vase becomes a legend, an “influencer,” and an artistic and commercial muse across time and place.

The Portland Vase, an ancient Roman glass cameo amphora, has resonated with artists, makers, collectors, and consumers for centuries. The Portland Vase: Mania and Muse asks why and how a singular Classical vase becomes a legend, an “influencer,” and an artistic and commercial muse across time and place from artists such as Josiah Wedgwood to sculptor Viola Frey. Featuring more than sixty-five artworks, this exhibition examines the role of brands in our culture, considers why Classical traditions dominate the artistic canon, and how that tradition might be reconsidered and disrupted.

Guest curated by Rachel Gotlieb, PhD.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

CHRIS ANTEMANN

American
b. 1970 Albany, NY
lives and works between Joseph, OR and Meissen, Germany

More on Chris Antemann

Chris Antemann upends not only the Portland Vase but also the famous Bouquet de la Dauphine made by Vincennes, the Royal French manufactory and precursor to Sèvres to illustrate that its porcelain skills rivaled if not superseded German Meissen. Referencing a surtout de table, an ornamental centerpiece displayed in a formal dining room, the forms and pastel colors of her work evoke the exuberance of the 18th-century Rococo style. However, Antemann’s tableau is very much part of the 21st century, critiquing and challenging contemporary gender politics.

-Rachel Gotlieb, Guest Curator, Portland Vase: Mania and Muse, 2024

“An informative and thought-provoking conversation with Rachel Gotlieb led me to dive into research for the bones of the piece. The main concept grew into the idea of playing with the functions of the vase. In one way acting as the backdrop for the figures, no longer in relief, but characters in the garden. In another way, the Portland Vase, in Wedgewood blue makes a cameo on the stage celebrated as a vessel.”

– Chris Antemann, 2024

Chris Antemann, Artist Portrait.

PETER PINCUS

b. 1982 Rochester, NY,
lives and works in Penfield, NY

More on Peter Pincus

Read about the making of Thetis Confined

“Much like Wedgwood, Pincus adeptly balanced appropriation, innovation, and cross-cultural influences, harnessing the creative tools of clay, technology, and Neoclassical aesthetics to reshape our understanding of the ancient past.”

– Rachel Gotlieb, PH.D, Guest Curator, “The Portland Vase: Mania and Muse”, pg. 80.

MARA SUPERIOR

American, b. 1951, New York, NY
lives and works in Williamsburg, MA

More on Mara Superior

“Mara Superior responded to the Portland Vase through a broad lens of ceramic histories but specifically aligned her work with Wedgwood’s replicas to dismantle notions of British empire and perfection.”

– Rachel Gotlieb, PH.D, Guest Curator, “The Portland Vase: Mania and Muse”, pg. 84.

Mara Superior, "Teapot of Survival (Portland Vase)", 2023, high-fired English porcelain, painted with ceramic underglazes, ground oxides, Cornwallstone glaze, wood, gold, leaf, bone and ink, 19 x 14.5 x 6.5", John Polak Photography
Mara Superior, "Teapot of Survival (Portland Vase)", 2023, high-fired English porcelain, painted with ceramic underglazes, ground oxides, Cornwallstone glaze, wood, gold, leaf, bone and ink, 19 x 14.5 x 6.5", John Polak Photography

PAST PROGRAMMING

Rachel Gotlieb, Ph.D. Curator portrait, Photo by Barbara Stoneham

Rachel Gotlieb, Ph.D. served as the Ruth Rippon Curator of Ceramics at the Crocker Art Museum (2021-2023). She previously worked ad Chief Curator and Interim Executive Director of the Gardiner Museum in Toronto (2011-2014).

