Embellished Surface: Image and Pattern on Clay by Artcetera Gallery

EMBELLISHED SURFACE: IMAGE AND PATTERN ON CLAY A national invitational ceramics exhibit

ALLEN

BOLTON

CHEEK

CRANE

DEWSNAP

HATCH

HOST

KARNER

LAWRENCE LINDSAY

FIELD

FURIMSKY GILL

MASSARO MCGOWAN MENDES

GILL

GREEN

SNIPES

TERUYAMA

Robert T. Wright Community Gallery of Art

EMBELLISHED SURFACE: IMAGE AND PATTERN ON CLAY A national invitational ceramics exhibit The title of this exhibition, Embellished Surface: Image and Pattern on Clay, is the key to the concept that links all the works on view. The 20 invitees are among some of the most respected artists working in clay today, gathered here from points around the United States. These artists were selected because of their unique ability and ingenuity in creating a rich surface that engenders further meaning and interpretation in the ceramic form. This show was conceived by guest curator David Bolton, who heads the College of Lake County’s ceramics program. David wanted to assemble a group of artists who have demonstrated ingenuity and creativity with the manipulation of the form’s surface. David Bolton’s vision for this exhibition is explained in the following statement: The idea of embellishing a ceramic form is as old as known ceramics itself. One only has to think of the ornate rims of a Jomon pot, the highly decorated surfaces of a Moche stirrup bottle or the inlaid and incised designs of a Koryo Dynasty Korean celadon. These embellishments give the forms meaning beyond their everyday function.

Jennifer Allen Morgantown, W. Va. www.jenallenceramics.com As a lover of textiles and sewing, I use details such as folds, seams, darts, pleats, tufts and ruffles to relate to the craft of a seamstress. It is important that these methods of construction are evident in each finished piece. Therefore, I choose solid color fields of glaze that break over edges and pool into recesses in order to highlight handwork and frame decoration. Decorative, floral imagery is gathered from specific textile sources created during times of optimism: post WWII textiles, Arts and Crafts Era designs and Edo period kimono fabrics. I render floral motifs into lyrical compositions in order to foster a sense of merriment. Oil Cruet

Today there are even more possibilities for the ceramic surface combining the use of current technology with traditional techniques. Whether an artist uses new imagery with an age-old technique such as mishima or uses new techniques such as digitally created decals on wood fire ceramics, the resulting work has the opportunity to create new meaning.

David Bolton Grayslake, Ill. Bolton references textile patterns and applies them to the “fabric” of the clay. Often these patterns are tessellations, patterns that repeat and go on and on. Many of these patterns are nostalgic, such as paisleys, plaids, checkerboard, houndstooth and other loud patterns found on 1970s-era clothing. The patterns are created digitally using sign vinyl, sand blasting and then wood-firing. The idea of new and old process is evident, but in the end my work utilizes the variation in color and soft flowing flash marks and flux created by the kiln atmosphere that blurs the tight edge designs.

The included artists were selected for the various ways that they approach the form and surface. The form might solely exist to display the rendered surface, or the surface may truly embellish the form in the same way a good storyteller embellishes a story. The end results are works that are further enriched with the story of their making, or even a narrative expressed through their form and imagery. –David Bolton, 2014 The Robert T. Wright Gallery is pleased to present to our community this singular exhibition, Embellished Surface: Image and Pattern on Clay. We have assembled a diverse group of respected artists with one common thread. It is our hope that the works on display expand the viewers’ aesthetic horizons for works in clay.

Paisley Vase

Susan Dewsnap Lewiston, Maine

Steven G. Cheek Louisville, Ky. www.stevengcheek.com

My work draws from my passion for the visual in art history as an eternal source and presence. I consider each pot as presenting a particular issue or problem to be solved and brought to fruition where interior meets exterior. Recent passions are how to evoke the gesture of a pot by merging the structure of the threedimensional form with a surface of composed drawing. The pot is the setting for the active and contemplative to work together to create beautiful objects.

