contemporary ceramics

Feb

2015

Bridge 13: Jason Walker

Published by the Society of Contemporary Craft in conjunction with his exhibition “Bridge 13: Jason Walker.”

The brochure includes biographical information, images, and an essay by William L. Fox.

“A growing number of artists tread warily along the boundaries of culture and nature as the human footprint becomes increasingly obvious and inescapable, and the ironies multiply. … Walker’s work is a form of public prayer for our safety and preservation. How fortunate and useful it is that the sculptures are also beautiful.” — William L. Fox, Director of the Center for Art + Environment, Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, Nevada

Click here to view Bridge 13: Jason Walker

Feb

2015

#ferrincontemporaryontheroad: New York Ceramics & Glass Fair 2015

Ferrin Contemporary spent eight days in New York for the NY Ceramics & Glass Fair in late January. There, we presented two exhibitions: MADE IN CHINA: The New Export Ware and Selected Work from Current Projects, featuring work by 18 artists from around the world.

Visitors and the NY press were surprised and delighted with their discovery of the contemporary ceramics at the New York Ceramics & Glass Fair and spread the word about contemporary clay throughout the worlds of art and design. Here some of the highlights, along with links to read more.

Paul Scott, “Paul Scott, “Cumbrian Blue(s), American Scenery, Fracked No. 2″ 2013, inglaze decal collage, gold luster on ironstone platter (c.1860?), 8.5 x 1”.

The New York Times, Art & Design

“Emporiums of the Waggish and Weird”

Browsing at Metro Curates and the Ceramics and Glass Fair

by William Grimes

“A number of contemporary artists disturb the polite atmosphere of British tea sets and Chinese export pottery. Paul Scott, an English artist at Ferrin Contemporary, has updated English transferware, with its romantic evocations of American scenes, in the rudest possible way. ‘Turnpike No. 3,’ a rectangular tray showing a toll plaza on the New Jersey Turnpike, is one of a series devoted to such heartwarming sights as the Indian Point nuclear plant and a fracking derrick,” Grimes observed in his unabashed review of the oddities at two NY shows.

Read more here…

Paul Scott, “Cumbrian Blue(s), Willow Italian” 2014, Staffordshire transferware collage, gold leaf, tile cement, epoxy resin, 15 x 11″.

The New York Observer

“Ceramics Crack the Contemporary Art Market”

Breaking the Mold
by Brook Mason

“Few slices of the art market have changed as radically, or, surprisingly, have been taken more seriously, in the past few years as the ever-so-sleepy ceramics and glass sector. … When it comes to contemporary ceramics, some dealers said, there’s a shift going on in terms of validity in the eyes of museums. ‘Glance back two decades only a handful of museums were incorporating such work in their holdings,’ said Massachusetts dealer Leslie Ferrin.”

Read more here…

Vipoo Srivilasa, “The Patience Flower” 2014, Jingdezhen super white porcelain, 10 x 6.6″.

Blouin Art Info

“Made in China: Ceramic Exports From Jingdezhen“

by Darryl Wee

In his review of our show “MADE IN CHINA, Darryl Wee observes, “Whereas traditional ‘export ware’ used to be adorned with European ideas and subjects…, Ferrin notes that this notion of cultural export has shifted somewhat in recent years due to internationally networked and cosmopolitan artists who produce their pieces at Jingdezhen Pottery Workshop while gaining exposure primarily in Western markets halfway around the world.”

Read more here…

Mara Superior, “Wounded Beauty” 2014, porcelain, cobalt, glaze, gold luster, metal wire, 12 x 15 x 5.5″.

Past Imperfect: The Art of Inventive Repair

“The New York Ceramics & Glass Fair – 2015”

by Andrew Baseman

Friend and blogger Andrew Baseman focused attention on contemporary ceramic “make-dos” including Paul Scott’s, Mara Superior’s, and Frances Palmer’s mended works. “It was heartening for me to see so many examples of antique and contemporary ceramics with inventive repair in such a prestigious venue. It gives me hope that beauty in imperfection is now being embraced by more artists, dealers and collectors than ever before.”