Backstory – Portland Vase: Mania and Muse (via YouTube Live) 
Saturday, August 3rd | 12pm
$8 – $12

Go behind the scenes of the exhibition The Portland Vase: Mania and Muse with this virtual panel discussion featuring speakers across three continents. Moderated by exhibition curator Rachel Gotlieb, with artists Clare Twomey, Glenn Barkley, and Nancy Selvin, this international conversation considers how and why a singular Classical vase became an artistic and commercial muse across time and place, and how these contemporary artists are rethinking and addressing art and social histories through reinterpretations of this iconic vessel.

VIDEO NOW AVAILABLE

 

LEARN MORE

Member Reception
Friday, June 28 | 5:30pm

Join the Crocker Art Museum for a special member reception celebrating the exhibitions:

The Portland Vase: Mania and Muse 

Raúl Gonzo: Color Madness 

Storywork: The Prints of Marie Watt from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation 

BECOME A MEMBER

Tour – Portland Vase: Mania and Muse
Wednesday, June 12 | 1pm
Free with museum admission

Journey into art on view with docents to guide your visit. Enjoy a drop-in tour any day the Museum is open, or plan ahead for one of the themed tours outlined below. Some tours may be requested in American Sign Language, Cantonese, French, Madarin, and Spanish with a two-week advance notice. Email education@crockerart.org to inquire.

LEARN MORE

Distributed for Hirmer Publishers

The University of Chicago Press

PRESS & PRINT

Exhibition Catalog

Portland Vase

Mania and Muse (1780–2023)

Edited by Rachel Gotlieb

With Essays by Anne Forschler-Tarrasch

Traces the history of the Portland Vase as a global influencer in art and ceramics.

The Portland Vase, an ancient Roman glass cameo amphora held in the British Museum, has been a global brand that has resonated with makers, collectors, and consumers for centuries, replicated and reinterpreted countless times. The Portland Vase: Mania and Muse asks why and how a singular Classical vase becomes a legend, an “influencer,” and an artistic and commercial muse across time and place to artists such as Josiah Wedgwood, Viola Frey, Chris Wight, Michael Eden, Nicole Cherubini, and Clare Twomey. Featuring more than sixty-five artworks, this richly illustrated catalog examines the role of brands in our culture, considers why Classical traditions dominate the artistic canon, and speculates on how that tradition might be reconsidered and disrupted.

112 pages | 70 color plates | 10 x 10 | © 2024

Visit the Crocker Art Museum Store HERE

BUY THIS BOOK HERE
$42.00
ISBN: 9783777441566
Published August 2024
Crocker Art Museum, "Portland Vase Mania and Muse (1780–2023)", Edited by Rachel Gotlieb, With Essays by Anne Forschler-Tarrasch Traces the history of the Portland Vase as a global influencer in art and ceramics.

"Curators in Conversation: The Portland Vase" Sara Morris, the Crocker’s Ruth Rippon Curator of Ceramics, asks Rachel Gotlieb, guest curator of "The Portland Vase: Mania and Muse," to share a little bit more about her relationship with the Portland Vase and her experience organizing the exhibition.

Ceramics Now Weekly

FEATURE: Curators in Conversation: The Portland Vase

Sara Morris, the Crocker’s Ruth Rippon Curator of Ceramics, asks Rachel Gotlieb, guest curator of “The Portland Vase: Mania and Muse,” to share a little bit more about her relationship with the Portland Vase and her experience organizing the exhibition.

The Portland Vase: Mania and Muse is a new exhibition at the Crocker guest-curated by Rachel Gotlieb, PhD. The exhibition examines the legacy and influence of the ancient Roman glass cameo The Portland Vase in the collection of the British Museum. For over two centuries, the Vase has served as inspiration for artists, including Josiah Wedgewood, Viola Frey, and Clare Twomey, contributing to its fame and significance in the artistic canon. Sara Morris, the Crocker’s Ruth Rippon Curator of Ceramics, asked Gotlieb to share a little bit more about her relationship with the Portland Vase and her experience organizing the exhibition.

Click to Read More HERE

FEATURE: Tracing the history of the Portland Vase as a global influencer in art and ceramics.

