Project Type: 2014

MADE IN CHINA : The New Export Ware

MADE IN CHINA : The New Export Ware

MADE IN CHINA

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OCTOBER 18–NOVEMBER 16

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DECEMBER 2–7


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JANUARY 21–25

 

MADE IN CHINA is a curated series of exhibitions and talks, examines the contemporary, ceramic-centric exchange between eastern and western artists and markets.

JULIE BARTHOLOMEW

ROBIN BEST

CAROLINE CHENG

SIN-YING HO

GARTH JOHNSON

PAUL MATHIEU

PAUL SCOTT

ROBERT SILVERMAN

VIPOO SRIVILASA


MADE IN CHINA reveals a dynamic relationship — with appropriation and collaboration occurring in both directions.

Marked by ever-increasing cross-cultural collaboration, this contemporary ceramics movement emerging from China is urging a re-definition of today’s export ware. With increasing frequency, western artists are traveling to China to produce ceramic work using traditional Chinese methods. Exhibitions in the United States, Australia, and Europe are bringing forward a new generation of export ware. In the summer of 2014, Leslie Ferrin travelled to Hong Kong, Chongqing, Jindezhen, and Shanghai to explore this growing cultural exchange. She participated in and lectured at workshops, visited galleries and museums, and toured studios where western artists work in collaboration with skilled Chinese artisans.

In this exhibition, Ferrin brings together work that reveals the essential aspects of contemporary ceramics currently coming out of China.

“After my visit to China, it was clear that this growing movement of western artists engaging with Chinese artisans to provide works for international markets was urging a contemporary re-definition of export ware. It is a dynamic relationship with appropriation and collaboration occurring in both directions, and we are fortunate that we will be able to truly explore the relationship, multiple exhibitions over the coming year.”– Leslie Ferrin


ABOUT MADE IN CHINA 

Inspired by her recent travels in China, MADE IN CHINA  is curated by Ferrin Contemporary Director Leslie Ferrin. See images from Ferrin’s travels below or click here for the full gallery on scene + seen.

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See all #chinainchina2014 images on scene + seen

Sponsored as a guest lecturer by the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, Ferrin traveled to China in June and July 2014 with the aim of gaining a greater understanding of the cross-cultural collaboration, production, and appropriation occurring in the New Export Ware movement. During her visit, Ferrin visited ceramic workshops in Jingdezhen and Chongqing, where – similar to the historical model of export ware – skilled Chinese artisans, produce contemporary works for Western markets under the direction of visiting Western artists.

“After my visit to China, it was clear that this growing movement of Western artists engaging with Chinese artisans to provide works for international markets was urging a contemporary re-definition of export-ware,” says Ferrin. “It is a dynamic relationship with appropriation and collaboration occurring in both directions, and we are fortunate that we will be able to truly explore the relationship, with multiple exhibitions over the coming year.”



Click here to read Blouin Art Info article on Made in China.


JASON WALKER: On the River, Down the Road at BAM

JASON WALKER: On the River, Down the Road at BAM

Jason Walker: On the River, Down the Road

October 3, 204–March 1, 2015
Bellevue Arts Museum, Bellevue, WA

A solo show of seven new, large-scale works

Northwest artist Jason Walker is widely celebrated for his skillfully executed ceramic sculpture. Treading a fine line between storytelling and social criticism, Walker’s work explores the human experience as reflected in Nature. His painted porcelain works, often taking the form of wild animals domesticated by industry, are simultaneously thought-provoking and unsettling. Bridging the dichotomous worlds of nature and technology represents, for the artist, “a journey to define for myself what it means to be human in the present time.” On the River, Down the Road is a site-specific installation created by Walker, who will transform the gallery into an enveloping, fantasy-driven world that—through richly detailed narratives and surrealist, apocalyptic imagery—offers an incisive comment on the indelible impact of humanity upon the natural landscape.

Jason Walker Cover

Click here to order the catalog for On the River, Down the Road.

Artwork in this exhibition is available for sale through Ferrin Contemporary.

Please click here to contact us for more information.

For more information and other available works by Jason Walker click here.

Jason Walker is represented by Ferrin Contemporary.

