Ceramics: Art and Perception #103

2016 holds many opportunities for international travel for ceramics devotees. Events begin with the 50th conference of the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts, which is being held in mid-March in Kansas City, Missouri, US. Nearly 6000 attendees are expected from around the world. On the weekend of 8-10 April, Ceramic Art London is being held in a new venue, Central St Martins. Neil and Bernadette Mansfield are convening Clay Gulgong and continuing the tradition of Neil’s mother and founder of this journal, Janet Mansfield. This event begins on 17 April in Gulgong, NSW, Australia. This year will mark the 1sr International Latvian Ceramics Biennale | Martinsons Award, in honour of the late Peteris Martinsons. The symposium and event at which the award is presented begins on 15…

I ENTERED SHAMAI GIBSH’S STUDIO ON A CLEAR, SUNNY winter morning. From the corner of Jaffa Street, I could already see the warm lustre of the ceramic pieces beckoning. Gibsh was busy putting new pieces into the kiln and, as usual, he seemed to be in perpetual motion. The most recent works filling the studio seemed to be moving along with him. In recent years, he has focused on working with terra sigillata, This technique was employed by the ancient Greeks in their monumental artistic pottery. A thin layer of clay is applied, to seal and give the surface a sheen. His works range from functional pieces to sculptures, and what they all share is the rich and colourful palette of the terra sigillata, which he makes from a variety…

THERE HAVE BEEN MANY MOVEMENTS in the long history of art. Art objects that emerged in the 1960s and were created with optical illusion were called Op Art. Adopting an abstract attitude, art movements such as Op Art, Minimalism, Pop Art and Abstract Expressionism resulted in artworks that revealed the importance of both the conscious and subconscious. In Op Art, psychological elements such as colour, sense illusion and visual illusion came together to form a basis. Op Art is a movement where technique is a part of the art itself. Scientific approaches are used critically and the viewer integrates with the work and discovers it. Artists created works by combining graffiti with science. Op Art is a nonfigurative branch of art, with the sole purpose of creating images that complicate…

RECENTLY, CERAMICS IN NEW YORK HAVE BEEN exhibited in highly respected galleries and museums not usually associated with ceramics. This promising integration into the Fine Arts could bode well for the future of the medium. An end to the stigma of the ‘craft medium’ and segregation could finally be at hand. Commercial galleries have been slow to embrace ceramics. Decades ago, when ceramist Margie Hughto had her solo show at Andre Emmerich, everything was sold before the show even opened. After the exhibition closed, Emmerich had to break the news that he would not work with her again. Her work was not expensive enough, since with six sales people it cost $80K per month to keep the gallery doors open. But some galleries in New York did exhibit and represent…

IF THE CURRENT CRY IS ‘CERAMICS IS EVERYWHERE’, ITALY can now be safely added to the equation. There is a new interest in ceramic sculpture that is expanding beyond the confines of the traditional venues for ceramics exhibitions such as the MIC (International Museum of Ceramics) in Faenza. It now includes the National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rome (GNAM), where 180 pieces by more than 60 artists were brought together in a survey of Contemporary Ceramic Sculpture in Italy (11 March to 7 June 2015), and the solo exhibition dedicated to Giuseppe Ducrot (20 February to 10 May 2015) at Rome’s Macro Testaccio. Even the historic Roman gallery L’Attico of Sargentini hosted an exhibition (27 February to 25 March 2015) that juxtaposed the ceramic sculptures of Leoncillo…

PROFUSION IS RENEE BROWN’S FIRST SOLO MUSEUM exhibition and was hosted by the Missoula Art Museum, March–June 2015. A mature ceramics artist, Brown has been attracted to the natural compositions in gems and minerals. The resulting vision became the exhibition. The audience was welcomed into the exhibition after parting heavy, dark, velvet curtains. Brown’s work had an immediate effect and was easily accessed. In a split moment one’s eyes adjusted and you were confronted with what appeared to be minerals. Some were big with large pseudo-scientific names to match. There are several levels of engagement that grow out of our natural curiosity with minerals. This curiosity contributed to an empathy with the artist’s vision of recreating a stage where objects can be featured and presented. Brown states, “Growing up in…