I strive to confront the viewer by juxtaposing beauty with the ugliness of the world in which we live. It is my hope to marry the beautiful vessel with imagery that subtly informs or confronts the viewer to think about a larger issue. These issues include war, the impermanence of life, environmental destruction and man’s inhumanity to man and our response to these things. It is my goal to raise several questions. How do we mark or mourn the passing of lost ideals? How are we as a society going to leave our mark on the world? Are we going to leave the world a better place? Will we learn from the mistakes of those who came before us? Killing Fields Bourbon Bottle & Cups

Vase Form

David Crane Blacksburg, Va. www.davidcraneceramics.com

Adam Field Helena, Mont. www.adamfieldpottery.com

The pottery that I make is guided by a curiosity about how the shape of a piece might tie to its surface treatment. Function and the vessel format guide the boundaries. A few years ago, I took on the challenge of creating something fresh using common high temperature “pottery” glazes. The glazes work in concert with resist application methods to a create hardedge surface treatments. There are two “pairs” of boxes in this exhibit. They reveal different approaches to surface embellishment in two similar forms. These pots are wheel thrown and slab built. They are glazed and high temperature salt-fired.

I am fascinated with antique artifacts, the way they can speak of mastery of lost peoples, places and cultures. This inspires me to create works that both radiate history and capture my own place and time. I work toward a clean aesthetic that celebrates the masterful simplicity of antique Far Eastern pottery, while retaining the modest utility of colonial American wares. The surface of my pottery is meticulously carved with intricate designs that borrow from nature and incorporate the human touch. Much of the carving on my work is informed by pattern languages found in indigenous fiber art, such as Hawaiian tapa, Incan cordage and Zulu basketry. Covered Jar with Carved Pattern

Arrow Box 2

Erin Furimsky Bloomington, Ill. www.erinfurimsky.com

John Gill Alfred, N.Y. So?ing Sewing Sowing Wonder Make Plant Conjure Tailor Protect STRATEGIZE CULTIVATE Share Prune Bloom HARVEST

I create ceramic sculptures that, at each stage, are swelled, carved and painted meticulously. Elements of familiar domestic objects are extracted and reconstructed, allowing me to investigate not only their aesthetic qualities, but also their multiple symbolic functions within our lives. Snippets and sections of ornament are removed from a more sensible and functional whole. These carefully considered fragments and layers accumulate organically across the surface of the piece. Yet a sense of order remains, or re-establishes itself, as these embellishments are coupled with overlapping lines and areas of solid color.

Keepsake Katie Vase Series

Andrea Gill Alfred, N.Y.

Jason H. Green Alfred Station, N.Y. jasongreenceramics.com

My work involves creating a complex visual experience, acting as a focal point for contemplation and meditation. If time allows for even one deep breath, the object might become a mediator between seeing and feeling. The goal is to connect the emotional, visceral and retinal with a moment of peace, perhaps even joy. The experience is not the contemplation of infinity in a teabowl; rather, it is the visual chaos and order of a Persian rug.

Basin and Vase Series: Manganese 4

My most recent series is titled Recovered Geometries. The work in this series investigates how optical illusions may alter our perception as being more or less real. Sometimes viewed as a sort of trickery, optical illusions can change our sense of perception and influence our understanding of an object. As surfaces optically waver between dimensional projection and recession, the physical properties of the object are simultaneously undermined and reinforced. As the work changes our immediate perception of space and presence it evokes thoughts of permanence and impermanence. Recovered Geometry No. 9 5

Molly Hatch Florence, Mass. www.mollyhatch.com

Peter Karner Hesperus, Colo. www.peterkarnerpottery.net

My artwork claims the functional ceramic surface as a painting surface. I have developed several bodies of work that I call “plate paintings.” These “paintings” are groupings and grids of plates that hang on the wall to make an overall, yet fractured image. I have made this work by sourcing historic collections in collaboration with several museums: the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and others. I work to translate and re-work this sourced historic imagery and pattern to the sculptural and functional ceramic surface. The final artwork becomes an exploration of the relationship between the historic and the contemporary.

