What types of art do you specialize in?

We specialize in contemporary ceramics from the 1950s onward, including clay and porcelain sculptures.

Do you offer collection services?

Yes, we work with private collectors and artist archives to organize, document, and appraise ceramic art collections for deacquisition or placement.

Can you help with exhibition development?

Absolutely, we collaborate with museums and cultural institutions to develop and present ceramic art exhibitions.

Do you provide touring programs?

Yes, we curate and organize touring exhibitions for contemporary ceramic artists.

What are legacy projects?

Legacy projects include customized services for artists, such as retrospective catalogs, exhibitions, and museum acquisitions.

Mara Superior News

Apr

2020

MUSEUM NEWS | Mara Superior

Mara Superior is an American visual artist who works in porcelain. A native New Yorker, Superior made good use of her proximity to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, visiting constantly. From an early age, her life has been spent in the pursuit of art, beauty, history, and travel.

Her work demonstrates a thorough grasp of historical precedents with an added twist of her enchanting reinterpretations. She is known for her detailed narrative sculptures and wall reliefs with subject matter ranging from the personal to the political and environmental.

Superior has received a National Endowment for the Visual Arts fellowship and numerous individual artists grants from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, most recently in 2017. She is included in the Smithsonian Archives of American Art, and her work can be found nationally and internationally in many public and private collections.

In 2018, through the generous support of the Kohler Foundation, gifts of art by Mara Superior were made to fifteen museums throughout the USA. Since 1970, the foundation has donated thousands of pieces of art to more than 300 museums and non-profits across the country, in addition to preserving in situ art environments. Kohler Foundation’s mission is to support the arts and education, with a focus on art preservation.

Albany Institute of History & Art • Bennington Museum • Everson Museum of Art
Chazen Museum of Art • Crocker Art Museum • Currier Museum of Art
Fuller Craft Museum • Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth • Museum of Fine Arts Boston
Peabody Essex Museum • Racine Art Museum • RISD Museum
The Chipstone Foundation • The Frick Pittsburgh • The Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum

CURRENTLY ON VIEW

Cool Clay: Recent Acquisitions of Contemporary Ceramics
Crocker Museum of Art in Sacramento, CA | July 21, 2019 – December 31, 2020

Tending the Fires: Recent Acquisitions in Clay
Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, MA | September 7, 2019 – March 14, 2021

Major Work On View at the PEM
Peabody Essex Museum of Art in Salem, MA | Currently on View, New Wing Opened in September 2019

A Legacy of Firsts: The Everson Collects
Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, NY | November 16, 2019 – January 3, 2021

People’s Choice Exhibit
Bennington Museum | Bennington, VT | July 3 through November 3, 2020

ON VIEW in the Rowland Gallery
Chazen Museum of Art| Madison, WI

DOWNLOAD PDF

ABOUT MARA SUPERIOR

MUSEUM COLLECTIONS

NEWS

ABOUT

Mar

2020

Galleries closed due to COVID-19, but Art must go on!, Beautiful Bizarre, March 17, 2020

Galleries closed due to COVID-19, but Art must go on!

Beautiful Bizarre, DANIJELA KRHA PURSSEY

March 17, 2020

“Sensibly many galleries around the world have decided to close their doors, cancel opening receptions and operate online or by appointment only, due to the spread of the COVID-19 virus. In an effort to assist our community in this time of uncertainty and hardship, we are putting together the below list of exhibitions from around the world, whose opening receptions will not go ahead because of the virus shutdowns. In order to promote that these exhibitions ARE STILL HAPPENING…”

READ MORE HERE

NATURE/NURTURE: Female ceramists reflect on experiences that shaped them, The Berkshire Eagle, March 13, 2020

“NATURE/NURTURE: Female ceramists reflect on experiences that shaped them”

The Berkshire Eagle

by Jennifer Huberdeau

March 13, 2020

“In the late 1970s, group shows, featuring women ceramists were few and far between.

“In 1979, there were no solo shows for women. The numbers today are better, but still bad,” said Leslie Ferrin, gallerist and owner of Ferrin Contemporary.

