An annual benefit curated by Karen Karnes
December 5, 6, 7, 2008
The Art School at Old Church for directions and poster (see below).
Several top flight talents will have work at the show, including Karen Karnes, Joy Brown, Tim Rowan and Jack Troy.
Willi Singleton is opening his studio for anyone wishing to acquire aome of his beautiful work from his fall Firing. The Pine Creek Pottery is open on December 13 and 14 (Saturday and Sunday), 2008 from 12 noon to 6 pm. You can see examples of work on his website; you can inquire at 610.756.6387 or info@willisingleton.com.
Mark Hewitt has a kiln opening from his 75th firing. Previews are Friday, December 5, 4 pm–7 pm and sale days are Saturdays and Sundays, December 6, 7, 13 and 14, 2008. Saturday times are 9 am to 5 pm and Sundays, 12 pm to 5 pm. Previews and directions are available on his website.
by Lance Esplund, published in The Wall Street Journal, November 29, 2008
Alice Federico
George Billis Gallery
(511 W. 25th St.; 212-645-2621)
Through Dec. 20
In Alice Federico’s third solo show at George Billis, she continues to explore, and to reinvent, the classical Greek vase form in works roughly 18 inches high. Her slender, stately ceramic vases — brown, cream, green or gun-metal amphorae with wide lips, long necks and feet, and curved, swelling bellies — occupy that realm between functional object and sculpture. In this recent body of work, however, Ms. Federico has incorporated unusual handles. Sometimes decorative, sometimes practical, the handles give lift, haughtiness, personality and pomp-and-circumstance to her graceful hourglass forms.
The handles take on a range of associations. Many are symmetrical come-hither curves that add hands-on-hips punctuation. Others zip like lightning, pour slowly down the vases’ sides, or extend like flying buttresses. Others still, resembling bowties, leaves, cauliflower ears, fluttering ribbons, braids and wings, add whimsical notation and Baroque flair — at times elevating or steadying the vases’ necks like attending winged putti. Ms. Federico’s vases evoke classical antiquity; her handles bring those forms into the here-and-now.
By BENJAMIN GENOCCHIO
Published: November 28, 2008 in The New York Times
For the last two months, more than 65 museums, galleries, colleges, libraries and other organizations have been participating in a countywide celebration of artists who work with clay called All Fired Up! The project’s strength was its diversity, with works ranging from installations and sculpture to decorative and functional ceramics.
Charles Simonds’s “Mental Earth,” top, and Marek Cecula’s “Klepisko,” below.
Photos by Margaret Fox
Although All Fired Up! officially ends today, a hefty sampling of its bounty can still be seen at two of the larger exhibitions, “Conversations in Clay” at the Katonah Museum of Art and “Confrontational Ceramics” at the Westchester Arts Council’s Arts Exchange Gallery in White Plains. The two exhibitions include a total of more than 90 artists.
The shows differ in concept and presentation. The Katonah exhibition presents large-scale works by a handful of well-known contemporary artists who from time to time use clay; the show at the Arts Exchange Gallery is a somewhat overstuffed survey of socially minded objects by artists who are, for the most part, dedicated to ceramics.
I prefer the Katonah show, if only because the quality of art is more consistent, and since there are fewer works, it is easier to navigate. Organized by Ursula Ilse-Neuman and Janet Kardon, its overall theme is a celebration of clay’s remarkably versatile formal properties and widespread use and application in contemporary art.
Visitors of all ages will find much at Katonah to enjoy, beginning in the museum vestibule with Sana Musasama’s colorful, textured anthropomorphic tree forms made of ceramics and mixed media. Their visual strangeness and formal, experimental bravery suggest an artist striving for genuine originality. Perhaps they will bear fruit.
More anthropomorphic ceramic forms by Judy Moonelis fill the reception area, this time hanging from the ceiling and walls. These works take visual cues from human biology, as does a wonderful, spectacular installation in the opening gallery by Denise Pelletier. A metaphor for the flow of fluids in the human body, the installation combines flesh-colored porcelain molds of medical devices that measure, hold and conduct fluids with copper piping.
