Ferrin Contemporary is pleased to present select works for sale from private collections.
These collections offer an opportunity to acquire important works from surveys of studio sculpture and decorative art.
Ferrin Contemporary is pleased to present select works for sale from private collections.
These collections offer an opportunity to acquire important works from surveys of studio sculpture and decorative art.
Sergei Isupov’s newest series of 2025 will be debuted at District Clay Center this Spring.
Isupov’s ANCESTOR unites the collection of figurative works that show the evolution of ideas in his work. As expressed in the characters he portrays, the sculptures’ eyes and gestures activate relationships that are universal and timeless. Isupov explores narratives from the past as well as the present in multiple pieces, bridging memory and place into displays of his work. Born into a family of Russian artists during the USSR, he spent his childhood in Kyiv, Ukraine, educated in Tallinn, Estonia and now lives and works in Western Massachusetts.
“Regardless of our backgrounds or wherever in the world we came to be, our shared experiences as humans are interwoven and passed on from generation to generation. The exhibition Ancestor allowed me to reflect on these works and my sources of inspiration and motivation … When I think of myself and my works, I’m not sure I create them, perhaps they create me.” – Sergei Isupov
“Art is a life style for me. Everything that surrounds and excites me is automatically processed and transformed into the final result: an artwork. It is fascinating to watch the transitions from life to art. The essence of my work is not in the medium or the creative process, but the 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.
I find ceramic to be the most versatile material and it is well suited to the expression of my ideas. I consider sculpture to be a canvas for my paintings. All plastic, graphic and painting elements of the piece function as complementary parts of the work.
In this series of two-legged figures, Statuettes, the form is classical but the characters are comical. I like the contrast of serious to humorous – the front is cartoon like but the back of each figure features an intimate painting of the being’s spirit.
While each one expresses an individual personality or character, as a group, they become a population, inhabitants of my imaginary world or visitors from my imagination.”
2009 | “Androgyny: New Work by Sergei Isupov”, Daum Museum of Contemporary Art, Sedalia, MO, October 3 – December 6, 2009
2009 | “Androgyny”, Mesa Contemporary Arts Center, Mesa, AZ, April 10 – August 2, 2009
2008 | “Androgyny, The Preview, Solo Exhibition: Sculpture, Painting, Drawing”; Ferrin Gallery, Pittsfield, MA
“My work is about contrasts and relationships. I explore contrasts of human condition with my story lines such as male-female and human-animal relationships, and accompanying emotions of warmth and aggression, love and rejection, and nurture and abandonment. Dynamic and interactive narratives are developed using two and three dimensions at the same time with the sculpted form and painted surface. I use a visual vocabulary and classic tools of design, proportion, perspective and silhouette to both sculpt and paint. Eyes show emotional relationships. Facial and figural gestures develop personalities. Illusionary objects and perspectives suggest motion. As a viewer moves around the work, they see each angle and focus point leading to new chapters and story lines. Combined, these clues tell an overall story.”
Humanimals, transform anthropomorphic sculptures that explore human relationships by blending the expression and gesture of the combined species.
A sculptural surrealist, Isupov first created works in the Humanimal Series around 2011, with a set of “standing figures” (animal/human hybrids) and “riders” (animal figures on animal/human hybrids)
In 2015 Isupov returned to his iconic form of the Humanimal, a series of standing oversized figurines. New groups and works emerge as the artist delves into the right form for each of his concepts. Close Your Eyes Open Your Eyes, Burden II, Butterfly Catcher, Life’s Work, and Strong hail from multiple eras in the artist’s exploration of the series.
“The animal faces and features represent the beast or natural animal instincts that are often in conflict with reason and intellect.
The hand represents the hand of a human or god – both a comforting support for humanity and a force of opposition or challenge to animal instincts.
The two sculptures explore these ideas of opposing forces of nature and humanity, man and beast, integral and constant throughout life. There is nothing literal intended in the choice of imagery or narrative. The images and expressions are of male/female/animal – symbolic, metaphoric, and intended to provide for individual interpretation. ”
Ceramic sculptures are presented with both a multi-dimensional, mixed-media wall installation and independent pedestal-based works. Isupov and Ferrin Contemporary have had exhibitions internationally since 1996. This was the artist’s third solo show in our North Adams gallery location.
Both of Isupov’s 2022 exhibitions include works in porcelain and mixed-media drawings produced at Project Art in Cummington, MA.
Challenged by opportunities to expand his scale, Isupov’s recent exhibition Alliances featured a wall relief sculpture using the carved plywood printing plate (left) and the resulting print (right) bringing together ceramic sculpture, assemblage, and printmaking practices to show the full scope of creative versatility and process. Towering larger than life figures and animated life size tableaus anchor his solo exhibitions in galleries and museums.
Fire sculptures, public art, engage the public in community based projects.
Visible from Main Street, Isupov currently has 3 public works on view along Main Street in Cummington, MA and more around the world. Works are visible by car or foot, neighboring other temporary and permanent public works on Main Street as part of the Cummington Cultural District Art Walk.