Back then, Ferrin had just opened Pinch Pottery, a working studio, shop and gallery in Northampton with fellow ceramic artists, Mara Superior and Barbara Walch. Women ceramicists, she said, struggled for recognition, not only because they were female artists, but also because their chosen medium wasn’t as accepted [as fine art] as it is today….”

READ MORE

MORE about NATURE/NURTURE

“NATURE/NURTURE: Female ceramists reflect on experiences that shaped them”

READ THE ARTICLE

“Nature/Nurture” Installation View, 2020.

Mar

2020

NATURE/NURTURE on WAMC, March 11, 2020

NATURE/NURTURE featured on The Roundtable on WAMC

March 11, 2020

“Considering the impact that the #MeToo movement is having on all professions, artists were asked to pause and reflect on the role gender plays in their artistic practice and to consider the nurturing experiences that have shaped them. To tell us more, we welcome Senior Curator of Visual Arts at MASS MoCA Susan Cross, an artist featured in Ferrin Contemporary’s “Nature/Nurture” group exhibition Anina Major, and director of Ferrin Contemporary and curator of Nature/Nurture Leslie Ferrin….”

Listen HERE

NATURE/NURTURE featured on The Roundtable on WAMC

LISTEN HERE

“Nature/Nurture” Installation View, Giselle Hicks and Tricia Zimic, 2020.

Mar

2020

Ferrin Contemporary featured in The Rogovoy Report

Ferrin Contemporary Exhibition Explores Gender Influence on Female Artists

By Seth Rogovoy

February 25, 2020

“Nature/Nurture, an exhibition featuring works by a dozen contemporary female artists exploring the influence of gender and its impact on their practice, opens at Ferrin Contemporary on the MASS MoCA campus on Wednesday, March 4, and runs through Saturday, March 28. An opening reception will be held on Friday, March 20, 5:30 – 7:30pm.

Nature/Nurture includes work by Cristina Córdova, Giselle Hicks, Lauren Mabry, Anina Major, Crystal Morey, Kadri Pärnamets, Linda Sikora, Sally Silberberg, Linda Sormin, Mara Superior, Rae Stern, and Tricia Zimic.

The timely exhibition explores ideas that range from direct interpretations of the natural world to more abstract notions, such as the construction of gender and the endowed role of women within their personal and professional careers….”

READ MORE HERE

ABOUT FERRIN CONTEMPORARY

NEWS

Ferrin Contemporary Exhibition Explores Gender Influence on Female Artists

Mara Superior On View at the Peabody Essex Museum of Art in Salem, MA

ON VIEW: PEABODY ESSEX MUSEUM

Peabody Essex Museum of Art in Salem, MA | Currently on View, New Wing Opened in September 2019

MARA SUPERIOR IN MUSEUMS

In 2018, through the generous support of the Kohler Foundation, gifts of art by Mara Superior were made to fifteen museums throughout the USA.

This generous gift has opened opportunities for scholarship and public exhibitions. Several museums are currently showing works they received in this generous gift and plans are underway for a comprehensive career survey of the two artists’ works at the Racine Art Museum in Wisconsin.

READ MORE HERE

ABOUT MARA SUPERIOR

NEWS

ABOUT

Mara Superior & Dean Lahikainen, The Carolyn and Peter Lynch Curator of American Decorative Art at the Peabody Essex Museum.

Mara Superior & Roy Superior, “Sea of Plenty” 2008, wood, paint, porcelain, glaze, gold luster, bone, ink, egg tempera, 10 x 10 x 3.5″.

Aug

2019

Mara Superior in “ART FOR DARTMOUTH: CELEBRATING THE 250TH”, August 31, 2019 – January 12, 2020.

Art for Dartmouth: Celebrating the 250^th

On view from August 31, 2019 –January 12, 2020.
Hood Museum of Art , Hanover, NH

Dartmouth now has a beautiful structure for displaying art—everything from Japanese netsuke to enormous contemporary paintings look great in our new galleries. With Art for Dartmouth: Celebrating the 250th, the Hood Museum has sought to channel the bounty of goodwill that made the building renovation possible into renewed enthusiasm for the art collection at the heart of the museum. As part of this initiative over the past few years, the Hood Museum has received numerous gifts of true significance to the collection. Many of these will be featured throughout the fall of 2019 to celebrate the continuing passion of Dartmouth for the arts and of our alumni for their beloved college.