My work is made of stoneware that is fired in a hard brick gas kiln to 2,300 degrees F in a heavy reduction atmosphere. Each piece is created individually by throwing on the wheel, hand-building or a combination of the two. I apply my decoration in multiple layers and employ methods such as wax-resist and brushwork to imbue my patterns with depth. The base glazes that I decorate on are designed to capture carbon from the atmosphere in the kiln. This “carbontrap” effect is random and can add tremendously to the overall energy of a piece. My mother is a quilter, and I find my attraction to geometric pattern stems from my childhood exposure to her work.

Dresden I

Dot Dot Doily Dinner Setting

Small Rectangular Box

Meredith Host Kansas City, Mo. www.meredithhost.com

Les Lawrence Carefree, Ariz. www.leslawrence.com

I am a collector of overlooked patterns. Every time I enter a restroom, my eyes immediately look to the toilet paper roll. If I have not seen this subtle embossed design before, I will take a few squares and place them in my pocket. I obsess about these found ubiquitous domestic patterns contained in the paper products we see, use and throwaway every day. We barely notice them and take them for granted. In this body of work, I take these motifs and reintroduce them by transferring them from one material to another. Ultimately, I am giving these patterns visibility and celebrating their presence in the context of other domestic objects meant for daily use.

My work is a private narrative that uses a series of images that have personal meaning to me at the time I make the pieces. I work in porcelain because it gives me the contrast to black. These works are not functional. I make tea pots as sculptures, not tea pots as liquid serving vessels. As a young artist I always turned drawings and paintings over to see what was on the other side. They were almost always blank. I make sculpture so I can see the other sides and relate it to the whole image. My mono print forms start out two dimensional, and I construct them excited to see the other sides. New Vision Vessel -A70719

Suze Lindsay Bakersville, N.C. www.forkmountainpottery.net

Allison McGowan Concord, N.C. www.allisonmcgowan.com

I focus on creating altered pottery forms that are good companions for daily use. An integral part of my work includes surface decoration to enhance pottery form by patterning and painting slips and glazes for salt firing. I make things to entice the user to take pleasure in everyday activities, inviting participation and promoting hospitality.

The challenges of creating hand-built porcelain forms using texture, volume and structure keeps my interest in the working process. Nature and my surroundings here in North Carolina constantly inspire me to arrive at new forms and structures with different volumes and textures. The ridges on a wax candle, the petals of a flower or the buttons of a sweater give me ideas for patterns and details on the surface of my clay work. The process of sewing has given me a clear approach to form and volume by way of cutting, darting, altering and mending just as if creating tailoring textiles. Duel Covered Tureen Bird Vase

Noodling

Karen Thuesen Massaro Santa Cruz, Calif. www.karentmassaro.com

Jenny Mendes Chesterland, Ohio www.jennymendes.com

I use ceramics, an integration of form and surface, to pose questions about placement, movement and perception. I first trained to be a potter and then also became interested in making ceramic sculpture. My sculptures have evolved to be abstract arrangements of forms that support fired layers of color. With time the influence of my pottery making on the use of repetition, surface treatments and welcomed movement of parts etc. became obvious. Most of my works have remained intimate in scale, and nod to the tactile and visual potential of clay surfaces.

Working with red earthenware clay, I pinch, sculpt and work intuitively, listening to the clay as it speaks through my hands. Being an attentive listener is important to my process. Objects are then overlaid with a detailed decorative narrative that I create by layering colored clay slips in a painterly manner. The content of the surface is revealed to me organically, as story and texture.

Girl with Miniature Horse 8

Kevin Snipes Cleveland, Ohio http://kevinsnipes.com Using the language of pottery, ornamented with animated narrative drawings, Kevin Snipes acts as a storyteller. He uses a combination of building techniques to build quizzical porcelain forms that are flat paneled and multisided. The contemporary look of the figurative drawings is developed through traditional pottery surface techniques, such as mishima and sgraffito. Both processes involve physically incising or carving away part of the surface of the porcelain with sharp instruments. Snipes uses these techniques in multiple layers to create lush personal narratives that speak of the concept of the self in confrontation with otherness.

