PETER PINCUS
“A Sibling System”
Colored Porcelain, Gold Luster, PC-11
26” x 11” x 11” each
The Once and Future: New Now
at SHERRY LEEDY CONTEMPORARY ART
February 5 - April 16, 2016
Traces of shared DNA are found in the work of all ceramic artists and form the foundation of an ever-changing legacy of evolution and revolution. Ceramic genealogy continues to mutate and transform with each generation of promising new talent as the influence of makers and mentors continues to alter, shift, and evolve into the new, unexpected aesthetics of today. The exhibition, The Once and Future: New Now reflects the arc of that experience from the early pioneers to their heirs. Ceramics has been defined by the relationship between makers and mentors as the emphasis on community continues to thrive. Scheduled to coincide with a national ceramic conference, NCECA, the New Now exhibition is a concise display of the gallery’s dedication to representing ceramic artists for the past 30 years. Exhibiting the work of ceramic masters alongside newcomers to the field, The Once and Future: New Now embraces the theme of NCECA’s 50th anniversary conference: Makers, Mentors, and Milestones.
Cary Esser
George Timock
Chris Gustin
Sunkoo Yuh
Jun Kaneko
Bobby Silverman
Steven Young Lee
Gerit Grimm
Tip Toland
John Souter
Nathan Prouty
John Balistreri
Annabeth Rosen
Rain Harris
Dan Anderson
Christa Assad
Linda Lighton
Misty Gamble
Eva Kwong
Peter Pincus
Michael Lucero
Arnie Zimmerman
Richard Notkin
Charles Timm-Ballard
Jesse Small
The Eternally Relevant Musings on The Once and Future: New Now
If we accept that art reflects the culture that we live in, then what has happened to the art being created today? Beauty is vast and encompasses the gamut of human emotion and intellect, yet much of the art that I visit in museums and galleries does not allow for catharsis. Too many of the works are merely clever, disaffected, posturing, ugly or worse dishonest; hiding empty intentions behind rhetoric and invective. I am left unmoved, and unfulfilled. However, I have found this to be mostly untrue among artists who work with clay. In contemporary ceramics, I find sincerity, insight, bravery, beauty and outspokenness. Why might this be?
Sherry Leedy is an artist, curator and gallery director who has brought together some of the finest artists working in clay in her current exhibition titled optimistically, The Once and Future: New Now. Curated with delicacy and sensitivity, the placement of the objects that comprise the show creates relationships between and among the works of art. Walking through
by Tanya Hartman
the exhibition is like moving through a poem, the rhymed stanzas amplifying the overall meaning. Her curatorial choices support content.
Two vases by Peter Pincus, one black and one white are placed across the room from Rain Harris’ black and white sculptures. How rich this choice proves to be! The vases are similar, contrasting organic bases with geometric necks that snap with color, intricacy and vibrancy. The two vases seem like one piece, and express that nothing is simply black or white. Just as the black and white bodies of the vases lead the eye upward toward the complex necks so too does the trajectory of our lives lead us toward complexity, but a complexity in which we find beauty and understanding. Rain Harris’ two pieces compliment the Pincus vases. Black and white floral forms are enclosed in cages that are themselves encased in resin, that drips like tears or icicles. She seems to be saying that what is organic and true cannot be contained by the prescribed rules of society without
deep pain. Each work of art formally and conceptually reflects upon the meaning in the other.
The glazes on Cary Esser’s seven Veils drip and pool in a manner that is organic, emotional and evocative of stained glass. The placement of a large Chris Gustin sculpture in proximity to these works allows the viewer an experience of visual poetry, where pure form carries us beyond the everyday and into the mysterious. In capturing clay in three-dimensional voluptuousness, and then glazing the surface in a serene combination of colors found in nature, Gustin catches an instant of time, where materials that are by their nature alive and kinetic are suspended eternally in a moment of conversion. The same is true for Esser, who allows her gorgeous and translucent glazes to be suspended eternally in a moment of transformation. These are reverent works that transcend language.
So much of the work in this exhibition surpasses easy categorization. Tip Toland’s uncanny Weeping Giant sheds tears that are vaguely funny but also sad. Could it be that what is mythic and psychologically nuanced (the idea of a giant) is crying for the outdated idea of itself within the mundane and politically charged arena that is too often the art world of today? Or is the giant crying for private reasons, humiliations and disappointments that we can only guess at? The artwork does not answer the question as to what specifically it addresses. Instead it evokes.
Sunkoo Yuh’s works also conjure rather than specify. Three beautiful drawings composed in Sumi Ink on paper have titles that allude to archetypes of human experience, myth and longing (Lovers, Sinners, Couple With Guardian Tigers). Each drawing seems to have emerged from Yuh’s unconscious, the ink a mobile and emotive force that pools and whiplashes into
faces, beasts and skulls. The combinations of the artist’s arm and mind with the natural properties of the ink amalgamate, thus allowing him to “find” content. The resulting drawings reveal a deeply held belief in the unconscious as a fascinating place to explore. This stance is refreshing, when so much in contemporary art is politicized beyond the subjective. The simplicity and directness of these drawings creates a universal field in which people can unite in reverie and delight in visual mastery and technical proficiency.