To learn more about the Cummington Cultural District and other public art sculptures along Main Street: @cummmingtonculturaldistrict
Sergei worked on a series of prints at Littleton Studios in 2000 and produced the limited edition prints shown in the galleries below.
Each Littleton Print is a Vitreograph, Siligraphy print from glass plate, using Digital Transfer techniques.
The printing process varies from edition to edition. The labor involved in the process, the quality of the paper, and the edition size all affect the price of the print.
Sergei Isupov Artist Portrait, 2021, Photo Credit: John Polak
Estonian-American, b. 1963 Stavropole, USSR,
lives and works between Cummington, MA, USA and Tallinn, Estonia
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 ceramics using traditional hand-building and sculpting techniques to combine surface and form with narrative painting using colored stains highlighted with clear glaze.
Isupov has a long international resume with work included in numerous collections and exhibitions, including the National Gallery of Australia, Museum Angewandte in Kunst, Germany, and in the US at the Carnegie Museum of Art, Crocker Art Museum, Everson Museum of Art, Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, Museum of Arts and Design, Museum of Fine Arts–Boston, Museum of Fine Arts–Houston, Mint Museum of Art, and Racine Art Museum. In 2017, his solo exhibition at The Erie Art Museum presented selected works in a 20-year career survey titled Hidden Messages, followed by Surreal Promenade e, another survey solo in 2019 at the Russian Museum of Art in Minnesota.
ON HIS WORK
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 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.”
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.
“My work portrays characters placed in situations that are drawn from my imagination but based on my life experiences. My art works capture a composite of fleeting moments, hand gestures, eye movements that follow and reveal the sentiments expressed. These details are all derived from actual observations but are gathered or collected over my lifetime. Through the drawn images and sculpted forms, I capture faces, body types and use symbolic elements to compose, in the same way as you might create a collage. These ideas drift and migrate throughout my work without direct regard to specific individuals, chronology or geography. Universalism is implied and personal interpretation expected. Through my work I get to report about and explore human encounters, comment on the relationships between man and woman, and eventually their sexual union that leads to the final outcome – the passing on of DNA which is the ultimate collection – a combined set of genes and a new life, represented in the child.”
2009 | “Androgyny: New Work by Sergei Isupov”, Daum Museum of Contemporary Art, Sedalia, MO, October 3 – December 6, 2009
2009 | “Androgyny”, Mesa Contemporary Arts Center, Mesa, AZ, April 10 – August 2, 2009
2008 | “Androgyny, The Preview, Solo Exhibition: Sculpture, Painting, Drawing”; Ferrin Gallery, Pittsfield, MA
“Art is a life style for me. Everything that surrounds and excites me is automatically processed and transformed into the final result: an artwork. It is fascinating to watch the transitions from life to art. The essence of my work is not in the medium or the creative process, but the 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.
I find ceramic to be the most versatile material and it is well suited to the expression of my ideas. I consider sculpture to be a canvas for my paintings. All plastic, graphic and painting elements of the piece function as complementary parts of the work.
In this series of two-legged figures, Statuettes, the form is classical but the characters are comical. I like the contrast of serious to humorous – the front is cartoon like but the back of each figure features an intimate painting of the being’s spirit.
While each one expresses an individual personality or character, as a group, they become a population, inhabitants of my imaginary world or visitors from my imagination.”
Humanimals, transform anthropomorphic sculptures that explore human relationships by blending the expression and gesture of the combined species.
A sculptural surrealist, Isupov first created works in the Humanimal Series around 2011, with a set of “standing figures” (animal/human hybrids) and “riders” (animal figures on animal/human hybrids)
In 2015 Isupov returned to his iconic form of the Humanimal, a series of standing oversized figurines. New groups and works emerge as the artist delves into the right form for each of his concepts. Close Your Eyes Open Your Eyes, Burden II, Butterfly Catcher, Life’s Work, and Strong hail from multiple eras in the artist’s exploration of the series.
“The animal faces and features represent the beast or natural animal instincts that are often in conflict with reason and intellect.
The hand represents the hand of a human or god – both a comforting support for humanity and a force of opposition or challenge to animal instincts.
The two sculptures explore these ideas of opposing forces of nature and humanity, man and beast, integral and constant throughout life. There is nothing literal intended in the choice of imagery or narrative. The images and expressions are of male/female/animal – symbolic, metaphoric, and intended to provide for individual interpretation. ”
Sergei Isupov, Moments from Eternity Banner
2025 | Solo Exhibition at District Clay Center | Washington, DC
April 25 – May 25, 2025
“Sergei Isupov: Ancestor”, Exhibition in the Anderson Gallery at Bridgewater State University, November 1 through February 18, 2025
2024 | Solo Exhibition at Anderson Gallery at Bridgewater State University | Bridgewater, MA
November 1 – February 18, 2025
50 Years in the Making: Alumni Exhibition at The Clay Studio, June 13th – September 1st, 2024, featuring Sergei Isupov, Paul Scott, and Lauren Mabry
2024 | Group Exhibition at The Clay Studio | Philadelphia, PA
featuring work by Paul Scott, Sergei Isupov, and Lauren Mabry
June 13th through Sep 1st, 2024
This Alumni Exhibition showcases artwork to reflect the current practice of the This Alumni Exhibition showcases artwork to reflect the current practice of the over 150 artist who have participated in The Clay Studio’s Resident Artist Program, Guest Artist Program, and Associate Artist Program over the 50 years since its founding.
