Project Tag: Raymon Elozua

RAYMON ELOZUA: Structure/Dissonance

RAYMON ELOZUA: Structure/Dissonance

RAYMON ELOZUA:


STRUCTURE/DISSONANCE

Structure/Dissonance celebrates nearly five decades of work by New York-based artist Raymon Elozua, who first came to prominence in the 1970s with detailed trompe l’oeil ceramic sculptures of decaying industrial landscapes. The artist’s first major museum exhibition since his 2003 retrospective at the Mint Museum, Structure/Dissonance focuses on three conceptual bodies of work that explore the combined physical properties of three elemental materials: ceramic, glass, and steel. This exhibition contextualizes these vital sculptures within Elozua’s intellectual landscape through the inclusion of a series of collections and research projects that are inextricably linked to his artistic output.

Elozua’s insatiable appetite to uncover the hidden cultural meanings attached to his chosen materials has led him to obsessively collect esoteric objects like gas stove burners and rusted enamel cookware, as well as photographs and ephemera related to topics as varied as labor history and decaying “borscht belt” bungalow colonies. These collections and obsessions help to construct a more accurate picture of the complex intellect that gives depth and meaning to Elozua’s singular expressive sculptures.

PROGRAMMING

Visit the Everson Museum HERE

The Everson Museum of Art was founded in 1897 as the Syracuse Museum of Fine Arts, and was the first museum dedicated to collecting American art.

The Everson is home to over 11,000 works of art including paintings, sculpture, works on paper, photographs, a pioneering video art collection, and one of the largest ceramics collections in the country.

View PDF of the Press Release HERE

GUIDE

Raymon Elozua studied political science, sculpture and theater at the University of Chicago. These diverse and varied interests still hold a place within his visual arts practice, encompassing glass and ceramics-metal sculptures, photography and overall interest in historical ephemera.

Elozua is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2015 Virginia Groot Foundation, as well as numerous National Endowment for the Arts Grants in Sculpture, Ceramics, and Paintings. Elozua is widely represented in private, corporate and museum collections throughout the USA.

SERIES GLOSSARY

To find a form that accommodates the mess, that is the task of the artist now. – Samuel Beckett

We are each a collection of experiences, memories, dreams, actions, sins, fears, interests and so forth. We move along, gathering more and more experiences in our perceived continuum of time. Ultimately they all devolve into hazy fragments. Our lived experiences become puzzles to decipher. How do we integrate all we are into a cohesive whole or soul so that we can be peaceful and holistic?

Clarity in Confusion is a body of work that seeks inspiration from the artist’s personal interior landscape. I create entropic sculptures that decay, are always flaking, cracking, and disintegrating. This is a reminder and reflection of the human condition and ultimately our death. Rather than struggle to assemble the shards of our experiences and history, the task is to accept the confusion and uncertainty. In that acceptance comes a sense of clarity.

In 2018, I decided to return to glass again in conjunction with ceramic and steel. Once more, I worked with Lorin Silverman; this time at Urban Glass in Brooklyn. In addition to blown glass, I was interested in using mirror strips similar in nature to the enamelware photographic setups. The glass was created first. I then constructed a steel structure to suspend the glass shapes, which are removable for the kiln firings. Clay was added and the sculpture was fired for bisque the color. Metal angles were then welded at various angles as a support for two sided mirror strips, which were glued in place.

This series is entitled “Tri-Harmonic” referring to the relationship between glass, ceramic and steel, materials that all use fire and heat as an essential means in their creation.

In the 5th grade at Our Lady Gate of Heaven, our teacher created a contest. Pointing to an image of a state on a map of the USA, each student, standing at the back of the classroom, would have to name the capital of that state.

I studied and studied and was reasonably certain I could win. The only problem, I could not discern the shapes of the state from the back. I asked the nun to keep moving forward until I could clearly see the shapes. Soon I was literally 6 feet away. I knew every capital but I do not recall if she awarded a prize. What I do know is that she called my parents and told them I needed glasses.

Soon I received a pair of new prescription glasses for near sightedness. Already branded a “teacher’s pet, I was now immediately also called “4-eyes.” Despite the negative social implications, what mattered now was that I could see clearly for the first time. Everything was sharp, ordered, and definitive. Eyesight gave me a clarity, even a harshness of vision: the line, the curve, the edge with “level” and “perpendicular” defining space and volume.

Now that my vision is diminishing with age, I remembered this event. I decided to re-create the experience of seeing out of focus. In 2010, utilizing a table top set up of old and new enamelware, I produced a series of richly colored “blurry” images that recalled my first visual experiences.

In 2016, I thought it would be interesting to take these photos, to replace the glowing amorphous shapes in ceramic and steel. I was not successful, hence the title, “Hubris.” Eyesight and clarity prevailed.

R&D

Working in the ceramic medium, I have always been interested in the synthesis of different materials.  From 1989 through 2002, I used steel rod and wire combined with 04 terracotta in my sculptures.  The “skeleton” of the steel provided a way to utilize clay in a more spatial and gravity-defying manner.  