CERAMIC TOP 40 at Harvard University

CERAMIC TOP 40 at Harvard University

CERAMIC TOP 40 | NEW & SELECTED WORKS

May 27–August 16, 2014
Gallery 224, Ceramics Program, Office for the Arts at Harvard
224 Western Avenue, Allston, MA

Curated by Leslie Ferrin, director of Ferrin Contemporary

EVENTS
JUNE 11, 2014
2–5pm Workshop Demonstration by Lauren Mabry
5–6pm Curator Lecture by Leslie Ferrin
6–8pm Opening Reception

Link to Harvard Ceramics for directions and workshop details,

The work in this exhibition was drawn from the CERAMIC TOP 40 | 2013  show held at Red Star Studios – part of Bleger Crane Yard Studios in Kansas City, MO – and includes new work from artists working on the cutting edge of contemporary ceramics who were featured in the show.

The Harvard exhibition combines invited and juried submissions representing a range of conceptual, utilitarian, and sculptural ceramics and seeks to identify artists working on the cutting edge of current processes, ideas, and presentation concepts. Both up-and-coming and established artists who are breaking new ground are included.

Object: Spoon
During a 2013 artist residency at Medalta in Medicine Hat, Canada, Vipoo Srivilasa sought a way to bring fellow artists together. Srivilasa generated a simple and effective mechanism that also celebrated their shared passion for their profession. He invited each resident to make a modest, universal object: a spoon. The resulting series of spoons was shown as a single entry under Srivilasa’s name in Ceramic Top 40.

Inspired by the response and strong sense of collaboration and connections that came from the project, Srivilasa quickly realised the potential of the idea. Upon his return to Australia, he put out an open invitation through his extensive social media networks, asking makers to create spoons and to submit digital images. From these submissions, 25 spoons were selected by Srivilasa, with advice from Vicki Grima, editor of The Journal of Australian Ceramics and Leslie Ferrin, curator of Ceramic Top 40.

The 2014 collection, will be presented as a group in Object: Spoon in the second venue of Ceramic Top 40 | New & Selected Works at Harvard Ceramics in Allston, Massachusetts, USA.

Generated by his basic human need for friendship in a new community, Srivilasa has inspired an international engagement between established and international ceramicists from 16 countries in this collaboration OBJECT: SPOON.

25 spoons from these 2014 finalists will be on exhibit:
Tinne Maria Andersen, Marta Armada, Elaine Bolt, Jim Bov’e, Meredith Brickell, Joey Chiarello, Kris Coad, Rachel Cramer, Sally Curry, Trisha Dean, Carole Epp, Klaus Gutowski, Evan Hobart, Vanessa Holle, Nayoung Im, Sukumarl Leksawat, Steven Low and Thai Kwan, Miro Mackiewicz, Fiona McDonald, Creina Moore, Jo Quirk, Bonnie Smith, Leilani Trinka, Gerry Wedd, Snow Yu

vipoo.com/spoon

PROMENADE: New Work by Sergei Isupov

PROMENADE: New Work by Sergei Isupov

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

March 7–April 22, 2014
Perimeter Gallery, Chicago

A selection of recent works from ceramic artist Sergei Isupov was presented in the lower gallery of the Perimeter Gallery (Chicago, IL). The show was curated by Leslie Ferrin and presented in conjunction with Isupov’s mid-career survey at the Racine Art Museum, Collection Focus: Sergei Isupov, February 23–June 8, 2014.

Isupov transformed the lower gallery into a narrative installation using ceramic sculpture and site-specific painting.  “I consider my sculptures to be a canvas for my paintings. All the plastic, graphic, and painting elements of a piece function as complementary parts of the work.” Born in Stavropol, Russia in 1963, Isupov now lives in Massachusetts and Tallinn, Estonia.

Read more, see more

Sergei Isupov is represented by Ferrin Contemporary.

EVENTS

Friday, March 7 from 5–8pm
Conversation with the Artist

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).

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).

JOHN MICHAEL KOHLER ARTS CENTER 40th ANNIVERSARY

JOHN MICHAEL KOHLER ARTS CENTER 40th ANNIVERSARY

ABOUT THE EXHIBTION

through Aug 31, 2014
John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, WI

In 2014, the Arts Center will commemorate the 40th anniversary of Arts/Industry with an extensive exhibition, a comprehensive book, and educational programming. The project will also highlight the long-term residency program’s importance to artists and the art world.