More about Mara Superior.

Mara Superior’s “Angelo Da Vendemmia—Castle Vase”, 2002, High-fired porcelain, ceramic oxides, underglaze, glaze. Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Gift of the Kohler Foundation, Inc.; 2019.14.2 “Art for Dartmouth: Celebrating the 250^th”,August 31, 2019 –January 12, 2020.

Jun

2018

DONALD CLARK: Selections from his Collection On View

Donald Clark: Selections from his Collection On View

Beatrice Wood, Akio Takamori, Sergei Isupov

Beyond Function:
Contemporary Ceramics from the Donald Clark Collection
June 21–September 2, 2018
D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts
Springfield Museums, Springfield, MA

An exhibit of extraordinary works from the extensive private collection of Donald Clark. Varying in scale, shape and color, the contemporary ceramics on view represent different modes of creation that are thoughtful, vibrant, and artful. The pieces range from functional vessels to works that move beyond function into the realm of sculpture.

Click for more about the exhibition.

Donald Clark

Donald Clark began collecting ceramics in the 1970s. He continued to build his collection based on relationships with artists during his over 30 years of experience through Ferrin Gallery and P!NCH. Clark’s current project is as the Research Manager for The Marks Project, an online searchable database, documenting the marks of makers working in America from 1946–present. He is also an integral part of the Collector Services offered by by Ferrin Contemporary.
Click for more about our collection services.

Mark Shapiro

PUBLIC LECTURE
The Sublime in the Everyday:
The Donald Clark Collection and
American Studio Pottery
June 21, 12:15–1:00pm

Handmade pottery exploded in America after WWII. Studio potters, in dialogue with clay and fire, produced objects that embodied their unique individual voices, while serving as vessels for everyday sustenance. Studio pots bring the sublime to the daily activity of eating and drinking. This talk will explore how the Donald Clark Collection illuminates the rise of the Studio Pottery movement as well as pottery’s dynamic presence in the local culture of the Connecticut River Valley.

Presented by Mark Shapiro, potter, writer, mentor, director of Apprenticelines, and founding member of POW! (Pots on Wheels)
Click for more information about the lecture.

ARTWORKS FROM THE FOLLOWING ARTISTS ARE ON VIEW
Chris Antemann, Chuck Aydlett, Mary Barringer, Bayless Hayne, Bennett Bean, Russell Biles, Posey Bocopopolus, Jessica Brandl, Sara Bressem, Mark Burns, Linda Christenson, Sam Chung, Burnadette Curran, Paul Dresang, Leslie Ferrin, Angela Fina, Vern Funk, Julia Galloway, Steven Godfrey, Krista Greco, Megan Hart, Mark Hewitt, Sergei Isupov, Michael Kline, Ben Krupka, Steve Young Lee, Peter Lenzo, Jeffrey Lipton, Maya Machin, Lisa Mandelkern, Michael McCarthy, Donna McGee, Lorna Meaden, Matthew Metz, Ron Meyers, Sequoia Miller, Hannah Niswonger, Kip O’Krongly, Lisa Orr, Liz Quackenbush, Mary Roehm, Justin Rothshank, Kathleen Royster, Mark Shapiro, Jane Shellenbarger, Linda Sikora, Michael Simon, Mara Superior, Akio Takamori, Sam Taylor, Kurt Weiser, Beatrice Wood

Upcoming June 23–24 at Project Art

MARA SUPERIOR

Hilltown Open Studios Tour (HOST)
June 23–24, 2018
26 artists show their work in 24 locations in the Hillltowns of Western Mass.

Mara Superior is the featured artist at Project Art.

Click HERE for downloadable map.
Click HERE to view more work by Mara Superior.

May

2018

Summer Events at Ferrin Contemporary & Project Art 2018

FERRIN CONTEMPORARY | Current and Upcoming

DIRECTIONS: SERGEI ISUPOV

on view through July 22
Ferrin Contemporary
1315 MASS MoCA Way, North Adams

Click for more.
Click to view more work by Sergei Isupov.