“The words “Portland Vase” yield 16,100,000 search results on Google. Entries include the unique ancient glass masterpiece housed in the British Museum, Josiah Wedgwood’s limited-edition 18th-century copies, and countless modern commercial replicas produced in many shapes, sizes, and materials. On Instagram, images of the Portland Vase surface as an aspirational pin-up photo, tattoo, non-fungible token (NFT), and other novelties. The Portland Vase has also served as a plot device in films and musicals, including, most notably Make Me an Offer (1954), starring Peter Finch as an antique dealer in search of a rare green version of the Vase made by Josiah Wedgwood. According to the Corning Museum of Glass, the Portland Vase is as famous as Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.”

Click to Read More HERE

ABOUT CROCKER ART MUSEUM

Discover a diverse collection of artworks that span centuries, continents, and cultures at the Crocker Art Museum, the primary resource for the study and appreciation of fine art in the Sacramento region. In addition to a robust schedule of changing exhibitions, visitors can explore California art dating from the Gold Rush to the present; a renowned collection of Master Drawings and European paintings; one of the largest international ceramics collections in the United States; and collections of Asian, African, and Oceanic art.

Engagement with art is at the heart of everything we do, and our calendar of events offers innovative art experiences for visitors of all ages, including family-friendly programs, thought-provoking talks and conversations, inspiring concerts and films, and more. 

07
Jul
2023
HEY! CÉRAMIQUE.S

HEY! CÉRAMIQUE.S

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

In the name of matter

Both deeply invested in exploring the alternative cultural scene, Halle Saint Pierre and HEY! modern art & pop culture continue their long and close collaboration with a sixth exhibition entirely dedicated to ceramics. If this medium occupies an increasingly visible place on the international art scene, the HEY! CERAMIQUE.S will show other forms which, from pop culture to art brut, unexpectedly emancipate themselves from all dominant norms and discourses to draw on the living forces of the imagination and the sensitive. Whether they are wise or delirious, wild or sophisticated, expressionist or narrative, whether they handle humor or emotion, the ceramic sculptures here carry excess but also poetry and innovations.

  • Martine Lusardy, director of the Halle Saint Pierre and exhibition curator
  • Anne Richard, guest curator and founder of the HEY! modern art & pop culture

HEY! CÉRAMIQUE.S

Musee de la Halle Saint Pierre, Paris, France | September 20, 2023 to August 14, 2024

HEY! CERAMIQUE.S Exhibition Installation featuring Crystal Morey “Replanting: Over the Land (Mt. Lion and Unicorn)” and “Replanting: Over the Water (Rhino and Swan)”, Musee de la Halle Saint Pierre, Paris, France, September 20, 2023 to August 14, 2024
HEY! CERAMIQUE.S Exhibition Installation featuring Chris Antemann “Embrace” and “Kissing Flora”, Musee de la Halle Saint Pierre, Paris, France, September 20, 2023 to August 14, 2024
HEY! CERAMIQUE.S Exhibition Installation featuring Crystal Morey “Replanting: Over the Land (Mt. Lion and Unicorn)” and “Replanting: Over the Water (Rhino and Swan)”, Musee de la Halle Saint Pierre, Paris, France, September 20, 2023 to August 14, 2024
HEY! CERAMIQUE.S Exhibition Installation featuring Crystal Morey “RePlanting: Elephant”, “RePlanting: Giraffe Madonna and Child”, and “Venus on the Waves: Grizzly”, Musee de la Halle Saint Pierre, Paris, France, September 20, 2023 to August 14, 2024
HEY! CERAMIQUE.S Exhibition Installation featuring Mara Superior, Chris Antemann, and Crystal Morey, Musee de la Halle Saint Pierre, Paris, France, September 20, 2023 to August 14, 2024
HEY! CERAMIQUE.S Exhibition Installation featuring Mara Superior Installation, Musee de la Halle Saint Pierre, Paris, France, September 20, 2023 to August 14, 2024
HEY! CERAMIQUE.S Exhibition Installation featuring Mara Superior Installation, Musee de la Halle Saint Pierre, Paris, France, September 20, 2023 to August 14, 2024