The medium of glass is attractive but I never had an occasion to explore it.  In 2013, I met Lorin Silverman, an expert glassblower and artist.  He worked then for Corning Museum as a technician helping artists to realize their vision in glass.  We researched and developed a way to blow glass into a metal armature.

Glass is perhaps the most difficult medium I have utilized.  Once the glass shapes were created, using CAD drawings I constructed a steel and wire structure, which was then covered with terra cotta and fired multiple times for color to Cone 04.  The glass forms were then independently affixed to the sculptures.

The tension between the fractured ceramic with the reflective glass is fascinating, a feeling of beauty born out of decay.

The work of R&D Sculptures 2014: Ceramic, Steel and Glass was constructed, March 2013 – May 2014.

Video by the Everson Museum of Art/ Music by: The High Llamas

Raymon Elozua: STRUCTURE & DISSONANCE
Everson Museum of Art Exhibition Catalog

Structure/Dissonance celebrates nearly five decades of work by New York-based artist Raymon Elozua, who first came to prominence in the 1970s with detailed trompe l’oeil ceramic sculptures of decaying industrial landscapes. Elozua’s first major museum exhibition since his 2003 retrospective at the Mint Museum, Structure/Dissonance focuses on three conceptual bodies of work that explore the combined physical properties of three elemental materials: ceramic, glass, and steel. This exhibition contextualizes these vital sculptures within Elozua’s intellectual landscape through the inclusion of a series of collections and research projects that are inextricably linked to his artistic output.

  • September 10—December 31, 2022 at the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, NY – curated by Garth Johnson
  • Catalog features essays by Johnson, Maria Porges, and Thyrza Nichols Goodeve, 2022
  • Published on 

RAYMON ELOZUA: Evolution of Steel and Ceramics

This catalog is a record of a portion of Raymon Elozua’s varied explorations into photography, websites, collections, and sculpture made of glass, steel, and ceramic. It documents Elozua’s relentless curiosity and enormous capacity for diverse inquiry, interpretation, and mastery.

DOWNLOAD PDF HERE

RAYMON ELOZUA: Word Sculptures

Using digital technologies, Raymon Elozua extracts layers of colored shapes from abstract expressionist paintings. He then re-materializes the digital imagery into steel and ceramic sculptures. The work shown here was constructed during 2001 in New York City.

DOWNLOAD PDF HERE

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.

DOWNLOAD PDF HERE

CONSTRUCTING ELOZUA: A Retrospective

This catalog was published on the occasion of the exhibition Constructing Elozua: A Retrospective, 1973–2003 organized by the Mint Museum of Craft + Design, Charlotte, North Carolina, and presenting the work of sculptor Raymon Elozua.

Foreword by Mark Richard Leach
Essays by Garth Clark, Melissa G. Post, and Edward Leffingwell

DOWNLOAD PDF HERE

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.

DOWNLOAD PDF HERE

RAYMON ELOZUA AT PORCHES INN

RAYMON ELOZUA AT PORCHES INN

NOT SO STILL LIFES: Photography

Presented at
The Porches Inn at MASS MoCA
231 River St. North Adams, MA 01247

ABOUT THE FEATURE

Ferrin Contemporary curates changing art by gallery artists at Porches Inn, often concurrent with the exhibitions. Porches Inn is a short walk from the gallery on the MASS MoCA campus in North Adams. 

FERRIN CONTEMPORARY is pleased to present Raymon Elozua at Porches Inn. The series of photographs in the dining room and reception areas are selected from various series of still lifes and abstractions drawn from years of research, object study collections and photographic documentation of industry and decay. 

Raymon Elozua is a transdisciplinary visual artist working in the Catskills region of New York. His extensive studio practice consists of large-scale sculpture in ceramic, steel and glass, photography, visual research and archiving, web-based projects, and other forms of documentation. Elozua’s work often references the vessel, abstract expressionism, industrial decline and decay, and regionalism. 

Elozua has been awarded three grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, a New York State Foundation for the Arts Grant, and a Virginia A. Groot Foundation Grant. His work has been exhibited at The Carnegie Museum of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Mint Museum of Art and The Mint Museum of Craft and Design, Museum of Fine Arts (Houston), and Yale University Art Gallery, among others. He has taught at The California College of Arts & Crafts, Louisiana State University, New York University, Pratt School of Design, and The Rhode Island School of Design. Elozua’s solo exhibition Structure/Dissonance opens at The Everson Museum of Art in Fall 2022. 

MELTING POINT

MELTING POINT

HELLER GALLERY

303 10th Avenue, New York, NY

FERRIN CONTEMPORARY

1315 MASS MoCA Way, North Adams MA


June 24 to September 25, 2021

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION


The Melting Point is the degree when solid becomes soft, eventually becoming liquid and a boiling point is reached. Glaze melts, clay and glass soften, surface and form become pliable. This exhibition surveys a ​diverse ​group of artists whose use of the melting point is central to their practice.