JENNIFER ALLEN

STEVEN G. CHEEK

SUSAN DEWSNAP

Jennifer Allen received her B.F.A. from the University of Alaska, Anchorage, and her M.F.A. from Indiana University, Bloomington. In March 2008, the National Council for the Education of Ceramics (NCECA) named Jennifer as a National Emerging Artist. Among other awards, she was the recipient of the 2006-2007 Taunt Fellowship at the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, Mont. In addition to keeping a home studio, Jennifer currently teaches ceramics at West Virginia University in Morgantown, W.Va.

Steven G. Cheek received his M.F.A. from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania and a B.F.A. from the University of Evansville. Steven is currently the director/artist in residence at the Mary Anderson Center for the Arts and adjunct lecturer at the University of Louisville. Some of his exhibitions include The New Aesthetics of Ceramics Invitational, curated by Charlie Cummings, in Huntington, Ind. and International Cup, juried by Richard Notkin, in Missoula, Mont. He has received several awards and recognitions and is included in many private and public collections.

Susan grew up in Peterborough, N.H. She received a B.F.A. in painting from the University of New Hampshire and an M.F.A. in ceramics from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where she also taught from 2008-2012. Susan currently teaches ceramics at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. Susan exhibits her ceramic work nationally and internationally and has won awards from the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts Biennial, the World Ceramic Biennale Korea International Competition and Best of Show in the Strictly Functional Pottery National Exhibition.

DAVID BOLTON Tall Vase

Shoko Teruyama Marshall, N.C. www.shokoteruyama.com Growing up in Japan, I remember tradition being part of daily life. Temples and shrines were everywhere, and I was drawn to these sacred spaces and ceremonial objects because they were decorated with texture and pattern. Ornamentation is important to my ideas. I have created motifs called vine patterns to lead your eye around the work. Patterns run continuously to create narrow borders or to fill large amounts of space. The patterns create visual movement representing water, wind and clouds.

Potter David Bolton has been head of ceramics at the College of Lake County since 2005. David received his B.F.A. at the University of Evansville in Indiana with Les Miley in 1991, and his M.F.A. at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago with Bill Farrell, Jim Lawton and Kitty Ross in 1994. David has exhibited at the following venues: LillStreet Gallery, Anthony Schaller Gallery, AKAR Gallery, Blue Spiral 1 Gallery, Duhbe Carreno Gallery, Market House Craft Center, Wayne Art Center, San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts and Lincoln Arts & Culture Foundation. His work also appears in publications such as Ceramics Monthly, Clay Times and the “500 Teapots” book.

DAVID CRANE David Crane received a B.F.A. from Northern Arizona University and an M.F.A. from Illinois State University. He maintains a clay studio and small farm outside of Blacksburg, Va. Since 1980 he has been a professor of art/ceramics at Virginia Tech, were he has served as head of the Department of Art and Art History, Studio Art Program chair and Armory Art Gallery director. David’s ceramic works have been included in many exhibitions at national and international galleries. Reproductions of his work have been published in books, catalogs and periodical articles. He has conducted numerous invited lectures, demonstrations and workshops.

ADAM FIELD Adam Field earned his B.A. in art from Fort Lewis College. He began his fulltime studio practice in the culturally rich art scene of the San Francisco Bay Area. From there, he relocated to Maui, where he established a thriving studio business. He spent most of 2008 in Icheon, South Korea, studying traditional Korean pottery-making techniques under sixth-generation Onggi master Kim Il Mahn. In 2013 he created and debuted HIDE-N-SEEKAH at the NCECA conference in Houston, Texas. After maintaining his studio in Durango, Colo., for five years, Adam recently moved to Helena, where he is a long-term artist in residence at The Archie Bray Foundation.