EXHIBITION CATALOG

  • Released September 15, 2023
  • Edited by Anne Richard Bilingual (French / English)
  • 250 pages
  • Shaped cover 28 x 24.5 cm
  • Published by HEY! PUBLISHING

Long considered a minor art because of its particular status at the crossroads of art and craftsmanship, ceramics has emancipated itself artistically by making precisely this hybrid position the basis of its renewal. The truly alchemical dimension of the fire arts lends itself wonderfully to blurring and crossing boundaries. But if contemporary ceramic artists draw on timeless traditions and know-how, it is not so much out of nostalgia for the values ​​of the past as to place at the center of creation a return to making and attention to materials in their sensitive dimension. Earth, water, air, fire are no longer simple materials that can be manipulated indifferently, they become the very substance of a material imagination intended to satisfy aesthetic and psychological urgencies. 

— Martine Lusardy, Director and curator of exhibitions at the Halle Saint Pierre Museum

HEY! CÉRAMIQUE.S Exhibition Catalog

Purchase the catalog here

“Our overuse of resources has destroyed our planets natural resources. The skies churn,  rivers flood, oceans rise, and forests burn. The world is a changed place, and the most vulnerable feel the affects first.”

Crystal Morey, Shaping Interconnectedness, essay by Maria Porges

“From there, [she], like many of us, sees the news, imagines the future, and find solace in the triumphant artworks of the past. She is chronicling our time, a unique and strange mix of hope in the ace of humanities greatest collective threat— ourselves.”

Mara Superior, Chronicling our Collective Hopes, essay by Lauren Levato-Coyne.

MORE ABOUT THE MUSEUM

Musee de la Halle Saint Pierre

Paris, France

MUSEUM OF ART BRUT – OUTSIDER ART & POP CULTURE 

Within a beautiful Baltard-style architecture, facing the gardens of the Butte Montmartre, the Halle Saint Pierre houses a museum and a gallery, a bookstore, an auditorium, a café. It is in this harmonious and luminous setting that the major temporary exhibitions and the multiple artistic and cultural activities dedicated to the most unexpected forms of creation are presented.

26
May
2022
ESPRITS LIBRES | La Fondation d’Enterprise Bernardaud

ESPRITS LIBRES | La Fondation d’Enterprise Bernardaud

ESPRITS LIBRES

La Fondation d’Enterprise Bernardaud
Limoges, France

June 17, 2022 — April 1, 2023

Featuring work by:

Crystal Morey, "Entangled: Grizzly (Part 2)", 2019, hand-sculpted porcelain, 12.25 x 6.5 x 6.5". Photo by John Polak.

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

Esprits libres encourages us to take a fresh look at unique, authentic, surprising artistic expressions. It is an invitation and a challenge to creativity and the collective imagination, privileging figurative and narrative art with a surrealist bent. The exhibition is based on these expressions’ power to transcend academic strictures and bring all generations together. No school, no line of theory, no concept is claimed: the exhibition transcribes a free state of mind, an internal rhythm of creation, a stand taken in the world.

Esprits libres gives us a second wind, a burst of spontaneity and unity, and tells a different story, without assumptions or prejudices, embodied by the choice of twelve artists–and just as many moments of thought–developing perspectives that are original, in ebullition, and open to influence. They are the product of free spirits. Confronted with these twelve artistic entities, it is easy to understand that the choice of ceramics as medium is fundamental to their chosen approach to each of their subjects: its intrinsic materiality, its capacity for volume, and its physicality project the work itself into a dimension of tactility that is utterly human. But, examining our humanist values and projects, these artists impel us to observe our own capacity for transmission, transgression, and transformation. This joyous shaking-up of certitudes nurtures new and profoundly living forms; it invites us to explore a territory of reconciliation, kindliness, and solidarity, where artworks advocate for difference, exalting dialog and respect for every person’s singularity.