Used metaphorically, as the planet warms we are finding ourselves closer to the melting point both physically and socially. In 2020, forces combined under pressure of the COVID virus, politics exploded and nature responded with melting ice, raging fires and extreme weather. Likewise, artists use the melting point as a metaphor in their work to express their political beliefs and sound the alarm using the fragile materials of glass and ceramic.

The exhibition is ​a ​collaboration​ between Ferrin Contemporary in North Adams, MA on the MASS MoCA campus and ​Heller Gallery, located in the Chelsea Art District of New York City​. The co-curators and gallery directors are renowned specialists in their fields, Leslie Ferrin (ceramics) and Katya Heller (glass).

VIEW THE EXHIBITION CATALOG HERE

PRESENTATION at Ferrin Contemporary


PRESENTATION at Heller Gallery


EXHIBITING ARTISTS

PAST PROGRAMMING

SELECT PRESS


MELTING POINT in the Boston Globe
8.5.21 Cate McQuaid gives a quick glance at the exhibition in The Ticket section of The Boston Globe.

Arriving at the MELTING POINT in Destination Williamstown
7.20.21 Destination Williamstown interviews Ferrin Contemporary Director Leslie Ferrin and gets to the historical heart of MELTING POINT.

BUSINESS MONDAY: Did people buy art during COVID? 
6.28.21 Julia Dickson of The Berkshire Eagle reports on a “difficult but successful” year for Berkshire gallerists.

SHAPES FROM OUT OF NOWHERE | The Met Fifth Avenue

SHAPES FROM OUT OF NOWHERE | The Met Fifth Avenue

The Met Fifth Avenue

Gallery913 | Metropolitan Museum of Art | New York, NY

February 22nd – August 29th, 2021

Shapes from Out of Nowhere: Ceramics from the Robert A. Ellison Jr. Collection celebrates an extraordinary gift of 125 modern and contemporary ceramics from Robert A. Ellison Jr., made to The Met in honor of the Museum’s 150th anniversary. The exhibition will present a selection of over 75 works from this unparalleled collection that charts the evolution of abstraction in clay from the second half of the twentieth century through the present.

Five total works by Raymon Elozua are included in the permanent collection, three of which will be on view during the exhibition.

Artists include: Robert Arneson, Rudy Autio, F. Carlton Ball, Lynda Benglis, Kate Blacklock, Nina Borgia-Aberle, Alison Britton, Kathy Butterly, Peter Callas, Syd Carpenter, Christina Carver, Katherine Choy, Dieter Crumbiegel, Elisa D’Arrigo, Harris Deller, Richard DeVore, Kim Dickey, Gary DiPasquale, Ruth Duckworth, Raymon Elozua, Gary Erickson, Ken Ferguson, Amara Geffen, John Gill, Chris Gustin, Babs Haenen, Ewen Henderson, Wayne Higby, Margaret Israel, Howard Kottler, Anne Marie Laureys, Gareth Mason, John Mason, Leza McVey, Jim Melchert, Ursula Morley Price, Gertrud Natzler, Otto Natzler, Win Ng, William Parry, Ken Price, Aneta Regel, Mary Rogers, Stanley Rosen, Axel Salto, Paul Soldner, Rudofl Staffel, Chris Staley, Susanna Stephenson, Toshiko Takaezu, Kyoto Tonegawa, Robert Turner, Peter Voulkos, Frans Wildenhain, Marguerite Wildenhain, Betty Woodman, William Wyman and Arnold Zimmerman.

“I first met Bob Ellison at the Everson Ceramic National in 1993. At that time I did not know of his many accomplishments as a painter, photographer, writer and collector. Bob lived several blocks away and on my first visit I learned of his passion for all things ceramic, American art pottery, contemporary ceramics and above all the work of George Ohr. I felt privileged that Bob acquired several works of mine for his collection. Over the years it has been a pleasure to talk about contemporary ceramics, view his recent acquisitions, and trade bottles of wine. As well, Bob has also been a major influence for me to improve my photography skills.” Raymon Elozua

The related publication Shapes from Out of Nowhere: Ceramics from the Robert A. Ellison Jr. Collection, published by August Editions, is a lavishly illustrated catalogue including essays by Glenn Adamson and Robert A. Ellison Jr., artist biographies by Elizabeth Essner, and an introduction by Adrienne Spinozzi.

“In 1988, Harry Dennis, the publisher of American Ceramics magazine, held an all-day symposium on ceramics, entitled “The Art of Collecting.” There were panels consisting of artists, curators, writers, critics, collectors, and gallery owners. I attended. Despite the rich diversity of the participants, the talk droned on and on and on. One of the last people to speak was the artist Raymon Elozua, whom I had never heard of before. His words were like uninsulated electricity. He woke us up (at least me), telling everyone how boring it had been (which was true) and what they should have been talking about. I was determined to know this artist.