Read more here…

Sin-ying Ho, “9.28.2014 Hong Kong” 2014, porcelain, cobalt, decal, terra sigillata, 23 x 12 x 15.5″.

DXV American Standard

“Yes Virginia, Collecting Ceramics Can Be Hip”

by Lynn Byrne

In her design blog, Byrne admitted, “I know very little about ceramics and glass. There. I have said it right up front. But I like to think I have a certain radar for the artistically innovative, and one place where I did not expect to see it was during my inaugural visit last week to the annual New York Ceramics and Glass Fair. But I was wrong. Very wrong. Talk about cool—it was there in abundance.
“By far my favorite was the artists represented by Ferrin Contemporary. Leslie Ferrin had two booths at the fair and each was filled with edgy, thought-provoking pieces.”

Read more here…

The cover of Paul Scott’s new book, “Horizons: Transferware and Contemporary Ceramics”

Lectures and Book Launch at the Fair

Visitors were entertained by talks and presentations made by Ferrin Contemporary’s Paul Scott, Garth Johnson, Robert Silverman, Sing-ying Ho, and Leslie Ferrin.
NCECA sponsored a day of modern lectures there for the first time.
It was standing room only for Paul Scott’s lecture. Afterwards, the audience followed Scott to a book signing for the newly published Horizon: Transferware and Contemporary Ceramics. Scott’s ironic commentary on landscape drew media attention with his “American Scenery” series featured at the fair.

Click here to place an order for your signed copy.

Kurt Weiser, “Albion” 2014, china painted porcelain, 26.5 x 18″.

Wait, there’s more

Visit our Press Coverage webpage for more links to fair coverage as well as articles and reviews about other curated projects with work by artists represented by Ferrin Contemporary.

Read more coverage on the fair on:
CFile
AsiainNY
The China Press
NY Social Diary

Robert Silverman, “Blue” 2013, re-fired commercial tile fabricated in Jingdezhen, China, 35 x 27.5”.

SOLD! Still available?

Ferrin Contemporary presented two exhibitions at the fair: “MADE IN CHINA: The New Export Ware” and “Selected Work from Current Projects,” featuring work by 18 artists from around the world. In addition to the media blitz, sales were brisk and commissions are still coming in.

Click here to see more available work.
Or inquire about currently available artworks presented at the fair.

Paul Scott stands before his work in “Made in China” booth at NYC&GF.

#ferrincontemporaryontheroad

Follow along as director Leslie Ferrin documents the objects, people, and experiences related to the many projects under the purview of Ferrin Contemporary. Leslie’s first-person coverage provides a subjective overview of the scene (and seen) along the path of her travels. Click on the links below to follow along:
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Feb

2015

Blouin Art Info: “Made in China: Ceramic Exports From Jingdezhen”

“Until fairly recently, the term ‘Chinese export ware’ was associated with a one-sided niche art market favored by Western collectors with a penchant for Oriental aesthetics… Industry insiders, however, have been noticing a resurgent interest in this particular genre of ceramics over the past few years.”

“Made in China: Ceramic Exports From Jingdezhen” by Darryl Wee, published in Blouin Art Info, January 2015.

Click here to view full article. (And be sure to check out the slideshow.)

Jan

2015

C File Weekly reviews the NYC&GF 2015

Vipoo Srivilasa and Julie Bartholomew are featured in CFile’s review of the New York Ceramics & Glass Fair. CFile 1.28.2015

Click here to read full article.

Nov

2014

Jason Walker show at Bellevue Arts Museum reviewed in SeattleMet

Jeremy Buben of SeattleMet, takes the reader on an insightful tour of the solo exhibition “Jason Walker: On the River, Down the Road” on exhibit at the Bellevue Arts Museum in Bellevue, WA from October 3, 2014 to March 1, 2015.

Click here to read the article.

Jason Walker is represented by Ferrin Contemporary.
Click here to view his recent and available work.
Click here to find out more about the exhibition.
Click here to inquire about purchasing his work.

Sep

2014

Isupov in Hi-Fructose

Ferrin Contemporary represented artist Sergei Isupov covered in contemporary art magazine Hi-Fructose.