Kadri Pärnamets, “Fragments of Waves”, 2024, porcelain, slip, glaze
2024 | Group Exhibition at Claytopia at Guldagergaard | Skælskør, Denmark
featuring work by Sergei Isupov & Kadri Pärnamets
July 10th through August 10th, 2024
Claytopia is Guldagergaard’s initiative geared towards engaging the public, offering a unique space within the beautiful park surrounding Guldagergaard.
Among Claytopia’s activities are outdoor art exhibitions, concerts, discussion salons, and a design boutique.
Ferrin Contemporary presents Paul Scott in “Our America/Whose America?”. Installation for NCECA Richmond, 2024 at the Wickham House at The Valentine Museum, Richmond, VA. Image courtesy of The Valentine Museum.
2024 | Group Exhibition in the Wickham House at the Valentine Museum | Richmond, VA
February 20, 2024 – April 21, 2024
Our America/Whose America? Is a “call and response” exhibition between contemporary artists and historic ceramic objects.
Ferrin Contemporary “Our America/Whose America?” Dining Room Installation at the Wickham House, Richmond, VA, 2024
Sergei Isupov, “Ancestor”, 2023, oil ink print on paper, 98 x 98″. Photo by John Polak Photography.
2024 | Solo Exhibition at Thorne-Sagendorph Art Gallery, Keene State College | Keene, NH
October 25, 2023 – December 9, 2023
Sergei Isupov’s 22nd Solo Exhibition, Featuring artworks from the artist’s archive and new productions from his studio.
Installation Title Wall, featuring the artist’s tools and drawings from Sergei Isupov’s “Lips, Eyes, Ears, Eyebrows” and works in progress drawing series. Sculptures include “Crazy”, “Duel” (2006), and “Midnight Son” (2009). Photo by John Polak Photography. “SERGEI ISUPOV: Alliances”, Exhibition Installation at Thorne-Sagendorph Art Gallery, Keene State College, Keene, NH, October 25-December 6, 2023.
2023 | Group Exhibition at Ferrin Contemporary | North Adams, MA
October 25, 2023 – December 9, 2023
Isupov and Ferrin Contemporary have had exhibitions internationally since 1996, including key exhibitions and monumental installations that display various themes and series, which Isupov builds upon and pulls from to compose new environments and show content.
Isupov’s exhibitions include works in porcelain and mixed-media drawings produced at Project Art in Cummington, MA.
Are We There Yet? 2023, Chris Antemann, Sergei Isupov, Lauren Mabry
Sergei Isupov: Past & Present, 2022, Installation View
2022 Solo Exhibition | Ferrin Contemporary | North Adams, MA
Ferrin Contemporary at The Wickham House
The Valentine Museum, Richmond, VA
February 20 – April 21, 2024
Anderson Gallery, Bridgewater State University
November 1 – February 24, 2025
Ferrin Contemporary at The Wickham House
The Valentine Museum, Richmond, VA
February 20 – April 21, 2024
Thorne-Sagendorph Art Gallery at Keene State College | Keene, NH
October 25 – December 9, 2023
Sergei Isupov: Ancestor, 2024 Catalog Cover Page
DESCRIPTION
Special thanks to Jay Block, associate director of collections and exhibitions at Bridgewater State University.
$5.00
DESCRIPTION
Special thanks to co-curators, Paul McMullan, professor at Keene State College and Leslie Ferrin, director, Ferrin Contemporary and for editorial support by Alexandra Jelleberg, associate director, Ferrin Contemporary.
Isupov’s artworks form alliances with one another as they move between media, explore scale, and are presented in curated exhibitions. Recent opportunities to create public works like his fire sculpture production and performances, along with solo exhibitions that show the full scope of Isupov’s creative versatility and process, have led to new works on paper, prints and wall installations combining ceramics with other materials.
FREE ON ISSUU
DESCRIPTION:
Ferrin Contemporary is proud to present new works from internationally renowned sculptor Sergei Isupov. Sergei Isupov: PAST & PRESENT features new ceramic sculptures presented with both a multi-dimensional, mixed-media wall installation and independent pedestal-based works. Isupov and Ferrin Contemporary have been working together and presenting exhibitions internationally since 1996 and this will be the artist’s third solo show in our North Adams gallery location.