FEATURED ARTWORKS

EXHIBITION CATALOG

Featuring Ferrin Contemporary Artists Crystal Morey and Mara Superior

All Copy and Content Courtesy of:

La Fondation d’Enterprise Bernardaud,
Limoges, France

& Anne Richard
Founder of the art magazine
HEY! modern art & pop culture,
Author, publisher,
and exhibition curator

Esprits Libres 2022 Bernardaud Catalogue

MORE ON THE FEATURED ARTISTS

  • View More by Crystal Morey HERE
  • View More by Mara Superior HERE

CRYSTAL MOREY

MARA SUPERIOR

MORE ON LA FONDATION L’ENTERPRISE BERNARDAUD

The Fondation d’Entreprise Bernardaud was established in 2002 in Limoges by Michel Bernardaud, chairman and CEO of the eponymous company. It is directed by Hélène Huret. From the beginning, it has worked to endow the Limoges manufactory with a cultural dimension.

A visitor circuit has been set up to explain the history and manufacture of porcelain. In addition, the Foundation holds a themed exhibition every summer to present a broad range of contemporary ceramic works by international artists seldom shown in France. This demonstrates the great vitality of ceramics on the international art scene, especially porcelain, one of today’s most interesting artistic media.

19
May
2022
2022 INTERNATIONAL CERAMIC ART FAIR (ICAF)

2022 INTERNATIONAL CERAMIC ART FAIR (ICAF)

2022 INTERNATIONAL CERAMIC ART FAIR

Gardiner Museum
Toronto, Ontario

June 9 – 19, 2022

Featuring work by Cristina Córdova, Sergei Isupov, Mara Superior, and Kukuli Velarde


Virtual Artist Talk with Cristina Córdova

June 17th, 1-2pm EST
see more details below

The International Ceramic Art Fair (ICAF) makes its highly anticipated return to the Gardiner Museum, featuring works by emerging and established ceramic artists from a wide range of backgrounds, and an exciting slate of online and in-person programming.

ICAF 2022 celebrates connections between body, identity, and land. Global mythologies have long connected the human body to the earth, from a Nubian deity fashioning humans from clay to scientific explorations of clay as the first carrier of life. The human body is symbolically if not literally connected to clay, helping us understand who we are as individuals, a society, and a species.

Contemporary ceramics has become one of the most dynamic areas of artistic practice in recent years. So it is with much excitement that we invite collectors and curators from around the world to join us for the International Ceramic Art Fair, which has grown to a 10-day celebration of contemporary art, gallery tours, artist talks, performances, and more. Join us in person and online to discover how some of the top galleries and artists are approaching the themes of body, figuration, and the land. We look forward to sharing the diversity, complexity, and accessibility of contemporary ceramics.
– Sequoia Miller, Chief Curator

This year’s Honorary Patron is internationally renowned Kenyan-born British studio potter, Magdalene Odundo.

READ THE PRESS RELEASE

International Ceramic Art Fair 2022, Gardiner Museum, Toronto, Canada
International Ceramic Art Fair 2022, Gardiner Museum, Toronto, Canada
ICAF 2022, Gardiner Museum, Installation View featuring Sergei Isupov
Cristina Cordova, “Desde mi Balcon”, ICAF 2022, Gardiner Museum Installation View
Kukuli Velarde, “A Mi Vida IV” and “A Mi Vida II”, ICAF 2022, Gardiner Museum Installation View
Mara Superior, “Mates for Life (A Swan’s Wedding)”, ICAF 2022, Gardiner Museum Installation View
Cristina Córdova, “Desde mi Balcón”, 2021, ceramic and metal, 33 x 14.5 x 10″ – side view
Kukuli Velarde, “A Mi Vida II”, 2017
Mara Superior, “Mates for Life (A Swan’s Wedding Day)” 2008, porcelain, glaze, wood, gold leaf, bone, ink, 23 x 16 x 10″.
Sergei Isupov, “Coffee and Milk”, Detail, 2020, porcelain, slip, glaze, 59.5 x 26 x 16″.