In 1993, the Everson Museum of Art invited me to be a juror for the 29th Ceramic National exhibition. A wire-frame “teapot” by Raymon Elozua had been accepted for the exhibition. At the reception after the show, Raymon introduced himself. At last, after hearing him speak at the symposium a few years earlier, we got together in New York City; we have been fast friends ever since. Raymon has been an important influence in loosening up some of my rigid thinking concerning clay. Obsessed with decay and destruction, he has created work by destroying and then reconstructing pots by attaching shared to facsimile angle irons made of clay to create sculpture (FIG. 23). In more recent work, he has used his skill in welding to create shapes with a wire armature while adding bits of clay and glaze to the steel and firing them in a kiln. His forms have become totally abstract, not a recognizable shape in sight. He is a rare combination, not only capable of thinking very abstractly but also a fine craftsman.”

– Robert A. Ellison Jr.

“With this most recent donation of modern and contemporary ceramics, the Metropolitan Museum of Art has acquired over six hundred works from Robert A. Ellison Jr., a remarkable legacy for this pioneering collector with an unparalleled vision. In scope, depth, and quality, his gifts have forever redefined the holdings of this institution while expanding our understanding of and appreciation for the ceramic arts. This recent landmark gift, and the accompanying exhibition and book, is no different in significance: only a collector with such innate knowledge of the medium could chart the path towards abstraction in clay.”

– Adrienne Spinozzi, Assistant Research Curator in the American Wing, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

NEW GLASS NOW, Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, NY

NEW GLASS NOW, Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, NY

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

New Glass Now

Corning Museum of Glass
Corning, NY

May 12th – January 5th, 2020

New Glass Now opens to the public on May 12, 2019, a highly-anticipated exhibition 60 years in the making. Featuring works by 100 living artists working in glass today, New Glass Now will take over every corner of The Corning Museum of Glass.  Raymon Elozua’s “R&D VII, RE-17-1” is featured in this exhibition.

The genesis of the R&D sculpture series began in 1989 with a series of sculptures that utilized steel rod, wire, and terracotta. These steel “wire frames” provided a path for Elozua to utilize clay in a spatial and gravity-defying manner. In 2013, Elozua utilized the glass blowing facilities at the Corning Museum to develop a technique that could integrate blown glass into his original metal and ceramic structures, adding new dimensions of light and color to his work. 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.

“I have always been interested in the synthesis of different materials.  The tension between the fractured ceramic and the reflective glass is fascinating — giving a feeling of beauty born out of decay.” — Raymon Elozua

 

 

 

 

 

 

EARTH PIECE, Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY

EARTH PIECE, Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY

Earth Piece

July 20, 2019- January 5, 2020

Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY

Named after Yoko Ono’s 1963 Earth Piece, a score that invites the reader to “Listen to the sound of the earth turning,” this exhibition examines artists who have combined clay and ceramics with performance art, photography, conceptual art, and even land art. Far from being used as “just another material,” clay comes freighted with millennia of associations with material culture. Earth Piece highlights the work of well-known figures from the art world, as well as lesser-known artists whose work shaped the field of ceramics into a vibrant discipline that is equally at home in both domestic and contemporary spheres.

Featuring the work of Ferrin Contemporary artists:

Raymon Elozua

Caroline Slotte

 

MADE IN MOUNTAINDALE II: Raymon Elozua & Micheline Gingras

MADE IN MOUNTAINDALE II: Raymon Elozua & Micheline Gingras

Made in Mountaindale II

Second Mountaindale Biennale
Art Exhibition

62 Main Street, Mountaindale, NY
Reception: Saturday, July 14, 12 to 4 p.m.
Open: Sunday, July 15, 12 to 4 p.m., and by appointment through September 3, 2018.

For more information, contact: raymon@elozua.com or call 212.260.1239.

Pas à Vendre Production presents the second Mountaindale Biennale: Made in Mountaindale II, featuring recent work by Micheline Gingras and Raymon Elozua, two active artists in the small hamlet of Mountaindale, part of the old “Borscht Belt” in the Catskills.

Micheline Gingras presents a body of collages driven by the anxiety and fear found within the politics of mainstream media. Sourcing her material from The New York Times, Gingras creates images that compress disparate worlds to heighten emotions, revealing theatrical tableaux of reality. Gingras uses visual imagery to address, head-on, the surreal nightmare and confusion of contemporary “news.”

Raymon Elozua presents a new series of sculptures and photographs from his “Hubris” series that explore the loss of vision. Starting with richly colored “blurry” photographs that hint of sculptural objects; the vivid colors meld into one another creating a foggy sense of atmosphere. These images provide context for the corresponding and contrasting sculptures, made of steel and ceramic, inspired by each photograph.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

Micheline Gingras (b.1947, Québec City, QC) is a visual artist focusing primarily on painting, drawing, and photography. She received her MFA from L’école des Beaux-Arts de Québec, moving to New York in 1970. She has shown extensively including solo exhibitions at the Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec, the Musée d’Art Contemporain de Montréal, and participated in group exhibitions at the Yale University Gallery and the BRIC House in Brooklyn, N.Y., among others. For 37 years, Gingras taught art at St. Ann’s School in Brooklyn, and now divides her time between the city and Mountaindale.