Collection Focus: Sergei Isupov at RAM
$5.00
DESCRIPTION:
28-page, full-color exhibition catalog
PURCHASE THE CATALOG HERE SERGEI ISUPOV: ALLIANCES Exhibition Catalog Thorne/Sagendorph Art Gallery Ferrin Contemporary is proud to present new works from internationally renowned sculptor Sergei Isupov. SERGEI ISUPOV: ALLIANCES Isupov's artworks form alliances with one another as they move between media, explore scale, and are presented in curated exhibitions. Recent opportunities to create public worksContinue reading →
Figuring Space Exhibition Catalog The Clay Studio: Figuring Space Publication Date: January 2023. This catalog features highlights on the artists in the exhibition and includes commentary by Jennifer Zwilling, Curator & Director of Artistic Programs at TCS, and Dr. Kelli Morgan, who are working together to make Figuring Space relevant to our audiences and the art historicalContinue reading →
Mastering Sculpture: The Figure in Clay Explore the human form in-depth, from concept sketches and armatures to detailed instructions for constructing legs, torso, arms, hands, and head from clay. In Mastering Sculpture: The Figure in Clay, renowned sculptor and instructor Cristina Córdova teaches everything you need to know to replicate the full human figure usingContinue reading →
Sergei Isupov: PAST & PRESENT Exhibition Catalog Ferrin Contemporary is proud to present new works from internationally renowned sculptor Sergei Isupov. Sergei Isupov: PAST & PRESENT features new ceramic sculptures presented with both a multi-dimensional, mixed-media wall installation and independent pedestal-based works. Isupov and Ferrin Contemporary have been working together and presenting exhibitions internationally sinceContinue reading →
About Face: Contemporary Ceramic Sculpture About Face: Contemporary Ceramic Sculpture This catalog features a foreword by Director Angie Dodson and two essays: one by Glenn Adamson, an expert in craft, ceramic, and contemporary art, and one by MMFA Curator of Art Jennifer Jankauskas, Ph.D. The exhibition catalog also includes color photography of select works inContinue reading →
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, artContinue reading →
EXPOSED: Heads, Busts, and Nudes figural ceramic sculpture from 1970 to the present Work by 25 contemporary artists “working in clay and for whom the figure has been a rich and enduring motif.” Catalog includes work from the exhibit at Ferrin Contemporary as well as pieces available from private collections and artist studios. Introduction byContinue reading →
Sergei Isupov, "Ring of Fire", 2004, porcelain, 20 x 10 x 8". Sergei Isupov: 1996-2006 Published in 2006 by Ferrin Gallery, Lenox, MA This visual survey marks the tenth anniversary of the working relationship between the artist and Ferrin Gallery. Features works from 1996–2006 with short biographical essay and curriculum vitae. Sergei Isupov Catalog 1996-2006Continue reading →
Sergei Isupov, "Say Nothing", 2008, stoneware, stain, glaze, 33 x 16 x 11". Sergei Isupov: Androgyny Published in 2009 by Mesa Contemporary Arts Center, Mesa AZ • Essay by Sonya Bekkerman, Senior Vice President, Russian Art, Sotheby’s • Introduction by Patty Haberman, Curator, Mesa Contemporary Arts • Project Summary by Leslie Ferrin, Director, Ferrin GalleryContinue reading →
Additional works may be available to acquire, but not listed here.
If interested in lists of all works and series: Send us a message
Like our clients, we are passionate about ceramics and maintain a collection of our own, curated and built throughout our gallery’s 40-plus-year story. View below to see examples of the Ferrin Contemporary Resources. Please contact us if you are interested in loaning pieces from our collection or are interested in research and details on the works featured below.
The Valentine, Richmond, VA
Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge, MA
Ferrin Contemporary, North Adams, MA
Many artists were gravitating to printmaking, as a way of making their art more accessible to the public, especially middle- class consumers. While the designs for his other two services were based on his book illustrations, those he executed for Our America were created afresh. His stark wood-cuts were adapted to transfers on china, to be printed in three monochrome hues—blue, mahogany, and brown. The service depicts American scenes ranging geographically from the metropolis of Manhattan to the Great Lakes to the Florida everglades to the West Coast. A number of the scenes represent laborers at work, championing Kent’s nationalistic beliefs in the America of the common man, the workers who made this country.
Hidden in plain sight, illustrations on porcelain and ceramic ware have, throughout history, transformed functional objects into message-bearers for a wide range of political and propagandistic causes, whether exchanged by heads of state or acquired for use or display in domestic settings.
“Occupied Japan” (OJ) is a term used for the time period from 1945 (after World War II) through April 25, 1952; it was during this time that the Allies “occupied” Japan.
https://gotheborg.com/qa/oj.shtml
One of the most fascinating lines of objects to come out of Occupied Japan were objects made to capture the interest and pocketbooks of the GI’s stationed there. This is an area that is collected by those who do collect Occupied Japan material, and it features tobacco-related trinkets, because GI’s tended to smoke.
So we find lighters made of tin with erotic images, and little wooden birds made to hold pipes. Ash trays with all kinds of scenes were also popular, and for a few bucks a GI could collect souvenirs to take home. And boy, did they take these things home — in droves.
Amherst College salad or appetizer plate, sometimes referred to as the “Fleeing Indians” pattern and notated made by Walker China. It depicts British Army officer Baron Jeffrey Amherst on horseback, chasing native Americans through pine forests during the French and Indian War.