Among other notable displays here is Marek Cecula’s room-size installation. Mr. Cecula has constructed an entire floor out of dried, unfired clay, into which he has cut deep holes to reveal compressed clay representations of mundane domestic objects and items from our own time, entombed in the ground as if they were ancient relics. Walking on the clay floor and looking downward into the graves is a pretty eerie, pretty cool experience.
Equally thought-provoking is Charles Simonds’s monumental abstract object hanging from the ceiling in the front gallery. Made of clay, polyurethane, metal and wood, it looks like an asteroid floating in space, or possibly a giant gnarly tree root. It is beautifully finished, if you care to get up close to the menacing object and take a look.
The show at the Arts Exchange Gallery contains little work on such an ambitious scale. Instead, Judith Schwartz, the curator, has chosen artists who make ceramics that broach contemporary social, political, environmental and gender issues. In short, this is a show about ideas in which the artists just happen to be working with clay.
The works are arranged by theme, beginning with those that reflect on environmental issues. Among them is the installation “Tip of the Icebergs (Precious Cubes)” (2008), an allegory for global warming by Timothy Berg. It shows a bunch of penguins surviving on little chips of iceberg after the polar icecaps have melted.
The section devoted to the human and social condition is the largest in the show. Among those artists who stand out are Cynthia Consentino, Tim Roda, Becca Broughton and Elise Siegel, all of whom make figurative art of one sort or another. I was especially taken by Ms. Consentino’s animal figurines reflecting on gender stereotypes.
Upstairs are more works dealing with the environment and gender issues, as well as popular culture and war and political themes. Distorted figures and weird mutilated animals seem popular here, but there are also beautiful ceramic works that will appeal to those who, like me, prize a more sensual aesthetic.
Keep an eye out for Bonnie Seeman, a young and talented artist. Her work here, “Untitled Bowl” (2008), (left), is a tantalizingly lovely porcelain dish decorated with tiny glass and ceramic imagery of flowers, plants, sea forms and elements of the human anatomy, including muscle, cartilage and bone — a celebration of fecundity in nature.
Farther on is one of Jeff Koons’s white ceramic vases in the shape of a puppy, sold in editions, and a unique oddball installation by Eva Melas consisting of a cabinet-like structure filled with a mix of things she has found, bought and made out of ceramics. Looking at her cabinet of curiosities, it is difficult to tell what is real and what is not.
An excellent catalog written by Dr. Schwartz provides images, commentary on works and statements by artists. This is handy, for the show includes many younger artists who will probably not be familiar to visitors; I know several were new to me.
And that is what “All Fired Up!” is about in the end: pushing good, new ceramic artists forward.
“Confrontational Ceramics,” Westchester Arts Council’s Arts Exchange Gallery, 31 Mamaroneck Avenue, White Plains, through Dec. 11. Information: (914) 428-4220 or westarts.com.
“Conversations in Clay,” Katonah Museum of Art, 134 Jay Street, through Jan. 11. Information: (914) 232-9555 or
katonahmuseum.org.
Clay Art Center is having their Fine Functional Pottery and Ceramic Exhibition and Sale from December 4-7, 2008. There is an opening reception on Thursday, December 4 from 6-9pm. Check their website for details and gallery hours.
The following article appeared in The Journal News on Sunday November 9, 2008:
Adventures in clay
By Georgette Gouveia
“Conversations in Clay,” at the Katonah Museum of Art, is an often scintillating, sometimes flawed dialogue between contemporary art and the past.
The Katonah museum is one of 68 venues taking part in “All Fired Up! A Celebration of Clay in Westchester.” Another show under the umbrella is “Hannah Wilke: Gestures,” on view at Purchase College’s Neuberger Museum of Art through Jan. 25.
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Indeed, the best works in the Katonah show, up through Jan. 11, remind viewers that clay was an early building material.
Charles Simonds’ stunning “Mental Earth” (2003), a ropy, knobby hanging sculpture that suggests an airborne continent, is crusted with tiny brick structures resembling step pyramids.
Betty Woodman’s Matisse-like “Ceramic Pictures of Roman Paintings” (2007), which marry glazed earthenware to painting, refer to ancient vessels, Renaissance frescoes and Portuguese tiles.
