Project Type: 2013

HERE AND THERE

HERE AND THERE

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

June–November 2014
Vallauris Institute of Art
International Biennial of the Vallauris Institute
at the Hôtel de Ville, Vallauris, France

September 2013
HOP Gallery
Tallinn, Estonia

In this new body of work, Sergei Isupov surrounds his sculptural ceramic pieces with painted mural-like environments in site-specific installations.

Sergei Isupov is represented by Ferrin Contemporary. Click here for more information about this artist and works available in the USA.

ABOUT SERGEI ISUPOV

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

“Everything that surrounds and excites me is automatically processed and transformed into an artwork. The essence of my work is not in the medium or the creative process, but in the human beings and their incredible diversity. When I think of myself and my works, I’m not sure I create them, perhaps they create me.”

Isupov has a long international resume with work included in numerous collections and exhibitions, including the National Gallery of Australia, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (TX), Museum of Arts and Design (NY), Racine Art Museum (WI), Museum of Fine Arts Boston (MA), and the Erie Art Museum (PA), at which he presented selected works in a 20-year career survey Hidden Messages in 2017 and Surreal Promenade in 2019 at the Russian Museum of Art (MN).

CERAMIC TOP 40

CERAMIC TOP 40

SURVEY EXHIBITION


2013 – 2015 | 3-City US TOUR

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION


CERAMIC TOP 40
Belger Crane Yard Studios, Kansas City, MO
presented by Ferrin Contemporary and Red Star Studios
November 1, 2013–January 25, 2014

CERAMIC TOP 40 | selected works
Office for the Arts, Harvard, Gallery 224, Alston, MA
presented by Ferrin Contemporary and the Ceramics Program
May 17–June 27, 2014

CERAMIC TOP 40 | selected works
Independent Art Projects
1315 MASS MoCA Way, North Adams, MA
January–April 2015

Ceramic art is experiencing an evolutionary leap. Economic conditions and technological advances have caused a dramatic shift in the way contemporary ceramics are conceived, designed, produced, and marketed. Ceramic Top 40 is an exhibition that emerged from the need to document this defining time in contemporary ceramics. Taking a snapshot of this pivotal transition provides a look back at recent history, an understanding of these forces of change, and a glimpse into the future of ceramic art.

This survey exhibition features work by individual artists, collaborators, and design partners who are working on the cutting edge of current processes, ideas, and presentation concepts in conceptual utilitarian and sculptural ceramics. They are responding to the external forces of a changing world and, in turn, shaping those influences.

CERAMIC TOP 40 CATALOG


EXHIBITING ARTISTS


CERAMIC TOP 40 ARTISTS

Susan Beiner •  Robin Best  •  Stephen Bird  •  Stephen Bowers  •  Jessica Brandl  •  Andy Brayman  •  Beth Cavener  •  Craig Clifford  •  Mark Cooper  •  Cristina Cordova  •  Guy Michael Davis (Future Retrieval)  •  Thomas Lowell  Edwards  •  Michelle  Erickson  •  Sean Erwin  •  Leopold Foulem  •  Alessandro Gallo  •  Misty Gamble  •  Gerit Grimm  •  Rain Harris  •  Giselle Hicks  •  Peter Christian Johnson  •  Brian R. Jones  •  Ryan LaBar  •  Steven Young Lee  •  Linda Lighton  •  Daniel Listwan  •  Lauren Mabry • Aya Margulis (Doda Design)  •  Walter McConnell •  Sara Moorhouse  •  Ron Nagle  •  Katie Parker (Future Retrieval)  •  Kate Roberts  •  Stephanie Rozene   •  Anders Ruhwald   •  Michael Schwegmann  •  Paul Scott  •  Richard Shaw  •  Adam Shiverdecker  •  Bobby Silverman  •  Linda Sormin  •  Shawn Spangler  •  Vipoo Srivilasa  (The Spoon Project)  •  Dirk Staschke  •  Rae’ut Stern (Doda Design)  •  Emily Sudd  •  Tip Toland  •  Clare Twomey  •  Shaleene Valenzuela  •  Jason Walker

VIPOO SRIVILASA | OBJECT: SPOON  |  Liz Burrit  •  Thomas Cheong  •  Naomi Clement  •  Jenn Demke-Lange  •  Jason Desnoyers  •  Krisaya Luenganantakul  •  Laura McKibbon  •  Noriko Masuda  •  Teo Huey Min  •  Jun Myoung  •  Aaron Nelson  •  Joshua Primmer  •  James Seet  •  Vipoo Srivilasa  •  Jenna Stanton

CERAMIC TOP 40
Belger Crane Yard Studios, Kansas City, MO
presented by Ferrin Contemporary and Red Star Studios
November 1, 2013–January 25, 2014

CERAMIC TOP 40 | selected works
Office for the Arts, Harvard, Gallery 224, Alston, MA
presented by Ferrin Contemporary and the Ceramics Program
May 17–June 27, 2014