Raymon Elozua (b.1947, West Germany) is a visual artist, working extensively in sculpture and photography. His interest in history, labor, and industry has sparked numerous multimedia web projects including VanishingCatskills.com and LostLabor.com — Images of Vanished American Workers from 1900–1980. Elozua has received numerous grants and awards including three National Endowment for the Arts Awards, a New York State Foundation for the Arts in Ceramics, and, most recently, a Virginia A. Groot Foundation Grant. Exhibitions include a 2003 retrospective at the Mint Museum of Art, and group exhibitions at the Museum of Art and Design and Skidmore College among others. Elozua lives and works in Mountaindale.

Click here to download press release.

Click here to view more work by Raymon Elozua.

MAKE YOUR WAY TO MOUNTAINDALE

1.5 hours away from GW Bridge and 1.25 hours away from Kingston, NY

FROM NYC: Take George Washington Bridge upper level to Palisades Pkwy (first exit off bridge). As you near end of Palisades Pkwy, stay on left and exit for Rte. 6. which proceeds into a traffic circle. Follow circle and signs for Rte.6 (Rte. 6 goes over a small mountain.) Stay straight and follow signs to Rte.17. Rte. 6 essentially turns into Rte. 17. (approx. 30 min.) Follow Rte. 17 past exit for Wurtsboro/ Ellenville Rte. 209. Exit 112 is about 3 miles down the road saying Mountaindale. Exit on right. (approx. 30 min.) Turn left at T intersection after exit and turn left again at next immediate tee intersection, which is Wurtsboro Mountain Rd. (County Rd. 176) (Sign for Mountaindale). Follow this road about 1.2 miles to first major intersection, which is a Tee-intersection. (Sign for Mountaindale) You can only turn right on County Rd. 56 (Masten Lake Rd) which turns into New Rd. Follow this road about 8 miles until you come to the end of this road at a tee intersection & a stop light in front of Anderman Oil. Turn right. This is Main St. Follow 3 blocks downtown. Go past abandoned school on right, then karate school and bar on right. Opposite the bar is our gallery at 62 Main Street. 6 buildings down from bar, there will be a narrow driveway between 2 buildings on right.  Go down driveway and park in lot on your right. Our building is 29 Main St., a free-standing building.  (approx. 20 min.)

FROM KINGSTON: Take Route 209 to Ellenville. Follow Rte. 209 through Ellenville. about 2 miles down the road is an exit for Spring Glen. Turn right and follow road (Old Rte. 209) until you cross a small bridge. (approx. 60 min.) After the bridge is a tee intersection, turn right. This is Spring Glen Rd. which turns into Mountaindale Rd. (approx. 10 min.) Follow road for 8 miles. You will enter Mountaindale. My studio is at 1 Main St. and the gallery is one block down at 62 Main St.

Constructing Elozua: A Retrospective

Constructing Elozua: A Retrospective

Constructing Elozua: A Retrospective

 

This catalog was published on the occasion of the exhibition “Constructing Elozua: A Retrospective, 1973–2003” organized by the Mint Museum of Craft + Design, Charlotte, North Carolina, and presenting the work of sculptor Raymon Elozua.

Foreword by Mark Richard Leach
Essays by Garth Clark, Melissa G. Post, and Edward Leffingwell

126 full-color pages
$40

Click to see more of Elozua’s work. 

 

RAYMON ELOZUA

RAYMON ELOZUA

ARTWORK

Selections from the Artist’s Series


Archive & Artist Site HERE

“To find a form that accommodates the mess, that is the task of the artist now.” – Samuel Beckett

We are each a collection of experiences, memories, dreams, actions, sins, fears, interests and so forth. We move along, gathering more and more experiences in our perceived continuum of time. Ultimately they all devolve into hazy fragments. Our lived experiences become puzzles to decipher. How do we integrate all we are into a cohesive whole or soul so that we can be peaceful and holistic?

Clarity in Confusion is a body of work that seeks inspiration from the artist’s personal interior landscape. I create entropic sculptures that decay, are always flaking, cracking, and disintegrating. This is a reminder and reflection of the human condition and ultimately our death. Rather than struggle to assemble the shards of our experiences and history, the task is to accept the confusion and uncertainty. In that acceptance comes a sense of clarity.

In 2018, I decided to return to glass again in conjunction with ceramic and steel. Once more, I worked with Lorin Silverman; this time at Urban Glass in Brooklyn. In addition to blown glass, I was interested in using mirror strips similar in nature to the enamelware photographic setups. The glass was created first. I then constructed a steel structure to suspend the glass shapes, which are removable for the kiln firings. Clay was added and the sculpture was fired for bisque the color. Metal angles were then welded at various angles as a support for two sided mirror strips, which were glued in place.

This series is entitled “Tri-Harmonic” referring to the relationship between glass, ceramic and steel, materials that all use fire and heat as an essential means in their creation.

In the 5th grade at Our Lady Gate of Heaven, our teacher created a contest. Pointing to an image of a state on a map of the USA, each student, standing at the back of the classroom, would have to name the capital of that state.