The residency program has been managed by the John Michael Kohler Arts Center and hosted by Kohler Co. since 1974. Almost 400 artists have used the factory’s industrial materials, equipment, and techniques to create works of art that would have been difficult, if not impossible, to produce in their studios.

Work in the six-month exhibition will be drawn primarily from the collections of the John Michael Kohler Arts Center and Kohler Co. that includes a large body of work created by the resident artists. The exhibition, held at the Sheboygan facility, will open during the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) conference held in Milwaukee from March 19–22, 2014.

Ferrin Contemporary and Ferrin Gallery have been honored to work with several artists who have participated in the Arts/Industry program and offer selected works produced in the program for sale.

Jack Earl
Giselle Hicks
Sergei Isupov

RAM COLLECTION FOCUS: Sergei Isupov

RAM COLLECTION FOCUS: Sergei Isupov

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

February 23 – June 8, 2014
Racine Art Museum, Racine, WI

A mid-career retrospective for an innovative artist who has pushed the possibilities of clay by combining two-dimensional narrative with three-dimensional ceramic form. Isupov explores the human condition. His vocabulary includes human beings and animals, gender, identity, and relationship issues, autobiography, art history, and symbolism.

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).

EVENTS

Free First Friday in March
March 7, 2014, 10:00–5:00

Visitors can enjoy the Racine Art Museum for FREE the first Friday of every month. Located steps from Lake Michigan in downtown Racine, RAM is one of the nation’s most significant craft museums.

Meet The Artist  |  Sergei Isupov
Friday, March 21, 2014, 6-8:30 PM

The reception includes a meet and greet and book signings with Sergei Isupov, light refreshments, and a cash bar. Complimentary admission to NCECA attendees wearing their badge and to RAM members, $10 for all others.

NOW AVAILABLE | PRINTS & WORKS ON PAPER

A selection of prints and works on paper are available for sale through the Racine Art Museum and Ferrin Contemporary.

View the complete collection HERE.

EXHIBITION CATALOG

This scholarly text includes essays on the significance of Sergei Isupov’s work to the ceramic field from Anthony Stellacio, Project Manager and Curatorial Research Specialist, Smithsonian, National Museum of African Art, and Lena Vigna, RAM Curator of Exhibitions. In addition, a conversation between Bruce W. Pepich, RAM Executive Director, and Leslie Ferrin, gallery owner and curator, explores the dynamic, supportive relationship between Ferrin and Isupov.

This 28-page booklet features 25 full-color images of Isupov’s pieces in RAM’s permanent collection.

Published in 2014 by Racine Art Museum, Racine, WI

Essays and images explore the artist and his place at RAM and in the larger universe of art.

• Captured Imagination: The Enigma of Sergei Isupov by Anthony Stellaccio
• Collection Focus: Sergei Isupov at RAM by Lena Vigna
• A Conversation between Leslie Ferrin and Bruce W. Pepich about Sergei Isupov

28-page, full-color exhibition catalog

Sergei Isupov RAM catalog cover
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

AMERICAN SCENERY

AMERICAN SCENERY

Paul Scott in the USA & American Scenery

January 21–2, 2014
New York Ceramics Fair 2014
Bohemian National Hall, New York

ongoing
selections on exhibit at Project Art, Cummington, MA

Paul Scott is a material based conceptual artist who creates individual ceramic pieces that blur the boundaries between fine art, craft, and design. With a penchant for rescuing cast-offs, he fondly restores them to a new life by using them as a canvas for biting social commentary. His work can be found in public and private collections around the globe.  Scott is a leading authority on printed vitreous surfaces. His research and artwork have been instrumental in showing and encouraging the creative use of this traditional printing technique in contemporary decorative ceramics.

During his recent residencies, lecture tour, and travels in the US, Scott gathered and created a new series, American Scenery, inspired by his travels, observation, and research into American landscape painting, prints, and the subsequent use of those images on ceramic transfer ware. Knowledge drawn from behind-the-scenes tours at museums and collections throughout the North East influences this new work where Scott has applied prints he produced in the USA onto rescued, cast off ceramic plates from the 19th and early 20th centuries. His work tells stories that explore the unexpected movement of images through materials, media, cultures, politics, histories, and geographies,  inviting us to see a whole group of objects in a new way.

Paul Scott is represented by Ferrin Contemporary. Read more and see more…