Pair of plates, Rowland and Marsellus Company, Staffordshire, England, 1906. Whiteware. D. 10″. One plate has a transfer-printed portrait of Pocahontas as the central motif, the other has John Smith, both with surrounding cartouches. The legend of the Pocahontas plate includes both her given name, Matoaka, and the one she received after baptism, “Rebecka” or Rebecca. Produced for the S. T. Hanger Company of Portsmouth, Virginia.
2024 | Group Exhibition in the Wickham House at the Valentine Museum | Richmond, VA
February 20, 2024 – April 21, 2024
Our America/Whose America? Is a “call and response” exhibition between contemporary artists and historic ceramic objects.
2022 | Exhibition at the Norman Rockwell Museum | Stockbridge, MA
June 11, 2022 – October 30, 2022
Imprinted: Illustrating Race examined the role of published images in shaping attitudes toward race and culture. Over 300 artworks and objects were on view of widely circulated illustrated imagery, produced from the late eighteenth century to today, which have an impact on public perception about race in the United States. The exhibition explored stereotypical racial representations that have been imprinted upon us through the mass publication of images. It culminated with the creative accomplishments of contemporary artists and publishers who have shifted the cultural narrative through the creation of positive, inclusive imagery emphasizing full agency and equity for all.
2022 | Group Exhibition at Ferrin Contemporary | North Adams, MA
Our America/Whose America? Is a “call and response” exhibition between contemporary artists and historic ceramic objects.
More than 40 years ago, an artist friend pointed out the differences between a polychrome (lots of colors) transfer printed souvenir plate and others that were monochrome (one color). The artist, Miriam Kaye, was known for the reuse of images from history in her own work, along with reclaimed material collage. I don’t recall the image on the plate but I do remember her introduction to the subtle variations of surface, under and over glaze, printed imagery, and the quality of the plates themselves. Depending on the time period when they were produced, each decade built upon a prior narrative to commemorate idealized versions of historic events, portraits of “founders,” man-made monuments and the buildings built, some named for and intended to honor this history. These plates were created as souvenirs with clues to their origins on the backs of plates through merchant stamps, or maker’s marks, and sometimes additional narratives with lengthy written text. This information, further emphasized by titles and relationships with the visual imagery, was quite literally whitewashed of any human struggle that came before, during, or after. Some commemorated foot soldiers who fought for independence, others were generals and portraits of men and their properties. From a contemporary perspective, we now see these narratives as glorification of broken treaties, enslavers and the Lost Cause of the Confederacy.
These images were created and put on plates using illustrations, sometimes copies of well-known paintings and entered popular culture as countless multiples. They used powerful stereotypes and caricatures, added to historical fictions and resonate today as we consider how we came to believe what we do.
— Leslie Ferrin, Director & Collector
READ MORE ABOUT THE COLLECTION • HERE •
Collection of Leslie Ferrin/Ferrin Contemporary
From the mid-70’s on, I collected, was given and sent more than 100 plates, figurines, and small objects in glass and ceramics. This started casually. Like others of my generation who hunted and gathered vintage materials, we sought cultural objects that reminded us of a past that many of us never actually experienced but for which were nostalgic without fully understanding the depth of that past. We saw the irony and displayed these objects in our homes, naive and unaware of their toxic power to continue the original message conveyed and widely distributed through commercial reproduction.
Vaseline Glass Tomahawk, Arrowhead, Toothpick Holder
green vaseline glass
varying sizes
year N/A
Aunt Jemima Syrup Bottle
year n/a
glass
10 x 3.5”
Collection of Leslie Ferrin/Ferrin Contemporary
Aunt Jemima Syrup Bottle White Face
year n/a
glass, paint
8.5 x 3”
Uncle Remus and Little Boy Created by the Federal Art Project, Works Progress Administration
1935-1936
Ceramic sculpture (Ohio clay mixed with 25% flint)
5.5 x 4”
Collection of Leslie Ferrin/Ferrin Contemporary
Hidden in plain sight, illustrations on porcelain and ceramic ware have, throughout history, transformed functional objects into message-bearers for a wide range of political and propagandistic causes, whether exchanged by heads of state or acquired for use or display in domestic settings.