Marek Cecula’s “Klepisko” (2008) - it’s Polish for “dirt or clay floor” - also plays with two- and three-dimensionality, its fissures revealing neoclassical architectural elements that seem to be from another time.
These works are not merely thought-provoking. They’re lovely to look at.
Another provocative beauty, of the minimalist type, is Jeffrey Mongrain’s “Our Eyes Are Opened (1805)/We Are Truly One (2008),” a bisected disk that looks like a flat, shelled, roasted walnut.
Actually, the piece is supposed to evoke the two hemispheres of the brain. Emanating from the right hemisphere is the “Our eyes are opened” phrase, from an address on mutual respect between American Indians and white missionaries given by the Seneca chief, Red Jacket.
The left hemisphere echoes the “We are truly one” thought from a March 18 speech by President-elect Barack Obama. Sound and sight, left and right, sculpture and painting, native and immigrant - Mongrain embraces duality as Chief Red Jacket and Obama did in their talks.
Other works in the show are conceptual without being particularly aesthetic.
Michael Lucero of Nyack creates colorful ceramic totems made of various objects and glazes. For “Light Project” (2008), he has placed these on overhead projectors to cast shadow-plays on gallery walls. Some of these are arresting, like the duck with the butterfly hanging from its beak. The clunky setup, however, is not.
The problem with conceptual art is that often the concept is all there is to it. So if you get the idea quickly or don’t like it, well, there’s not much there there, to paraphrase Gertrude Stein.
Denise Pelletier’s “Hygeia” (2008), named for the Greek goddess of health, consists of ceramic and rubber evocations of bedpans, organs and hot-water bottles, connected by copper pipes. It’s a metaphor for the circulatory system. A-ha. And do we really want to look at bedpans?
Sometimes, the concept isn’t well-thought-out. Ann Agee’s “Boxing” (2005-08) is made up of ceramic figurines amid Pepto-Bismol-colored shrubs on a table. Apparently, the display recalls commedia dell-arte characters and the 18th-century practice of grouping porcelain figurines on a dining table. According to the accompanying text, Agee also “shines a spotlight on the balancing act required to perform her dual role of artist and mother.”
Huh? There’s no way to deduce this from the actual installation.
Besides which, what’s with all the whining about the struggle to combine career and motherhood? Each day, people juggle multiple roles that were thrust upon them. Art, like motherhood, is a choice. If you can’t do both, pick one.
Wilke, at the Neuberger, was best known as a performance artist/photographer who was fascinated with her own body and materials that could be folded, thus mimicking that body. Early in her career, which ended with her death from lymphoma in 1993, Wilke used clay, latex, chewing gum and other malleable materials to suggest flowers and containers as well as parts of the human body.
After a while, there is a monotony to these sculptures. Perhaps not surprisingly then, the most intriguing work in the show is “Transfigurations” (1989), so reminiscent of Picasso’s erotic drawings in the liveliness of its line.
“Transfigurations” is a series of images of a woman ingesting and emitting birds. Given other works in the show - including a series of photographs of the artist’s mother, who died of breast cancer - you can’t help but see “Transfigurations” as a longing for transcendence.
Perhaps all of Wilke’s obsessive folding was not a yearning to capture the body but a desire to flee it.
Reach Georgette Gouveia at ggouveia@lohud.com or 914-694-5088.
Photos, top to bottom:
Betty Woodman’s Matisse-like “Ceramic Pictures of Roman Paintings” is from the “Conversations in Clay” exhibit at the Katonah Museum of Art.
The fissures in Marek Cecula’s “Klepisko” at the Katonah Museum of Art reveal neoclassical architectural elements that seem to be from another time. (Katonah Museum of Art)
Untitled work by Hannah Wilke is part of “Hannah Wilke: Gestures,” at Purchase College’s Neuberger Museum of Art.
Museum information:
‘Conversations in Clay’
Where: Katonah Museum of Art, off Route 22 at Jay Street.
When: Through Jan. 11.
Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays with evening hours until 8 p.m. Thursdays.
Admission: Free 10 a.m.-noon. From noon to 5 p.m., it’s $5; $3 for senior citizens; free for children under age 12.
Information: 914-232-9555, www.katonahmuseum.org
‘Hannah Wilke: Gestures’
Where: Neuberger Museum of Art, on the campus of Purchase College, Anderson Hill Road between Purchase and King streets.