EVENTS

Virtual Artist Talk with Cristina Córdova

June 17th, 1-2pm EST

As part of the International Ceramic Art Fair, join featured artist Cristina Córdova for an online discussion about her work. Córdova creates figurative compositions that examine our shared humanity and question socio-cultural notions of gender, race, and beauty. Registration is free.

Register now

Full event schedule for ICAF 2022

Virtual Curator Talk with Maya Wilson-Sanchez

June 14th, 1-2pm EST

As part of the International Ceramic Art Fair, join Gardiner Museum Curatorial Resident Maya Wilson-Sanchez for a virtual conversation about the work of Kukuli Velarde, a Peruvian-American artist who specializes in painting and ceramic sculptures made out of clay and terracotta. Registration is free.

Register now

Full event schedule for ICAF 2022

FEATURED ARTISTS IN THE EXHIBITION

CRISTINA CÓRDOVA

MARA SUPERIOR

SERGEI ISUPOV

KUKULI VELARDE

19
Aug
2021
COLLECTION FOCUS: Mara Superior at the Racine Art Museum

COLLECTION FOCUS: Mara Superior at the Racine Art Museum

COLLECTION FOCUS: Mara Superior at the Racine Art Museum

August 18, 2021 – January 15, 2022

Racine Art Museum
441 Main Street | Racine, WI 53403

ABOUT THE COLLECTION FOCUS

Blending past and present-day concerns, notions of Americana, and personal experience, Mara Superior playfully both challenges and adds to a history of porcelain decorative objects and tableware. With a singular aesthetic that feels reverent yet unique, Superior builds narratives that unfold through images, words, and form.

Comprised entirely of work from RAM’s collection that span over three decades, this exhibition showcases several of the artist’s core interests. They emphasize Superior’s personal history—her connection to art and ceramic history, her appreciation for “home” and ideas about the domestic, and her love of travel. While these are not the only topics she addresses in her work, they are foundational ones and provide a layered and nuanced accounting of the artist’s approach to working with porcelain. Engaging scenes play out across a range of objects, including platters, teapots, vessels, and a collaborative piece with the artist’s late husband, sculptor and furniture maker, Roy Superior.

Significantly, this exhibition debuts a multi-piece gift from the Kohler Foundation, Inc., that catapults RAM’s holdings of work by Superior from two pieces, already gifted by other donors, to 33. In doing so, this gift establishes several milestones for Superior at RAM—making her an archive artist as well as the most collected female ceramic artist and the second most collected ceramic artist regardless of gender.

Collection Focus: Mara Superior installed at the Racine Art Museum, 2021
Collection Focus: Mara Superior installed at the Racine Art Museum, 2021
Collection Focus: Mara Superior installed at the Racine Art Museum, 2021
Mara Superior, “Americana: A Collection of Blue Salt-glazed Stoneware”, 2016, Racine Art Museum, Gift of the Kohler Foundation, Inc. Photography: John Polak
Mara Superior, “A Tea Party Collection”, 1987, Racine Art Museum, Gift of the Kohler Foundation, Inc. Photography: John Polak
Mara Superior, “My Forrest”, 1993, Racine Art Museum, Gift of the Kohler Foundation, Inc. Photography: Jon Bolton
Mara Superior “Heaven & Earth II”, 1993 a Party Collection, 1987 Racine Art Museum, Gift of the Kohler Foundation, Inc. Photography: Jon Bolton
Mara Superior, “A Tea House”, 1988, Racine Art Museum, Gift of the Kohler Foundation, Inc. Photography: Jon Bolton
Mara Superior, “Bella Italia”, 2006 Racine Art Museum, Gift of the Kohler Foundation, Inc. Photography: John Polak