Our America: Southern Plantation
Vernon Kilns “Our America”, bread and butter plate with Southern Plantation, designed by Rockwell Kent, plate design by Gale Turnbull, Manfucturer, Vernon Kilns
c. 1940-1943
transfer printed earthenware, glaze
7.5 x 7.5 x 0.75”
Manhattan Vernon Kilns “Our America” Rockwell Kent (Brown)
transfer printed earthenware, glaze
10.5 x 10.5 x 1”
Chicago Red Vernon Kilns “Our America” Rockwell Kent dinner plate
transfer printed earthenware, glaze
9.5 x 9.5 x 1”
Hoover Dam Vernon Kilns “Our America” Rockwell Kent (Brown)
transfer printed earthenware, glaze
14 x 14 x 1”
Collection of Leslie Ferrin/Ferrin Contemporary
At first, most of the souvenir plates I purchased were produced by English potteries like Johnson Brothers and Rowland & Marsellus who operated in the early 1900s, commissioned by merchants to offer for sale to tourists at the sites depicted. The plates I purchased showed monuments and architecture flanked by their namesakes, generals and politicians; scenes copied from famous paintings such as the landing of Europeans – Roger Williams, Henry Hudson; portraits such as Pocahontas/Matoaka depicted as an Englishwoman copied from an engraving by Simon van de Passe; geographically significant landscapes tamed by Europeans such as Plymouth Rock with 1620 carved into it and Mount Rushmore with the faces of the founders, Niagra Falls now accessible by boat and generating electricity. These images are about American identity which led me to seek out others, plates and figurines made in America and Occupied Japan drawn as I was to how they represented and portrayed race, positions in society, and through popular culture continue to infuse tropes, maintain stereotypes and deliver messages “hidden in plain site.”
Collection of Leslie Ferrin/Ferrin Contemporary
“Tiny Indians” Made in Occupied Japan
1945-1952
ceramic
varying dimensions
Vintage Mohawk Trail, Mass. Souvenir Hand Painted Made In Post War Japan
1945-1952
ceramic
7.5” radius
Laundry, Black Child Ashtray Made in Occupied Japan
1945-1952
ceramic
Made in Occupied Japan (Black Child, Watermelon, Chamberpot)
1945-1952
cast porcelain, glaze
Made in Japan (Male and Female Native Americans Figurines)
1945-1952
cast porcelain, glaze,
Woman: 4.25 x 2 x 1.25” , Man: 4.25 x 2 x 1.25”
Collection of Leslie Ferrin/Ferrin Contemporary
Paul Scott
Paul Scott is a Cumbrian based artist with a diverse practice and an international reputation.Creating individual pieces that blur the boundaries between fine art, craft and design, he is well known for research into printed vitreous surfaces, as well as his characteristic blue and white artworks in glazed ceramic.
Garth Johnson
Garth Johnson’s works celebrate the history of ceramic objects and their ability to convey status. He often juxtaposes common vessel forms like plastic containers and soap bottles with gold or silver handles taken from fine silver coffee and teapots.
Sheila Bridges
Named America’s Best Interior Designer by Time magazine and CNN, Sheila Bridges is considered a creative visionary and design tastemaker. Residing and working in Harlem for more than 25 years, Bridges is recognized for her classic yet versatile design aesthetic and critical eye. She is sought after to create thoughtfully inspired and narrative rich interiors because of her profound sensitivity and appreciation of timeless design and quality craftsmanship.
Elizabeth Alexander
On her series, A Mightier Work is Ahead – I have been collecting Confederate commemorative plates since 2016 in response to the rise in white supremacist pride in contemporary culture. I imagine these objects as Trojan horses hanging innocently among family photos. These plates were printed long after the Civil War with romantic illustrations, and created for people to hang in their homes, to pass dangerous values down to future generations aided by collectable marketing.
Victoria Schonfeld (1950-2019) was a prominent New York lawyer, collector, and philanthropist whose discerning eye was matched only by the fierceness of devotion to her family and friends. From the time she began collecting ceramics in the 1990s, Schonfeld developed lasting friendships with the artists who caught her eye. Schonfeld was particularly devoted to championing female artists, including Betty Woodman, Alison Britton, and Carol McNicoll, as well as younger artists like Lauren Mabry and Rain Harris. Her taste encompassed everything from classical beauty to pointedly political works, all linked by her boundless curiosity.
Kate Malone, British (b. 1959)
Small Lidded Flower Jar and Waddesdon Bird, 2016
Crystalline-glazed stoneware and porcelain
Ruth Duckworth, British (1919-2009)
Untitled No. 656100, 2000
Porcelain
Betty Woodman, American (1930-2018)
Minoan Pillow Pitcher B, 1980
Earthenware and terra sigilata stain
Myashita Zenji, Japanese (1939-2012)
Triangular, 2003
Stoneware and colored clay
Kathy Butterly American (living artist)
Soggy Stick, 2001
Porcelain, eartehnware, glaze
Long before her untimely death, Schonfeld began donating works by artists she admired to museums across the United States, including the Everson Museum of Art. It is with the deepest gratitude that the Everson accepts key works from the Schonfeld collection that will endure as a tribute to her generosity and lasting network of friendships. Mutual Affection marks the debut of the Victoria Schonfeld Collection at the Everson, fleshed out by additional works loaned by her family. Each object in this exhibition stands on its own merit, but also represents a node in Schonfeld’s vast network of reciprocal relationships.
Ferrin Contemporary is pleased to present an Artist Focus and offer select works for sale from private collections. These collections offer an opportunity to acquire important works from surveys of studio sculpture and decorative art.
For more information and pricking on available artwork, please inquire
Spanning the time period from the late 1950s to mid 1990s, this preliminary selection includes works by acclaimed artist Beatrice Wood, providing collectors and institutions the opportunity to add works with detailed provenance by the recognized masters of their mediums.