Technique as a vehicle for visual poetry abounds in this exhibition. In each piece displayed, there is thoughtfulness about how best to use the clay to support content. Just as words in a poem can crackle, hum, hiss or pop, so too does clay masterfully carry both rhythm and disharmony. There are pieces where the clay is purposefully ripped (Steven Young Lee), lovingly shaped (Gerit Grimm), meticulously placed (Misty Gamble), precisely incised (Richard Notkin). No artist overlaps with another, so that the technical variations are dazzling and allow each work of art a distinct communication. In the end we are made of matter, and human touch and manipulation of materials allows for transcendence.
So much of our lives are mysterious to us—why we are here, how best to love others, how not to destroy opportunities and to tread lightly on planet earth. In my view, it has always been the realm of art not to answer but to elicit, not to preach collective correctives but to confess individual experiences, not to shout but to sing in varied cadence, a song impossible to define easily but necessary, invaluable and rare. In this lovely exhibition, I see art. And I am grateful.
Photo Credit for Installation Images: E.G. Schempf
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CHRISTA ASSAD
“Dazzle Zeppelin”
Stoneware, Slip, Underglaze, Glaze
7” x 18” x 6”
STEVEN YOUNG LEE
“Maebyeong Vase with Fish Decoration”
Porcelain, Cobalt Inlay, Glaze
14” x 10” x 9”
STEVEN YOUNG LEE
“4x4 Cups”
Porcelain, Cobalt Inlay, Glaze, Plywood, Paint, Aluminum, Glass
22” x 21” x 6”
PETER PINCUS
“Vases”
Colored Porcelain, Gold Luster
15.75” x 5” x 5” each
STEVEN YOUNG LEE
“Maebyeong Vase with Fish Decoration”
Porcelain, Cobalt Inlay, Glaze
14” x 10” x 9”
RAIN HARRIS
“Blanc Buisson & Noir Buisson”
Porcelain, Black Clay, Resin, Wood, Metal
13.5” x 10.5” x 10.5”
CHRIS GUSTIN
“Untitled, #1602” Stoneware, Glaze
37” x 40” x 22”
CARY ESSER
“Veils” Red Earthenware, Glaze 14.875” x 8” x .25” each
GEORGE TIMOCK
“Vessel SSS”
Hungarian Porcelain, Gold Luster
10.5” x 10” x 9.5”
GEORGE TIMOCK
“Vessel SSS”
Hungarian Porcelain, Gold Luster
10.5” x 10” x 9.5”
CHRIS GUSTIN
“Untitled, #1602” Stoneware, Glaze
37” x 40” x 22”
PETER PINCUS
“A Sibling System”
Colored Porcelain, Gold Luster, PC-11
26” x 11” x 11” each
“St. Pete”
Woodfired Stoneware
49.25” x 20” x 19”
“Haniwa Memory”
Woodfired Stoneware
48” x 30” x 13”
“Untitled, #1602”
Stoneware, Glaze
37” x 40” x 22”
JOHN BALISTRERI
JOHN BALISTRERI
CHRIS GUSTIN
SUN KOO YUH
“Lovers”
Sumi Ink on Paper
SUN KOO YUH
Sumi Ink on Paper
SUN KOO YUH
“Couple with Guardian Tigers”
Sumi Ink on Paper
SUN KOO YUH
20” x 29”
“Sinners”
20” x 29”
20” x 29”
“Ranch”
Porcelain
20” x 13” x 12”
ARNIE ZIMMERMAN
“Tassebaum”
Ceramic
66” x 27” x 27”
MICHAEL LUCERO
“Afro/Italian”
Clay with Glazes & Glass
30” x 13” x 13”
MISTY GAMBLE
“Forever More”
Porcelain Casting Slip, Nepheline Syenite, Mason Stain, Felting, Ralph Lauren Metallic Paint
7’ x 5’ x 8’
JESSE SMALL
“Untitled Robots”
Terra cotta, Englobes, Underglaze
22.5” x 16” x 7” & 23.5” x 16” x 9”
NATHAN PROUTY, JOHN SOUTER
JOHN SOUTER
“Slut” Clay, Glaze, Enamel, Brass, Pompom
12.75” x 9.25” x 9.25”
BOBBY SILVERMAN
“De-Construction”
Aluminum, Commercial Porcelain, Printed Adhesive Backed Vinyl, Stainless Steel
39” x 36” x 6”
TIP TOLAND
“Weeping Giant” Stoneware Clay, Paint, Chalk Pastel 20” x 20” x 16”
TIP TOLAND
“Weeping Giant”
Stoneware Clay, Paint, Chalk Pastel
20” x 20” x 16”
CHRIS GUSTIN
“Untitled, #1601”
Stoneware, Glaze
32.5” x 45” x 23”
CARY ESSER
“Bray Parfleche 1-3”
Earthenware
12.75” x 9.375” x 1”
ANNABETH ROSEN
“White Stripe Tube”
Acrylic, Gouache, and Ink on Paper
66” x 56”
ANNABETH ROSEN
“Prolly”
Glazed Ceramic, Rubber Innertube
13” x 21” x 16”
LINDA LIGHTON
“My Desire”
Ceramic, Glaze, China Paint, Luster
23.5” x 10.75” x 13”
RICHARD NOTKIN
GERIT GRIMM
“Family” Ceramic 18” x 19” x 6”
JUN KANEKO
The Once and Future: New Now
at SHERRY LEEDY CONTEMPORARY ART
February 5 - April 16, 2016