When: Through Jan. 25.
Hours: Noon-5 p.m. Tuesdays-Sundays.
Admission: $5; $3 for students with ID and senior citizens. Children age 12 and under are admitted free.
Information: 914-251-6100, www.neuberger.org
There will be a showing of Willi Singleton’s wood-fired stoneware in Washington DC over the weekend of December 6 and 7 at the home of Louise Cort and Leedom Lefferts. Louise Cort is the Curator of Ceramics at the Freer/Sackler Galleries and is the author of Shigaraki: Potters’ Valley. The time is from 1pm to 6pm and their address is 132 12th Street SE, Washington D.C. No RSVP required.
From January 11 — April 12, 2009, there will be a show of Willi’s work at the Allentown Art Museum.
Slow Clay: The Ceramic Art of Willi Singleton
Payne Hurd Gallery
“Making pots is like cooking. You have to start with good ingredients to get a flavorful, satisfying result,” says Willi Singleton, a local ceramicist whose ‘good ingredients’ come from the local clay found in his own backyard in Kempton, PA. Singleton’s work is world recognized for its contemporary and elegant design, which he achieves using a very traditional wood-fired climbing kiln. He honed his skills in Mashiko, Japan, an area widely recognized for its superior ceramics. Singleton notes that as a student in Japan, he was taught that it is the potter’s job to express and bring out the character of the clay, the glaze and the fire. His teacher instilled in his students a respect for these materials as sources of creative potential. Aware of the perils of trying too hard and overpowering the clay, he constantly reminded them to “slow down, enjoy it!”
Singleton’s kiln, based on a Japanese prototype, requires round-the-clock stoking until an appropriate temperature is reached. The length of the firing depends on the volume of the kiln, and may take anywhere from 48 hours to 12 days or more. The burning wood not only produces great amounts of heat, it also produces fly ash, which settles on the pieces during firing and creates a natural ash glaze that cannot be achieved with any other type of firing. This glaze may show great variation in color, texture and thickness, ranging from smooth and glossy to rough and sharp, but always offers subtle enhancements achievable only through the slow rate of heating and cooling characteristic of the wood-fired process.
Support for this exhibition is provided by the S&R Foundation.
After these events, Willi is scheduled to have two shows in Japan during May and June. We’ll hopefully get some photos to post from those exhibits.
I took the opportunity to take a nice drive in the country with Fall colors in abundance to visit Tim Rowan at his open studio. The day was rainy but the brilliance of his work was not dimmed in the least. And the rain collecting in an outdoor piece was striking as ripples collided with his strong forms. Inside, the atmosphere was warm and welcoming with Tim, Molly and Hudson (only 6 months old) providing good conversation about the work amid a stream of visitors who came to admire and purchase the displayed pieces as well as see new work drying in anticipation of the next kiln firing.
October 25 and 26, 2008, 10am to 5pm.
Next weekend presents an opportunity to visit Tim Rowan’s kiln and studio and pick up some of his wonderful woodfired work. It’s also an chance to see work in progress and talk about how he creates his strong sculptural pieces. You can get directions at Tim’s website.
Jeff Shapiro and Ayumi Horie are also having open studios the same weekend. Their studios are within about 15 minutes drive from Tim.
All Fired Up!“Spatial Meditations” at Mariani Gardens
September 20th, 1:00 to 4:00pm – Meet the Artists Reception
October 3rd to November 30th – “Spatial Meditations” Exhibition
Gallery Hours: Monday-Friday: 8:30am-6:00pm, Saturday: 8:00am-5:00pm, Sunday: 9:00am-5:00pm
Mariani Gardens serves as a venue for large-scale ceramic sculpture created by internationally renowned artists Paul Chaleff, Jeff Shapiro and Tim Rowan. Each piece is situated within the natural and inspiring setting inside and about the grounds. Such serene surroundings allow for creative, imaginative and meditative thought. A preview of the exhibition is currently underway at Mariani Gardens.
“Spatial Meditations” is part of All Fired Up! A Celebration of Clay in Westchester, sponsored by the Westchester Arts Council.
See related post below.
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