MARA SUPERIOR

Hilltown Open Studios Tour (HOST)
June 24–25
26 artists show their work in 24 locations in the Hillltowns of Western Mass.
Mara Superior is the featured artist at Project Art.

Click for more.
Click to view more work by Mara Superior.

MidSummer in the Berkshires | July 26 & 29

CRISTINA CÓRDOVA: DEL BALCÓN

Thursday, July 26, 2018
Preview during DownStreet Art in North Adams
Cristina Cordóva’s solo exhibition, Del balcón
on view through September 16.

Click to view more work by Cristina Cordóva.

PROJECT ART OPEN HOUSE

July 28–29, 2018
Open House at Project Art
52 Main Street, Cummington
Selected works from Ferrin Contemporary,
private collections, and current projects.

Click for more.

HILLTOWN6 POTTERY TOUR

July 28–29, 2018
Backroads, summertime, great pots.
Download the map and schedule.

Click for more.

HOPS + POTS

Sat, July 28, 2018, 6:00–8:30pm
Local Beer, Food, Pottery, Music
Benefit Party and Sale for Studio Potter
Project Art, 54 Main Street, Cummington, MA

Click for tickets.
Click for more about Studio Potter.

CURATED ART TOURS

Let us help you organize a group itinerary to visit the Berkshires and get behind the scenes with artists, curators – now scheduling fall 2018 and spring 2019 tours for museum and collector groups.

Click for more.
Contact me.

FERRIN CONTEMPORARY
in Building 13 on the MASS MoCA Campus

Start or end your day at FERRIN CONTEMPORARY while you explore the world of MASS MoCA and Downtown North Adams for more local art, food, and, of course, beer.

Click for more.

Mar

2018

Revive, Remix, Respond at The Frick Pittsburgh

Revive, Remix, Respond:
Contemporary Ceramic Artists and The Frick Pittsburgh

February 17–May 27, 2018

Revive, Remix, Respond

Showcases contemporary artists who are breathing new life into the ceramic medium by reinvigorating age-old motifs, processes, and techniques. Contemporary ceramicists were invited to respond to and produce new works that reference the art, objects, and social history of the collections at The Frick Pittsburgh, 7227 Reynolds Street, Pittsburgh, PA.

photo: Mara Superior, “Kangxi Period, Qing Dynasty/ A Collection” 2018.

Remix Your Friday Exhibition Preview

Friday, February 16, 5:30-7:30pm

Join us for a happy hour in The Frick Art Museum to celebrate the opening of this exhibition, Be among the first to see this unique exhibition, which features work from established and emerging artists. The evening will also feature gallery talks from exhibition curator Dawn Brean and exhibited artist Beth Lipman (pictured).
Click for more.

photo: Beth Lipman working at John Michael Kohler Arts Center.

The Artists in Revive, Remix, Respond

Chris Antemann, Robin Best, Stephen Bowers, Bouke de Vries, Ed Eberle, Evan Hauser, Steven Young Lee, Beth Lipman, Crystal Morey, Kadri Pärnamets, Peter Pincus, Justin Rothshank, Paul Scott, Cindy Sherman, Caroline Slotte, Dirk Staschke, Mara Superior, and Kurt Weiser.

Click on individual artists’ names for more.
Click here for more about the exhibition.

photo: Crystal Morey, “Entangled Wonders: Across a Divide” 2017

MUSEUM NEWS | Mara Superior

Galleries closed due to COVID-19, but Art must go on!

Art for Dartmouth: Celebrating the 250th

Donald Clark: Selections from his Collection On View

Beyond Function: Contemporary Ceramics from the Donald Clark Collection June 21–September 2, 2018 D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts Springfield Museums, Springfield, MA

Summer Events at Ferrin Contemporary & Project Art 2018

Revive, Remix, Respond: Contemporary Ceramic Artists and The Frick Pittsburgh

Art for Dartmouth: Celebrating the 250^th

Beyond Function:
Contemporary Ceramics from the Donald Clark Collection
June 21–September 2, 2018
D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts
Springfield Museums, Springfield, MA

Revive, Remix, Respond:
Contemporary Ceramic Artists and The Frick Pittsburgh