Bucket 10

ERIN FURIMSKY Erin Furimsky is a studio artist and educator in Bloomington, Ill. She received an M.F.A. from The Ohio State University. She has exhibited her work nationally and internationally and stars in a DVD called Layered Surfaces with Erin Furimsky. She has been the recipient of numerous artist residencies, including the Archie Bray Foundation, The Red Lodge Clay Center and The Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts. Furimsky was an emerging artist for NCECA in 2006.

ANDREA GILL Andrea Gill is a professor of ceramic art at Alfred University’s School of Art and Design. Gill studied at the Rhode Island School of Design, (B.F.A., painting, 1971); Kansas City Art Institute and Alfred University (M.F.A., ceramic art, 1976). A recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Tiffany Foundation, Andrea’s work is in the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institute and many other public and private collections. She is represented by the Harvey Meadows Gallery, Aspen, Colo.

JOHN GILL John Gill is a ceramic artist and educator. His work has been shown at the L.A. County Museum of Art; Grace Borgenicht Gallery, New York City; Harvey Meadows Gallery, Aspen; Kraushaar Gallery, New York City;

Revolution Gallery, Detroit, Mich.; and Hadler Rodriquez Gallery in New York. John’s work is held in the permanent collections of numerous art museums including the Brooklyn Museum, New York; the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Newark Museum, N.J. and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. He is a professor of ceramic art at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University.

to collaborations with institutions such as the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Clark Art Institute. She also collaborated with design and industry through the development of a lifestyle brand carried by Philadelphia-based retailer Anthropologie and others. Molly has been a visiting faculty member in the ceramics area of the Rhode Island School of Design since 2012.

JASON H. GREEN

MEREDITH HOST

Jason received his B.F.A. from the University of Connecticut’s School of Fine Arts and earned his M.F.A. in ceramics from Alfred University in 1998. He has taught the Freshman Foundation program at Alfred University as well as classes for the Division of Ceramics. His work has evolved during summer residencies at the Jingdezhen Sanbao Ceramic Art Institute in China and at the Office for the Arts at Harvard Ceramics Program in Cambridge. His work was included in the exhibit Mirage: Ceramic Experiments with Contemporary Nomads at the Shanghai Doland Museum of Modern Art in China and he has also exhibited in the 2011 NCECA Biennial at the Tampa Bay Museum of Art.

Meredith Host received her B.F.A. in ceramics from Kansas City Art Institute in 2001 and her M.F.A. in ceramics from The Ohio State University in 2008. Meredith has spent time at numerous ceramic residencies including The School for American Crafts at RIT in Rochester, N.Y.; Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts in Newcastle, Maine, and Dresdner Porzellan Manufactory in Dresden, Germany. She was named one of the 2011 Emerging Artists for NCECA and Ceramics Monthly. Meredith lives in Kansas City and is a full-time studio potter.

MOLLY HATCH Molly studied drawing, printmaking and ceramics and received a B.F.A. at the Museum School in Boston in 2000. After ceramic residencies and apprenticeships in the U.S. and abroad, she received an M.F.A. in ceramics at the University of Colorado in Boulder in 2008. Her ceramics career has led

PETER KARNER Peter Karner attended Albion College in Albion, Mich., where he earned a B.A. in environmental studies with a concentration in ceramics. He graduated in 1989 cum laude. For over 25 years his work has been represented in scores of exhibitions and festivals. Ceramics Monthly’s March 2010 issue had a feature article on the artist and his work was also on the journal’s cover.

LES LAWRENCE Les Lawrence was born in Texas and was artistic as a child. He attended Texas Tech University where he studied sculpture, ceramics and watercolor painting and learned how to build kilns and equipment. His first teaching position was at Hardin Simmons University, where he started the sculpture and ceramics programs. After establishing these programs, he attended Arizona State University, where he earned an M.F.A. in ceramics and was selected to head the ceramics program at Grossmont College in the San Diego area. He taught there for 37 years and was named co-teacher of the year before retiring in 2006.

