Graciela Olio: Proyecto Sur, Serie Home (Project South, Home Series), 2011, Porcelain sheet (Keraflex) print with photoceramic (gum bichromate process), Printing directly on raw sheet before handbuilding, both 15x10x12 cm.

Graciela Olio Ceramics: Proyecto Sur, Serie Home (Project South, Home Series), 2010, Porcelain sheet (Keraflex) print with photoceramic (gum bichromate process), Printing directly on raw sheet before handbuilding, 15x10x12 cm. Photo by Hernán Cédola.

Graciela Olio Ceramics: Proyecto Sur, Serie Home (Project South, Home Series), 2011, Porcelain sheet (Keraflex) print with laser decal on raw sheet before handbuilding, all 30x20x0,8 cm.

Graciela Olio's profile on Ceramics Now - View works

The path of my work can be brought together in thematic series which are constantly reshaped.  These can be defined as: Social Satire, Saga of Discovery, Automata, Contemporary Bestiaries, Dwarfs, Self-referential work, Uselessly Decorative Objects, Project South (work in progress) and The Collector.

Project South is a “work in progress” in which I use images transferred from Simulcop booklets (Argentinean schoolbooks used to help drawing during the 60s and the 80s) to propose a journey through South America and Argentina.
The drawings of political, hydrographical and climate maps as well as maps showing our flora and fauna, different parts of important cities and ports, and the most important American products show the ideal representation of our continent’s recent past. Project South is a commitment to the future of our region, a work anchored in the ironic game of our memory.

The Home Series, which is part of Project South, expresses and affirms a place of belonging. A region, Latin America, a continent South America, a country, Argentina, a city, a house, a home. Modest, almost collapsing houses  are a regular sight in the cultural landscape of both, South and Latin America. The ironic word “Home” entails a trick, almost a funny one, in this poverty context. The simplicity of the dwelling, made up of printed cardboard shows the sad reality we have been facing for years now. There are roofless houses, houses on the verge of catastrophe, houses falling apart and self- sustaining houses. This is a series in permanent construction and its metaphorical development manifests itself as a symbol of resistance.

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By Degrees ceramics exhibition / L5-23 Unit Gallery, Jockey Club Creative Arts Centre, Hong Kong
January 11-26, 2014

Ceramics has come a long way since its’ humble beginnings as crude decorations and simple pottery wares thousands of years ago. It has evolved to become an important medium within the world of the Fine and Decorative Arts whereby its’ previous boundaries are constantly being pushed and our perceptions challenged.

In learning how to make ceramics there are no short cuts however and the techniques and skills still have to be mastered step by step, and by degrees. This exhibition brings together the six students of The Hong Kong Art School after completing the first year of their BA in Fine Art (Ceramics). Using hand building techniques and wheel thrown work they endeavor to explore various different themes within Contemporary Ceramics some of which include minimalism, eternity and social issues. This is their inaugural exhibition together.

Exhibited artists:

Ryan Cheng, Weight Never Sleeps, 2013, Stoneware (Black Mountain - partly glazed), 16x9x30 cm.

Ryan Cheng
Clay is a very natural and organic medium to work with. It lends itself well to manipulation on a human scale.  It requires no specialized tools or incredible strength and is a pleasure to work with using just your bare hands. In my work I enjoy exploring the strengths and limits of the clay, and I try to use this ancient material to create objects in context with modernity.

Renita Cheung, Live as One, 2013, Unglazed Porcelain, Stoneware mixed with Oxides, 36x36x60 cm.

Renita Cheung
Diversity is a natural phenomenon in nature and gives the world variety and beauty. Such a beauty also exists in mankind as we have different characteristics such as color and culture. But for us to live together peacefully without discrimination, war and terrorism requires awareness from all the human races to appreciate and accept differences.

In the work ‘Live as One’, I invite tenants of the earth to appreciate and respect differences between human races in order to sustain peace. Mountains of different characteristics are used to represent people from different culture as well as their hardiness to be moved. But all dreams start with imagination. I hope someday you will join the line.

Janice Ng, Infinity, 2013, Porcelain and Stoneware (unglazed), Size variable.