I studied and studied and was reasonably certain I could win. The only problem, I could not discern the shapes of the state from the back. I asked the nun to keep moving forward until I could clearly see the shapes. Soon I was literally 6 feet away. I knew every capital but I do not recall if she awarded a prize. What I do know is that she called my parents and told them I needed glasses.

Soon I received a pair of new prescription glasses for near sightedness. Already branded a “teacher’s pet, I was now immediately also called “4-eyes.” Despite the negative social implications, what mattered now was that I could see clearly for the first time. Everything was sharp, ordered, and definitive. Eyesight gave me a clarity, even a harshness of vision: the line, the curve, the edge with “level” and “perpendicular” defining space and volume.

Now that my vision is diminishing with age, I remembered this event. I decided to re-create the experience of seeing out of focus. In 2010, utilizing a table top set up of old and new enamelware, I produced a series of richly colored “blurry” images that recalled my first visual experiences.

In 2016, I thought it would be interesting to take these photos, to replace the glowing amorphous shapes in ceramic and steel. I was not successful, hence the title, “Hubris.” Eyesight and clarity prevailed.

Working in the ceramic medium, I have always been interested in the synthesis of different materials.  From 1989 through 2002, I used steel rod and wire combined with 04 terracotta in my sculptures.  The “skeleton” of the steel provided a way to utilize clay in a more spatial and gravity-defying manner. 

The medium of glass is attractive but I never had an occasion to explore it.  In 2013, I met Lorin Silverman, an expert glassblower and artist.  He worked then for Corning Museum as a technician helping artists to realize their vision in glass.  We researched and developed a way to blow glass into a metal armature.

Glass is perhaps the most difficult medium I have utilized.  Once the glass shapes were created, using CAD drawings I constructed a steel and wire structure, which was then covered with terra cotta and fired multiple times for color to Cone 04.  The glass forms were then independently affixed to the sculptures.

The tension between the fractured ceramic with the reflective glass is fascinating, a feeling of beauty born out of decay.

The work of R&D Sculptures 2014: Ceramic, Steel and Glass was constructed, March 2013 – May 2014.

These new sculptures are derived from a series of sculptures starting in 1999. They are based on a digital exploration of Abstract Expressionist paintings. Adobe Photoshop was used to separate colored shapes within various paintings created by different artists. A DeKooning painting could be separated into 7 different colors or layers. These colors and their corresponding forms were then modified and manipulated in 3D Studio Max, a CAD software. 

The resulting building blocks were then assembled into coherent 3D forms. These prints were used as rough templates to “re-materialize” the digital images into steel and ceramic sculptures. A sculpture now was comprised of the various “sampled” forms and colors from several historical artists.

Working in the ceramic medium, I was always interested in the synthesis of different materials. From 1989 through 2001 I used steel rod combined with 04 terra cotta in my sculpture. The “skeleton” of steel provided a way to utilize clay in a more spatial and gravity defying manner.

The medium of glass was always attractive. In early 2013, I met Lorin Silverman, an expert glassblower with a BFA from Alfred. He then worked for Corning Museum as a resident technician assisting artists to realize their vision.

We researched and developed a way to blow glass into a metal armature. In July 2013, Lorin provided the labor and expertise to make the glass shapes used in this new body of work. Glass is the most difficult medium that I have experienced.

Once the shapes were blown, using CAD drawings, I constructed a steel and wire structure, which was then covered with terra cotta and fired multiple times for color. The glass forms were then independently affixed to the fired sculpture.

The tension between the fractured ceramic with the reflective glass is fascinating, a feeling of beauty born out of decay.

FEATURED EXHIBITIONS

Raymon Elozua Installation for "Are We There Yet?", Exhibition at Ferrin Contemporary in North Adams, MA Sculpture: Raymon Elozua, "Digital Sculpture: Hubris: IMF-02", 04 terra cotta, whiteware, glaze, steel rod and plate, 2016, 26.5 x 16.5 x 20". Photos (top left to bottom right): "Enamelware Mirror (Refractile) #2792", "Enamelware Mirror (Refractile) #3217", "Enamelware Table (EWed-26-e-847)", "Enamelware Conversation (6&3+ExMir-11-14-1094)", "Enamelware Table (EWed-31-a-1328)", "Enamelware Mirror (Refractile) #1835", 2006-2007, Archival ink on archival rag paper, 17 x 22" (each). Photo by John Polak Photography

ARE WE THERE YET?

July 15 – September 2, 2023 | Group Exhibition at Ferrin Contemporary | North Adams, MA

ARE WE THERE YET? is a celebration of Ferrin Contemporary’s 40+ years as leaders in the field of modern and contemporary ceramics.

View the exhibition page HERE

STRUCTURE/DISSONANCE

September 10 – December 31, 2022 | Solo Exhibition at Everson Museum of Art | Syracuse, NY

celebrates nearly five decades of work by New York-based artist Raymon Elozua, who first came to prominence in the 1970s with detailed trompe l’oeil ceramic sculptures of decaying industrial landscapes.