“Using clay as both a material for three-dimensional expression and as a canvas for his illustrations, Isupov capitalizes on all properties of what he finds to be the most open medium. He sculpts human and animal figures, and then adds illustrations in glaze. The paintings diffuse into the clay’s surface, like tattoos on his sculptures’ skin. Taken together, the two- and three-dimensional elements of his work establish a compacted but powerful scene of emotions and narratives.” Click here to read the full article.

Click here to view more of Isupov’s work and find where works are currently on display.

Aug

2014

Janet Koplos reviews Steven Young Lee show at Greenwich House

From Ceramic Art and Perception, Janet Koplos reviews Steven Young Lee’s “Red, Blue, and White” show at Greenwhich House Pottery. Koplos is a former senior editor at Art in America magazine and guest editor at American Craft magazine. Photos by Alan Wiener and courtesy of Greenwich House Pottery. Steven Young Lee is represented by Ferrin Gallery.

The big wall at Greenwich House Pottery’s Jane Hartsook Gallery always seemed to ask for something expansive. Steven Young Lee commanded the wall all right, but how interesting that he did so with an installation of 300 handleless baseball-size cups…

Click here to read full article.

Oct

2013

Paul Scott in the USA | Project Art | Cummington

Paul Scott | Project Art | Fall 2013

Paul Scott – Western Massachusetts – Flying over Project Art, Cummington with Josh Simpson

Paul Scott – Western Massachusetts – Flying over Project Art, Cummington

Paul Scott – Western Massachusetts – Visiting Josh Simpson glass studio

Paul Scott – Western Massachusetts – visiting Smith College Museum of Art – with Viola Frey

Paul Scott – Western Massachusetts – visiting Smith College Museum of Art – with Sandy Skoglund in the Kohler bathroom

Paul Scott – Western Massachusetts – visiting Zea Mays Printmaking with Andrew Baldwin from Wales

Paul Scott – Western Massachusetts – Sourcing material at Brimfield, CT

Paul Scott – Western Massachusetts – at Dennis & Dad’s transferware collection

Paul Scott, “Scott’s Cumbrian Blue(s), Trees (After Spode)” 2013, inglaze decal collage on Lauren Mabry wheel thrown whiteware cylinder, ~3.5″

PAUL SCOTT in the U.S.A.

seenartscene:

Paul Scott – working at Project Art in Cummington, researching transfer ware, sourcing materials and visiting artists in Western Massachusetts followed by 6 weeks at The Clay Studio, Philadelphia.

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

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…

MORE …

Aug

2013

Ceramic Top 40 | 2013

FERRIN CONTEMPORARY AND RED STAR STUDIOS

Ceramic Top 40 | 2013

November 1 – January 25

exhibition of artists under and over 40 years of age currently working in ceramics

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – Cummington, MA, USA – Ferrin Contemporary announces the Ceramic Top 40 | 2013 will take place at Red Star Studios, in their new home at Belger Crane Yard Studios opening November 1. The exhibition features selected works by a group of artists equally balanced between those over and under the age of 40 curated through a process that combines invited and juried submissions.

This exhibition will present the “It” artists currently working in conceptual utilitarian and sculptural ceramics. The show seeks to identify those working on the cutting edge of current processes, ideas and presentation concepts by both the up-and-coming generation of artists and established artists who are breaking new ground.

Leslie Ferrin, director of Ferrin Contemporary explains, “for over 25 years, our gallery has shown the finest ceramic art and studio pottery in solo and group exhibitions presented at the gallery, online and art fairs. With new technology and collaborative methods of producing art, it is now time to take a close look at who is responding and utilizing these opportunities among both established and upcoming artists. We used the “call for entries” format to uncover and survey those who are working with ceramic materials as singular objects or installations made up of multiples. After reviewing 475 submissions, we selected the artists whose current works best met the criteria and invited several others who are clearly leading the field in new directions.”

The collaboration with Red Star Studios, developed as the project evolved during 2013. Michael Baxley, Gallery Manager/Curator, “It is a perfect storm …, our new galley space opened at a time that Ferrin was seeking a central location for the exhibition. Ferrin inquired about our space after she selected several key artists who are currently working in or around the Kansas City area. The timing for the artists, the project and our space fit perfectly.”