SUZE LINDSAY Suze Lindsay’s ceramic studies include a two-year fellowship from 1987-89 at Penland School of Crafts. She then earned an M.F.A. from Louisiana State University. In 1996, after completing three years as an artist in residence at Penland, Suze and her husband, Kent McLaughlin, set up and began potting in their studio in Bakersville under the name Fork Mountain Pottery. Her work is in the permanent collections of Taipei County Yingge Ceramics Museum, Taipei, Taiwan; San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts, San Angelo, Texas; Kennedy Museum of American Art, Athens, Ohio, and many more.

KAREN THUESEN MASSARO Karen Thuesen Massaro earned a B.S. in art education at SUNY, Buffalo State, N.Y. She went on to receive an

M.F.A. at the University of WisconsinMadison. Since 1972 she has been a full-time studio artist. Her works have been featured in scores of one-person and group exhibitions. Karen’s art is featured in numerous public and private collections including Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian Institute, Washington D.C.; Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, Wis.; and Racine Art Museum, Racine, Wis. She was included in “The Art & Craft of Clay” by Jan and Susan Peterson, fifth Edition, Laurence King Publishing, London.

ALLISON MCGOWAN Allison McGowan received her M.F.A. from NYSCC at Alfred University. She was a resident artist at both The Philadelphia Clay Studio and the Archie Bray Foundation as a Sage Scholar. She was a professor of ceramics and drawing at Rowan and Immaculata Universities and she taught a concentration at Penland School of Crafts. She presented lectures and workshops nationally and internationally and her hand-built porcelain has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions all over the country. Allison received a Regional Artist Project Grant in 2012 from The Arts and Science Council of North Carolina.

JENNY MENDES Jenny Mendes earned a B.F.A. from Washington University in St. Louis in 1982 and has been a full time studio artist since 1994. She has exhibited her ceramic artwork nationally at galleries and juried shows. Since finishing a three-year residency at

the Penland School of Crafts in 2007, she has completed additional shortterm residencies in France, Slovenia, Macedonia, and the U.S. She currently resides in Ohio, teaches an occasional workshop and gardens for pleasure.

KEVIN SNIPES Kevin Snipes received a B.F.A. in ceramics and drawing from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 1994. Kevin has participated in several artist residency programs, including the Clay Studio in Philadelphia. In 2008 he received a Taunt Fellowship from the Archie Bray Foundation in Montana. He exhibits both nationally and internationally, including a recent solo exhibition at the Society of Arts and Craft, Boston. Kevin combines his love of constructing unconventional pottery with an obsessive need to draw on everything that he produces, creating a uniquely dynamic body of work.

SHOKO TERUYAMA Shoko Teruyama grew up in Mishima, Japan. She earned a B.A. in education and taught elementary school two years before coming to the United States to study art at the University of NebraskaLincoln in 1997. Shoko received her M.F.A. in ceramics in 2005 from Wichita State University. She finished a threeyear residency at the Penland School of Crafts in 2008 and is now a studio artist in Marshall, N.C.

EMBELLISHED SURFACE: IMAGE AND PATTERN ON CLAY A national invitational ceramics exhibit

FEBRUARY 28 TO APRIL 6, 2014

Also on view in the Artcetera Gallery The Cup II: 60 Artists 300 Variations A national invitational ceramics exhibit

Robert T. Wright Community Gallery of Art College of Lake County, 19351 W. Washington Street, Grayslake, Il 60030

Gallery Information Voice: (847) 543-2240 Email: sjones@clcillinois.edu Web: http://gallery.clcillinois.edu The Robert T. Wright Community Gallery of Art is a project of the College of Lake County Foundation.

Gallery Hours: Monday-Thursday, 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday/Saturday, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sunday, 1-5 p.m. Spring Break Hours: March 24â&#x20AC;&#x201C;30 Monday-Friday: 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Closed March 29-30 (Saturday/Sunday)