View the exhibition page HERE

MELTING POINT installation view of Scott Kelly, Raymon Elouza, and Robert Silverman

MELTING POINT

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.

View the exhibition page HERE

RECENT EXHIBITIONS

ABOUT


b. 1947 West Germany
lives and works in Mountaindale, NY

Raymon Elozua is a transdisciplinary visual artist working in the Catskills region of New York. His extensive studio practice consists of large-scale sculpture in ceramic, steel and glass, photography, visual research and archiving, web-based projects, and other forms of documentation. Elozua’s work often references the vessel, abstract expressionism, industrial decline and decay, and regionalism.

Elozua has been awarded three grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, a New York State Foundation for the Arts Grant, and a Virginia A. Groot Foundation Grant. His work has been exhibited at The Carnegie Museum of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Mint Museum of Art and The Mint Museum of Craft and Design, Museum of Fine Arts (Houston), and Yale University Art Gallery, among others. He has taught at The California College of Arts & Crafts, Louisiana State University, New York University, Pratt School of Design, and The Rhode Island School of Design. Elozua’s solo exhibition Structure/Dissonance opens at The Everson Museum of Art in Fall 2022.

ON HIS WORK

Both my parents were immigrants. My father was an illegal Cuban immigrant who nonetheless fought in the US Army during WWII, serving for 25 years and retiring as a Master Sergeant. My mother was a French war bride who survived the German invasion and civilian conscription, which emotionally scarred her entire life.

I was raised in the presence of these two different cultures, which were overshadowed by the dominant culture of the USA. Growing up in this ‘melting pot’ of America imbued me with a fluid, restless identity.

To that point, I am a college drop-out. I have worked as a batting machine operator, hardware store clerk, library book stacker,  babysitter, house painter, junkman, auto body painter, band roadie, macrobiotic baker, caterer, truck driver, theatrical carpenter, prop maker, construction contractor, landlord, potter, college art instructor, art consultant, property manager and local historian. I am a self-educated artist, not exactly a role model for college students; nonetheless I taught at the college level for many years.

Given my background, I see no reason in swearing a fealty to one medium, ceramic or otherwise. This work, like my personal history, combines three different mediums to create a cohesive aesthetic whole. I think this mirrors my own identity. The personal psychology of the work is echoed in the marriage of dissimilar materials whose only commonality is fire and heat. Embedded in this work is the resonance of my family.

Steel :: Strength :: Father

Ceramic :: Emotion :: Mother

Glass :: Hope :: Artist

– Raymon Elozua, 2022

ON WORKING IN ABSTRACTION

Abstraction has no message. 
Abstraction has no literal meaning. 
Abstraction is a pure reflection of self.

The computer was a significant tool in creating this body of work. The aesthetics behind the work originated from sampling different colors in a variety of Abstract Expressionist paintings. The colors were then exported into a software program and used as the basis for creating assorted 3D shapes. The forms were combined into virtual, albeit sterile, digital sculptures. These images were then “translated” into tactile textured sculptures fabricated out of steel, ceramic, and glass. The physical reality of the marriage of these materials and processes results in objects whose aesthetic beauty is born from decay, entropy, and regeneration. Abstraction has no message, no literal meaning, it is a pure reflection of self.

– Raymon Elozua, 2022

Representing Elozua’s varied explorations into photography, websites, collections, and sculpture made of glass, steel, and ceramic, view the artist’s thirty+ catalogs

View All Publications HERE

Structure/Dissonance celebrates nearly five decades of work by New York-based artist Raymon Elozua, who first came to prominence in the 1970s with detailed trompe l’oeil ceramic sculptures of decaying industrial landscapes. Elozua’s first major museum exhibition since his 2003 retrospective at the Mint Museum, Structure/Dissonance focuses on three conceptual bodies of work that explore the combined physical properties of three elemental materials: ceramic, glass, and steel. This exhibition contextualizes these vital sculptures within Elozua’s intellectual landscape through the inclusion of a series of collections and research projects that are inextricably linked to his artistic output. September 10—December 31, 2022 at the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, NY – curated by Garth Johnson; catalog features essays by Johnson, Maria Porges, and Thyrza Nichols Goodeve, 2022.

RAYMON ELOZUA: Evolution of Steel and Ceramics

This catalog is a record of a portion of Raymon Elozua’s varied explorations into photography, websites, collections, and sculpture made of glass, steel, and ceramic. It documents Elozua’s relentless curiosity and enormous capacity for diverse inquiry, interpretation, and mastery.

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.

RAYMON ELOZUA: Word Sculptures

Using digital technologies, Raymon Elozua extracts layers of colored shapes from abstract expressionist paintings. He then re-materializes the digital imagery into steel and ceramic sculptures. The work shown here was constructed during 2001 in New York City.

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.

CONSTRUCTING ELOZUA: A Retrospective

This catalog was published on the occasion of the exhibition “Constructing Elozua: A Retrospective, 1973–2003” organized by the Mint Museum of Craft + Design, Charlotte, North Carolina, and presenting the work of sculptor Raymon Elozua.