For more information and pricing on available artwork,
please contact Ferrin Contemporary
Beatrice Wood (1893–1998) lived a long artistic life and is associated with the Avant Garde Dada movement. She began working in ceramics in the 1930s mastering and producing lusterware as well as narrative figures and wall tiles, loosely formed and humorous in subject matter.
While on a trip to Holland, Beatrice Wood purchased a set of dessert plates with a gorgeous luster and wanted to find a teapot to match. Unable to find one, she decided to simply maker her own and enrolled in a ceramics course. Despite discovering that making a teapot was not so easy, she was determined to develop her throwing skills while also studying glaze chemistry. Wood developed a signature style of glazing: an all-over, in-glaze luster that draws the metallic salts to the surface of the glaze by starving the kiln of oxygen.
“I never meant to become a potter,” Beatrice later offered. “It happened very accidentally… I could sell pottery because when I ran away from home I was without any money. And so I became a potter.”
EDUCATION
Ceramics with Gertrud and Otto Natzler, Los Angeles, 1940
University of Southern California (with Glen Lukens), 1938
Hollywood High School, Adult Education Department, CA
Ceramics Class, 1933
Finch School, New York, 1911
Academie Julien, Paris, 1910
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2016 EXPOSED: Heads, Busts, and Nudes, Ferrin Contemporary, North Adams, MA
1999 Beatrice Wood, Frank Lloyd Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
Drawing for Life, Achim Moeller Fine Art Gallery, New York, NY
1997 Beatrice Wood: A Centennial Tribute, (traveling) American Craft Museum, New York, NY, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA; Museum of Contemporary Art, Lake Worth, FL; The Butler Museum, Youngstown, OH
Frank Lloyd Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
Garth Clark Gallery, New York, NY
Rena Bransten Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1995 Beatrice Wood: Aphrodisia, CSUN Art Galleries, Northridge, CA
Garth Clark Gallery, New York, NY, Los Angeles, CA
1994 Garth Clark Gallery, New York, NY, Los Angeles, CA
1993 Garth Clark Gallery, New York, NY; Los Angeles, CA; Kansas City, MO
1992 Garth Clark Gallery, New York, NY; Los Angeles, CA; Kansas City, MO
1991 Garth Clark Gallery, New York, NY
1990 Intimate Appeal, The Figurative Art of Beatrice Wood, Garth Clark Gallery, New York, NY; Los Angeles, CA; The Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA (traveling)
1989 Suzanne Hilberry Gallery, Birmingham, MI
1988 Garth Clark Gallery, New York, NY; Los Angeles, CA
1987 SPARC (Social and Public Arts Resource Center), Los Angeles, CA
1986 Garth Clark Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Hilberry Gallery, Ann Arbor, MI
Beatrice Wood: A Legend, Fresno Art Center and Museum, Fresno, CA
1985 Garth Clark Gallery, New York, NY, and Los Angeles, CA
1984 Beatrice Wood: Retrospective, Garth Clark Gallery, New York, NY; Los Angeles, CA
1983 Beatrice Wood Retrospective, (traveling), Art Gallery, California State University, Fullerton and Everson Museum, Syracuse, NY
Morgan Gallery, Kansas City, MO
Garth Clark Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1982 Garth Clark Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1981 Beatrice Wood: A Very Private View, Garth Clark Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1978 Beatrice Wood: Ceramics and Drawings, Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY
1973 Beatrice Wood: A Retrospective, Phoenix Art Museum, AZ (traveling)
1964 California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, CA
1962 Takashimaya Department Store, Tokyo
1959 Ceramics: Beatrice Wood, Pasadena Art Museum, Pasadena, CA
1955 Ceramics by Beatrice Wood, American Gallery, Statler Center, Los Angeles, CA (traveling)
1951 B. Wood – Ceramics, Honolulu Academy of Art, Honolulu, HI
1949 Ceramics of Beatrice Wood, American House, New York, NY
MUSEUM COLLECTIONS
Arizona State University Art Museum, Tempe, AZ
Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, NY
Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, PA
Charles A. Wustum Museum of Fine Arts, Racine, WI
Cooper Hewitt Museum, NY
Detroit Institute for the Arts, Detroit, MI
Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
Museum of Arts and Design, NY
Museum of Fine Art, Boston, MA
Museum of Modern Art, NY
Newark Museum of Art, Newark, NJ
Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA
Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin, Germany
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England
AWARDS
1994 Governor’s Awards for the Arts (California)
1993 Recognition as A Role Model by Women in Film
1992 Gold Medal for Highest Achievement in Craftsmanship, American Craft Council
1988 Distinguished Service Award, Arizona State University
1987 Fellow of American Craft Council Women’s Art Caucus, National Award NCECA Award
1986 Women’s Building Award
1984 Living Treasure of California
1983 Symposium Award of the Institute for Ceramic History
1961 Goodwill Ambassador from USA to India – exhibition and lecture tour
SELECT EXHIBITIONS
CERAMICS Robert Arneson, Rudy Autio, Ralph Bacerra, Curtis Benzle, Fong Choo, Rick Dillingham, Ruth Duckworth, Jack Earl, Edward Eberle, Viola Frey, Wayne Higby, Margaret Israel, Jun Kaneko, Alan Lerner, Michael Lucero, Louis Marak, Graham Marks, Nancee Meeker, Ron Nagle, Richard Notkin, Elsa Rady, Don Reitz, Mary Roehm, Jerry Rothman, Adrian Saxe, Richard Shaw, Rudolph Staffel, Toshiko Takaezu, Peter Voulkos, Patti Warashina, Beatrice Wood, Betty Woodman, William Wyman
Upcoming Show Feature:
Dixon Gallery & Gardens
4339 Park Ave
Memphis, TN
March 2-3, 2025
You’re invited to join the American Ceramic Circle for a two-day trip to Memphis, March 2-3, 2025 to explore the Dixon Gallery and Gardens collections and current exhibitions.