More About the Exhibition

Exhibition Notes (PDF)

A Conversation with Mara Superior and Bruce W. Pepich, Unabridged (PDF)

ABOUT MARA SUPERIOR

Mara Superior is an American visual artist who works in porcelain. Her ceramic high relief platters and sculptural objects reflect the artist’s passion for art history and decorative arts, and her painterly motifs range from the pleasures of the domestic to serious political and environmental issues as points of departure to comment on contemporary culture and its relationship to history. Superior has received numerous awards including a National Endowment for the Visual Arts Fellowship, the prestigious Guldaggergård Residency in Denmark, and numerous individual artist grants from the Massachusetts Cultural Council.

Superior has exhibited at the American Museum of Ceramic Art, (Pomona, CA), Scripps Women’s College, (Claremont, CA), and the Fuller Craft Museum, (Brockton, MA) among many other institutions. Her work can be found in the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, (Washington, DC), the Museum of Arts and Design, (New York, NY), the Peabody Essex Museum, (Salem, MA), Philadelphia Museum of Art, (Philadelphia, PA) the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, (Los Angeles, CA), White House Collection of American Craft, (Little Rock, AK). An in depth collection of her work was recently acquired by the Racine Art Museum, (Racine, WI) with the support of Kohler Foundation, (Sheboygan, WI). In 2010 she was interviewed for the oral history program of the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art, (Washington, DC). Superior studied at the Pratt Institute and Hartford Art School, completing her BFA in painting from the University of Connecticut followed by a MAT in ceramics from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. She is represented by Ferrin Contemporary.

MORE ON MARA SUPERIOR

Mara Superior’s Website

Review by Angela Fina from the Exhibitions section of American Ceramics, Volume 7, Number 2, 1989 (PDF)

Oral History Interview with Mara Superior—Archives of American Art

Artist Spotlight from a 2018 Exhibition at The Frick Pittsburgh

08
Sep
2019
COOL CLAY: Recent Acquisitions of Contemporary Ceramics | Crocker Art Museum

COOL CLAY: Recent Acquisitions of Contemporary Ceramics | Crocker Art Museum

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA

July 21, 2019 — July 21, 2021

From raw textures to meticulous details, to glazes bursting with color, the works in Cool Clay represent one of the most exciting and expansive fields of contemporary art. This exhibition highlights a selection of notable acquisitions that strengthen the Crocker Art Museum’s ceramics holdings in both diversity and scope. These pieces represent the work of influential figures such as Rudy Autio, Jun Kaneko, Tony Marsh, Edwin Scheier, Nancy Selvin, and Akio Takamori, as well as more recent leaders like Peter Olson, Zemer Peled, Brian Rochefort, and Dirk Staschke. Although the artists pursue a great variety of approaches and techniques, each embraces the experimental and playful sensibility this versatile medium engenders. Spanning six decades of studio practice, this exhibition celebrates the ground-breaking achievements of 20th-century ceramists as well as those who today continue to reimagine the possibilities of working in clay.

Read more on the Crocker’s blog, the Oculus, HERE.

Exhibiting Artists:

Anthony Bennett, Claude Conover, Annette Corcoran, Viola Frey, David Gilhooly, Babs Haenen, Matthias Merkel Hess, Anne Hirondelle, Sergei Isupov, Cliff Lee, Ah Leon, Whitney Lowe, Kris Lyons, Calvin Ma, Mineo Mizuno, Steven Montgomery, Peter Olson, Edwin Scheier, Nancy Selvin, Peter Shire, Mara Superior, Akio Takamori, Claudia Tarantino, Cheryl Ann Thomas, Peter VandenBerge, 

Learn more about FC Artists:

SERGEI ISUPOV
MARA SUPERIOR

and from the archives:

VIOLA FREY
AKIO TAKAMORI

“Cool Clay: Recent Acquisitions of Contemporary Ceramics”, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA, July 21, 2019 – July 19, 2020. Image courtesy of the Crocker Art Museum.
“Cool Clay: Recent Acquisitions of Contemporary Ceramics”, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA, July 21, 2019 – July 19, 2020. Image courtesy of the Crocker Art Museum.
“Cool Clay: Recent Acquisitions of Contemporary Ceramics”, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA, July 21, 2019 – July 19, 2020. Image courtesy of the Crocker Art Museum.
Sergei Isupov, ‘Lightness’ 2008, stoneware, stain, glaze, 33 x 18 x 9″. Image courtesy of the Crocker Art Museum.
Sergei Isupov, “Lightness”, 2008, stoneware, stain, glaze, 33 x 18 x 9″.
“Cool Clay: Recent Acquisitions of Contemporary Ceramics”, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA, July 21, 2019 – July 19, 2020. Image courtesy of the Crocker Art Museum.
“Cool Clay: Recent Acquisitions of Contemporary Ceramics”, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA, July 21, 2019 – July 19, 2020. Image courtesy of the Crocker Art Museum.
“Cool Clay: Recent Acquisitions of Contemporary Ceramics”, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA, July 21, 2019 – July 19, 2020. Image courtesy of the Crocker Art Museum.
Mara Superior, “Fantasia Teapot”, high-fired porcelain, ceramic oxides, underglaze, glaze, faux painting, wood, brass pins, 13.5 x 8.5 x 20″.
“Cool Clay: Recent Acquisitions of Contemporary Ceramics”, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA, July 21, 2019 – July 19, 2020.Image courtesy of the Crocker Art Museum.
“Cool Clay: Recent Acquisitions of Contemporary Ceramics”, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA, July 21, 2019 – July 19, 2020. Image courtesy of the Crocker Art Museum.
“Cool Clay: Recent Acquisitions of Contemporary Ceramics”, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA, July 21, 2019 – July 19, 2020. Image courtesy of the Crocker Art Museum.
“Cool Clay: Recent Acquisitions of Contemporary Ceramics”, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA, July 21, 2019 – July 19, 2020. Image courtesy of the Crocker Art Museum.
“Cool Clay: Recent Acquisitions of Contemporary Ceramics”, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA, July 21, 2019 – July 19, 2020.Image courtesy of the Crocker Art Museum.
“Cool Clay: Recent Acquisitions of Contemporary Ceramics”, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA, July 21, 2019 – July 19, 2020. Image courtesy of the Crocker Art Museum.
“Cool Clay: Recent Acquisitions of Contemporary Ceramics”, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA, July 21, 2019 – July 19, 2020.Image courtesy of the Crocker Art Museum.
“Cool Clay: Recent Acquisitions of Contemporary Ceramics”, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA, July 21, 2019 – July 19, 2020. Image courtesy of the Crocker Art Museum.
“Cool Clay: Recent Acquisitions of Contemporary Ceramics”, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA, July 21, 2019 – July 19, 2020. Image courtesy of the Crocker Art Museum.
“Cool Clay: Recent Acquisitions of Contemporary Ceramics”, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA, July 21, 2019 – July 19, 2020. Image courtesy of the Crocker Art Museum.
“Cool Clay: Recent Acquisitions of Contemporary Ceramics”, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA, July 21, 2019 – July 19, 2020. Image courtesy of the Crocker Art Museum.
“Cool Clay: Recent Acquisitions of Contemporary Ceramics”, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA, July 21, 2019 – July 19, 2020. Image courtesy of the Crocker Art Museum.
“Cool Clay: Recent Acquisitions of Contemporary Ceramics”, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA, July 21, 2019 – July 19, 2020. Image courtesy of the Crocker Art Museum.
“Cool Clay: Recent Acquisitions of Contemporary Ceramics”, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA, July 21, 2019 – July 19, 2020. Image courtesy of the Crocker Art Museum.