Foreword by Mark Richard Leach
Essays by Garth Clark, Melissa G. Post, and Edward Leffingwell

DIGITAL PROJECTS

Raymon Elozua, Blur #2 (P-Canon 100m_0678), 2010, Archival ink on archival rag paper, 17 x 22″

NEWS


Year in Review 2015

YEAR IN REVIEW 2015 A review of last year's highlights and trends with special thanks to all who made it possible with their art, interest, encouragement, and support. Click here...

2015 SUMMER EVENTS

    SUNDAY JULY 19   |   CLAY IS HOT! GOOD BETTER BEST Panel Discussion and Dinner in the Gallery 1315 MASS MoCA Way, North Adams   JULY 25 &…

Elozua Awarded Groot Grant

In 2015, Elozua received a Virginia A. Groot Foundation grant for a new body of work. The R&D series of mixed media sculpture incorporates glass, ceramics, and steel.

GLAZED & DIFFUSED

Glazed & Diffused will be on view at Ferrin Contemporary’s gallery space at 1315 MASS MoCA Way in North Adams from June 20 through August 16, 2015. This survey exhibition will…

ADDITIONAL PRESS

For more than 40 years, Raymon Elozua has maintained a career largely outside of the commercial art world, forging his own path in creative and enduring ways…”

Read full text here.

Raymon Elozua: Fire and Steel
American Ceramics Vol.11 #3

by Peter Von Ziegesar

“If the conventional thrown pitcher or teapot represents, in the mind of the potter, an attempt to distill something essential, beautiful and permanent about the human spirit and cast it into a material that is among the most lasting known to man, then Raymon Elozua’s pieces of the last two years try to do the opposite…”

Read full text here.

Constructing Elozua: A Retrospective, 1973–2003
Mint Museum of Craft + Design

This online career retrospective connects the threads of a 30-year body of work driven by Raymon Elozua’s fascination of materials, process, and his insatiable curiosity. It includes photography, ceramics vessels, sculptural landscapes, paintings, and computer-derived art.

Click here to explore Constructing Elozua: A Retrospective through imagery, video, interviews, and commentary presented by the Mint Museum.

Without Compromise: A Personal View of Raymon Elozua’s Art
by Garth Clark

“Elozua is one of those rare contemporary artists for whom art is not vocational choice, but is a trust and sacrament in which compromise and dishonesty are simply not options.”

Click to read full essay.

Raymon Elozua: How to Make a Teapot
by Edward Leffingwell

Raymon Elozua came to the broad range of his work as an artist fired by a curiosity concerning process and driven by the avidity and range of his remarkable intelligence.

Click to read full essay.

INQUIRE


Additional works may be available to acquire, but not listed here.

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    GLAZED & DIFFUSED

    GLAZED & DIFFUSED

    1315 MASS MoCA Way, North Adams, MA

    ABOUT THE EXHIBITION


    North Adams, MA —

    Glazed & Diffused is a survey exhibition focused on a select group of international artists, from George Ohr (b. 1857) to several mid-career artists chosen from the exhibition Ceramic Top 40. These artists use fired clay and glaze pigment to convey abstract content. Their sculpture, objects, vessels, tile, and site-specific installations reveal intended, abstract results using fluidity, abstraction, and color theory.

    Spanning eight weeks this summer, Glazed and Diffused will bring attention to the lively dialogue surrounding the dissolution of categorical constraints in institutions and the art market through programming that includes panel discussions, DISH + DINE events and Artist Salons

    “Over the course of my career, I have witnessed both the emergence of abstract clay sculpture in the late 1950s and 60s and its re-emergence as a fine art trend fully integrated into contemporary art market.  In 2015 fine artists are regularly creating objects and sculpture in clay alongside their works in painting and various other mediums, and likewise their galleries are mounting solo and group exhibitions inclusive of ceramics.”

    “Within encyclopedic museums, the permanent collections and period rooms are offering new contexts for contemporary ceramic art to be considered both chronologically and thematically alongside parallel artwork in all media. The “Dirt on Delight” exhibition presented in 2009 at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia, was the important seminal museum survey that ignited interest and marked the moment when ceramics not only garnered the attention of New York’s illustrious art critics, such as Roberta Smith, but also that of the Chelsea galleries who began to focus attention on a younger generation alongside the known masters of the medium — Viola Frey, Betty Woodman, Peter Voulkos, Ken Price and Robert Arneson.

    “Dirt on Delight: Impulses That Form Clay,” curated by Ingrid Shaffner and Jenelle Porter, was accompanied by a catalog that included Glenn Adamson’s essay “Sloppy Seconds: The Strange Return of Clay.” Since that moment,  curators have turned their sights towards ceramics in survey exhibitions organized during Pacific Time in California, by Crystal Bridges, the Venice Biennale, and the Whitney Biennial. (In 2014, the Whitney Biennial featured sculpture by ceramic master John Mason alongside younger counterparts who have only recently aligned with the medium.)” – Leslie Ferrin, Curator

    EXHIBITING ARTISTS