Work produced in Chris Antemann’s US studio, including installations in Museums
American
b. 1970 Albany, NY
lives and works between Joseph, OR and Meissen, Germany
Chris Antemann is an American artist known for her frolicking, contemporary feminist parodies of 18th century porcelain figurines. For more than a decade, Antemann has worked collaboratively with the Meissen Porcelain Manufactory in Meissen, Germany to create increasingly ornate and elaborate variations on her lifelong love of the narrative, porcelain figurine. Recent years have seen a tremendous culmination of her time working with MEISSEN. Between 2015-2019, her large-scale installation Forbidden Fruit: Porcelain Sculptor Chris Antemann toured the US, Germany, and culminated at the State Hermitage Museum, Russia. In 2022, her largest, most complex sculpture to-date was unveiled at Hillwood Estate, Museum, & Gardens in Washington, DC; An Occasion to Gather reveals its sumptuous narrative across an eight-foot-long, four-foot-high dining room centerpiece. The relationship with MEISSEN continues and a decade of collaboration will be celebrated with an exhibition at the Meissen Porcelain Museum in Meissen, Germany from July 15, 2022 – February 26, 2023.
Antemann earned her MFA from the University of Minnesota and her BFA in Ceramics and Painting from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. She has exhibited extensively in the United States, Europe, Russia, and Asia. Her work can be found in many private and public collections, including the Crocker Art Museum, High Museum of Art, Museum of Arts and Design, the Portland Art Museum, among many others. Her awards include the Virginia A. Groot first prize, and residencies with the Archie Bray Foundation, the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, and the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology.
ON HER WORK
Inspired by 18th C. porcelain figurines, Chris Antemann’s work employs a unity of design and concept to simultaneously examine and parody male and female relationship roles. Characters, themes and incidents build upon each other, effectively forming their own language that speaks about domestic rites, social etiquette, and taboos. Themes from the classics and the romantics are given a contemporary edge; elaborate dinner parties, picnic luncheons and ornamental gardens set the stage for her twisted tales to unfold.
ON MEISSEN WORK
The pieces Chris is making in the Meissen Art Campus use the literary technique of a frame narrative, a story within a story, to build relationships and create layers of information between the sculptural aspects and the painted surfaces. The main story is presented in the guise of the 18th century porcelain figurine as a context, which frames a parody or second narrative between the sculpted characters. Other stories and in many cases, the sources of inspiration for the piece are painted into the scene in elaborate detail.
Chris Antemann: An Occasional Craving at the Dixon, Banner, 2025
Musée de la Halle Saint Pierre | Paris, France
September 20, 2023 – August 14, 2024
Featuring Chris Antemann, Crystal Morey, & Mara Superior
By Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens
Washington, D.C. | February 19 – June 26, 2022
The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art | Hartford, CT
February 29 – January 3, 2021
Fondation Bernardaud, France
June 21, 2019 – October 31, 2020
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.
HEY! CÉRAMIQUES Catalog Cover “HEY! CÉRAMIQUE.S” Musee de la Halle Saint Pierre, Paris, France, September 20, 2023 to August 14, 2024.
Rebecca Tilles, curator, explores the porcelain collections of Consuelo Vanderbilt (1877-1964), Anna Thompson Dodge (1871-1970), and Marjorie Merriweather Post (1887-1973), Hillwood’s founder.
In this lecture celebrating the installation of two elaborate centerpieces in the dining and breakfast rooms as part of “The Luxury of Clay: Porcelain Past and Present,” artist Chris Antemann describes the development of her ceramic artwork inspired by eighteenth-century porcelain figures. She will discuss how she drew inspiration from Hillwood’s French parterre, porcelain collection, and interiors, as well as many other sources for her sculptural tableaux and complex process of constructing them. Learn how Chris crafts new narratives from historical forms, informed by her ten-year collaboration on unique and limited edition artworks with MEISSEN, Europe’s oldest porcelain manufactory.
Additional works may be available to acquire, but not listed here.
If interested in lists of all works and series: Send us a message
Ferrin Contemporary is pleased to present select works for sale from private collections.
These collections offer an opportunity to acquire important works from surveys of studio sculpture and decorative art.
For more information and pricing on available artwork, please inquire