Ferrin explains the concept of the show. “In the past, periodic survey exhibitions took place sponsored by institutions such as the Everson Museum of Art’s Ceramic National and American Craft Museum’s Young Americans. The recent exhibition at the Smithsonian Museum of Art’s Renwick Gallery, 40 under 40: Craft Futures, a multimedia survey presented only a handful of artists working with ceramics. With increased media recognition and integration of contemporary ceramic art and objects in museum exhibitions and contemporary art galleries, it seemed important to fill the gap that opened up by the Renwick show and provide a subjective survey to the medium of clay. The process of creating this exhibition reveals what an important moment this is for a generation of makers and collectors.”

Using farming as a metaphor to describe this transitional moment for the field of ceramics, Ferrin states, “through this show, we are looking at who are the established masters continuing to break creative ground alongside the next generation of artists who are developing a strong root system of their own at mid career.”

Red Star Studios, a mainstay in Kansas City’s ceramics scene for almost fifteen years, has partnered with the Belger Arts Center in Kansas City’s Crossroads Arts District. Red Star Studios has recently expanded to Belger Crane Yard Studios, located at 2011 Tracy, Kansas City, MO 64108. The Red Star gallery is open 10am – 5pm, Wednesday through Friday, and 10am – 4pm on Saturdays.The gallery remains open until 9pm on the First Friday of every month. Red Star Studios also features studio spaces for resident artists and offers classes and workshops for all skill levels to the public. For more information please contact Michael Baxley, gallery manager, at mbaxley@redstarstudios.org or 816-474-7316.

Dates for Lecture, Reception and Educational Programming will be announced with the list of exhibiting artists on September 15.

Aug

2013

SCENE + SEEN: Sunday Visiting Friends and Old Growth Forest

Porcelain Art in the home of Artists Mara and Roy Superior

Home of Mara and Roy Superior, cabinet – Roy, Porcelain – Mara

Home of Mara and Roy Superior, cabinet

Home of Mara and Roy Superior, Paradise by Mara Superior

Home of Mara and Roy Superior, cabinet – Commission – “The Pursuit of Happiness”

Old Growth Forrest at Guyette Farm – Franklin County Land Trust

SCENE + SEEN

Visiting Friends on Sunday Afternoon -ROY AND MARA SUPERIOR have lived in Williamsburg, Massachusetts since the mid 70’s. They’ve been making and collecting art and objects, filling their home with a chronology of their lives – his sculpture and furniture, her porcelain tableware and constructed vessels, his cabinets filled with her ceramics – ledges, shelves, side tables – framed works on paper – their home is an installation and lifetime collaboration. Her work features images and phrases from an idealized life with titles prominently featured. “Paradise” and shows a porcelain heaven, the new work, a commission is on the table “In Pursuit of Happiness” is based on Jefferson in the form of the White House.

For MORE on Mara Superior.

For MORE on Roy Superior.

OLD GROWTH FOREST – A WALK IN THE WOODS and a rain shower – “I don’t know if you can see this in the photo but …” walking near Project Art in the old growth forest this afternoon, it rained AND the sun was shining, AND I found chanterelles AND I was listening to Ben Carter’s interview with Vipoo Srivilasa AND at the end of the two hour interview, they spoke about when I met Vipoo at the Subversive Clay, 2012 Australian Ceramics Triennale Adelaide. It is a small world when you can walk through the forest in Cummington, Massachusetts and listen to a podcast by someone who is at Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts in Montana who is talking to someone from Thailand who lives in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia knowing that within a year, he will probably show up at Project Art in Cummington, MA. The “ANDS” could go on from here but I think you get the picture. Podcasts by Ben and Brian R. Jones make the world a smaller place. Vipoo and Mara are have works on view at Ferrin Contemporary located at Project Art in Cummington, MA. Gallery open by appt and during public programs. The next Artist Salon is Tuesday, August 13 6-8 p.m.

FOR MORE on Mara Superior and Vipoo Srivilasa onview at Ferrin Contemporary – Selected works from Current Procects
For MORE on Brian R. Jones and the JonesCast

For MORE on Ben Carter and Tales of the Red Clay Rambler