CERAMIC TOP 40 | selected works
Independent Art Projects
1315 MASS MoCA Way, North Adams, MA
January–April 2015

CUMBRIAN BLUE(S): A Solo Exhibition of Recent Works by Paul Scott

CUMBRIAN BLUE(S): A Solo Exhibition of Recent Works by Paul Scott

Cumbrian Blue(s): A Solo Exhibition of Recent Works by Paul Scott

July 19 through November 23, 2013
Erie Art Museum, Erie, PA
Ronald E. Holstein Gallery

EVENTS
ARTIST LECTURE
Cumbrian Blue(s): An Illustrated Journey through Gardens, Patterns, Factories, and Confected Landscapes
Friday, September 27, 2013 from 7 – 10 pm
Followed by a public reception during Gallery Night

Cumbrian Blue(s) presents the ceramic work of English artist Paul Scott, whose plates and platters emulate the look of mass produced consumer wares, using traditional blue and white motifs and patterns with his own twist. His works superimpose non-traditional images—modern wind turbines with an idyllic farm scene; a power plant with 18th century trees or German automobiles against an Orientalist scene of a pagoda—onto what otherwise could be an antique piece of China.

Scott’s research plays a key role in all aspects of his work—from investigating the technical methodologies of print transfers to the synthesis of historical form and contemporary artifact embodied in these works. His book Ceramics and Print, first published in 1994 and subsequently revised, was among the first to examine the synthesis of print and clay, exploring both methodologies and concepts. He is currently investigating old conservation methods of repairing ceramic forms—stapling and wiring. He holds a PhD from Manchester Metropolitan University for his research project, Ceramics and Landscape, Remediation and Confection, a Theory of Surface.

Paul Scott is based in the Cumbria region of northwestern England. His characteristic blue and white ceramics can be found in private and public collections around the world, including the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; The National Museum Stockholm Sweden; The Museum of Art and Design, New York; and the National Decorative Arts Museum, Norway. In July 2011, Scott was appointed Professor 2 at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts (KHiO) in Norway.

HORIZON: Landscapes, Ceramics and Prints

HORIZON: Landscapes, Ceramics and Prints

Horizon: Landscapes, Ceramics and Print

June 14, 2013 – April 24, 2014
National Museum, Decorative Arts Collection, Oslo, Norway

The exhibition ‘Horizon – Landscapes, Ceramics and Print’ is a visual narrative, illustrating the journey of landscapes, images and patterns through differing media to their realisation on the blue, black, pink, white tableware of The National Museum’s Decorative Arts Collection.

Woven into the display of historical ceramics (including objects from Egersund, Rörstrand, Spode, Arabia) are etchings, engravings and lithographs, as well as objects made by contemporary artists who appropriate this historical genre to observe, record, comment and re-animate. The result is an unexpected journey through cultures, politics, histories and geographies – one that invites us to see a whole group of objects in a new way.

The exhibition includes artists such as:

Stephen Bird (Australia)
Stephen Bowers (Australia)
Robert Dawson (UK)
Leopold Foulem (Canada)
Maria Geszler (Hungary)
Trine Hovden (Norway)
Garth Johnson (USA)
Felix Hug (Switzerland)
Laura McKibbon (Canada)
Carol McNicoll (UK)
Paul Scott (UK)
Richard Shaw (USA)
Caroline Slotte (Finland)
Anne Line Sund (Norway)
Marit Tingleff (Norway)
Gerry Wedd (Australia)
Magdalena Gerber (Czech Republic)

Curator: Paul Scott in collaboration with Inger Helene Stemshaug and Knut Astrup Bull (The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design)

RED STAR STUDIOS TEAPOT INVITATIONAL

RED STAR STUDIOS TEAPOT INVITATIONAL

Red Star Studios Teapot Invitational
June 7 – August 31, 2013
Kansas City, Missouri

One of the most complex forms to create in functional ceramics is the teapot. To make a teapot read as one harmonious form many components must be constructed separately and joined together, which at times can be complicated. Understanding the relationship of the spout, lid, and handle are key to forming a visually appealing piece. We feel these works are some of the best examples of the teapot in contemporary ceramics today.

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

Kurt Weiser, "Wildfall" 2013, reverse, china painted porcelain, 9.5 x 8 x 4"
SERGEI ISUPOV: Call of the Wild

SERGEI ISUPOV: Call of the Wild

Sergei Isupov | Call of the Wild
May 4 – July 30, 2013
Barry Friedman Ltd, New York

Barry Friedman Ltd, in collaboration with Ferrin Gallery, is pleased to present a solo exhibition of figurative sculpture by contemporary Russian artist, Sergei Isupov. This will be the artist’s second show with Barry Friedman Ltd, and will open with a public reception on Saturday, May 4 from 2-6pm.

Call of the Wild, a body of 14 new works in porcelain and ceramic, produced at Project Art, Cummington, Massachusetts, creates a conversation about conflict and resolution driven by the instinctual drives of man, woman, animal, and beast.

Symbolic and metaphoric imagery gleaned from classical art training in the former Soviet Union, introduces allegorical biblical content and iconic presentations of portrait and landscape. The artist’s choice of ceramic materials provides the opportunity to create interlocking images with three-dimensional form and two-dimensional illustration. The human, male– female dilemma is examined throughout. Isupov explains, “Somebody saves somebody, someone loves the other more, they are mutually supportive and destructive, they are opposites — there are contrasts… One is more powerful, they are both survivors.”

Often called an erotic Surrealist for his daring representations of sexuality, relationships, and human encounter, Isupov takes narrative subject matter and merges it with ceramic sculptural form. Drawing on personal experience, and human observation, he creates works that integrate autobiography with universal narrative. He states, “Everything that surrounds and excites me is automatically processed and transformed into…an artwork. […] The essence of my work is not in the medium or the creative process, but in human beings and their incredible diversity. When I think of myself and my works, I’m not sure I create them, perhaps they create me.” While the robust, and racially distinct facial traits make each sculpture unique, they also make the body of work capable of representing universal experiences. The bold color palette, heavily tattooed faces, and textured surfaces relate these works to the aesthetics of traditional Russian art, as well as to contemporary styles of illustration.

Sonya Bekkerman, Vice President of Russian Art at Sotheby’s has written about Isupov and his artistic style within the context of Russian art history: “Sergei Isupov was born in the ’60s, a decade in which Russian artists began to actively question and defy the prescribed artistic ideology dictated by the Soviet Union, and he left in 1983, just before the turbulent artistic breakthroughs incited by Gorbachev’s perestroika in 1987. […] Like many of his contemporaries who sought to express their individuality away from party control, Isupov emigrated to the United States, where he has never stopped looking inward and revealing truths, free associations, and sheer id, no matter how cryptic, filtered through an American and Russian lens.”

Sergei Isupov’s work will be featured in the upcoming exhibition “Bodies Speaking Out: New International Ceramics” at the Museum of Arts & Design, NY opening in September 2013, followed by a mid-career survey at Racine Art Museum in 2014.

Isupov’s work is included in the permanent collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Racine Art Museum, Wisconsin; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; Museum of Art and Design, New York; and Museum fur Angewandte, Kunst, Frankfurt, Germany. Isupov has had solo exhibitions at Mesa Contemporary Arts Center, Arizona and The Daum Museum of Contemporary Art, Missouri. He has participated in group exhibitions at the 2009 World Contemporary Ceramics Exhibition at the 5th World Ceramic Biennale in Korea; The Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft; Fuller Craft Museum, Massachusetts; and the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Wisconsin. He lives and works in Cummington, MA.

Sergei Isupov is represented by Ferrin Gallery.
Read more, see more…

CLAY BODIES: A Group Exhibition of Figural Ceramic Sculpture

CLAY BODIES: A Group Exhibition of Figural Ceramic Sculpture

Clay Bodies: A Group Exhibition of Figural Ceramic Sculpture

September 19 – October 30, 2013
Barry Friedman Ltd, New York, NY

featuring Sergei Isupov and other artists

Barry Friedman Ltd. is pleased to present “Clay Bodies” featuring the figurative sculpture of 10 artists from 5 different countries, running in tandem with the Museum of Arts and Design’s opening fall exhibition “Body & Soul, New International Ceramics” (9/17/13 – 3/2/14). “Clay Bodies” will open with a public reception at Barry Friedman Gallery on Thursday, September 19, from 6-8pm.

Contemporary figurative sculpture, often tough in appearance and with narrative content, deals with current social, political, and cultural issues, and more pointedly the environment, sexuality, gender, and assimilation. These common threads are apparent in the sculptures of these ac- complished international artists. While the intent of some is quite apparent, many of the works have obscure narratives that the viewer is left to define.

Often called an erotic Surrealist for his daring representations of sexuality, relationships, and human encounter, Sergei Isupov takes narrative subject matter and merges it with ceramic sculptural form. The bold color palette, heavily tattooed faces, and textured surfaces relate these works to the aesthetics of traditional Russian art, as well as to contemporary styles of illustration.

Sergei Isupov is represented by Ferrin Contemporary.
Read and see more…

KURT WEISER: The Nature of Imagination

KURT WEISER: The Nature of Imagination

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

UNCANNY CONGRUENCIES

UNCANNY CONGRUENCIES

Uncanny Congruencies

September 10–December 15, 2013
Palmer Museum of Art

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

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

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

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

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

STEVEN YOUNG LEE: Red, White and Blue

STEVEN YOUNG LEE: Red, White and Blue

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

To see more about Steven Young Lee

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