Janice Ng
I am inspired by ceramic artists such as Eva Hild and Walter Dam and became interested in the flow and movement of forms. With the combination of extrusion technique, I build some angular tubs, and the development starts from free standing distorted tubes to additional force and movements.

The extrusion resembles the birth of living beings, the clay being used would be the origin while the twist and pressure added afterward would symbolize the experiences and crisis the piece had gone through along the growth. Twisted movement is applied since the DNA link of living being in spiral form, it gives signs of the power of life.

Caroline Sharkey, Antiquated, 2013, Stoneware (partly glazed), 20x28x6 cm.

Caroline Sharkey
Perhaps it is because I have moved to a different country and read world news online now or perhaps it is because reporting has increased but I am truly shocked at how many reports of women being raped worldwide happen.

My work is inspired by the victim blaming that occurs in relation to rape and the reasons given by men as an excuse as to why they rape.  It is also an overlap between Moses and the Commandments (stone tablets) given by God towards living an ethical and moral life. They are hand built, fired to 1260 degrees and presented in a colourful childlike way.  I intend to smash these after the exhibition!

Cecilia Tso, It is, it is not, 2013, White Stoneware (unglazed), 30x16x12 cm.

Cecilia Tso
Moore’s paradox says that the fact and your belief could be contradicting to each other, but make logical sense even though it is absurd. In my work, I am trying to make something that you believe it is something but in fact it is not. The missing parts intensify the ambiguity of the object, leaving more room for imagination.

Vienna Young, My Toy Story, 2013, Glazed Stoneware, Size variable.

Vienna Young
What is the most popular toy nowadays? Doubtless, it should be the iPhone, which is the most effective tool in human history to get a toddler’s attention and mollify their emotion. It is not surprised to see a child down to 2 years old holding an iPhone and pressing on the monitor excitedly. Every time when I see them, I will miss the toys in my childhood. They accompanied me to grow up and helped me to learn about this world. Toys are the friends in everyone’s childhood. They carry lots of memory and record many precious moments. They gave me different senses of stimulation with sound, colors and textures but not just a monitor like iPhone. I do not believe iPhone or other electronic devices can replace their roles.
In my work, I play with different forms and colors. The round bottom makes me think of rocking horses and roly-poly toys. Numerous sharp colors provide a strong visual perception. Multiple tiny ceramics balls inside the enclosed part attract the audience to pick them up and play with the sound.

Gallery hours: Saturdays and Sundays only, 1:00 - 6:30 PM.

CONTACT
Rachel Cheung, unit.gallery@yahoo.com.hk
Tel. 9453 1626

L5-23 Unit Gallery
L5-23, Jockey Club Creative Arts Centre (JCCAC)
Shek Kip Mei, Kowloon. (MTR Exit C)
Hong Kong

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Living Glass / Musée de design et d’arts appliqués contemporains, Lausanne, Switzerland
Recent acquisitions by the Glass Art Collection
December 11, 2013 - November 16, 2014

Mudac’s latest contemporary glass art exhibition, Living Glass, presents a broad selection of works and installations by today’s glass creators of many nationalities—Swiss, European, American and Asian. Bearing witness to the very idea of glass art, pieces ranging from sculpture to edition design all translate the museum conservation team’s open and ongoing approach, as assisted and supported by the Collection’s patron.

The ensuing major canvassing program has brought to light the incredible diversity and dynamism of the contemporary scene with respect to such a singular and demanding material. This new set of works represents a very far-spreading, overall view of contemporary glass art production in Switzerland and around the world. Today, joining those regions and countries that first launched the major groundbreaking trends reinstating glass internationally, there are countless initiatives by artists and designers who have forgone any formal education in the mastery of this material. Designers and artists are linking up with master glass artists to work together. As a result, on the one hand, today’s glass art features spectacularly intricate and beautifully mastered pieces with an undeniably aesthetic impact and, most importantly, encompassing the tradition and know-how of the famous major centers of the second half of the 20th century. These now exist side-by-side with more experimental pieces that can even be highly conceptual, and are often very singular in shape or statement. In their fascination with the very particular world of glass art production, the latest generation of artists and designers now test, experiment and question the practices such production entails, but always—and necessarily—in tandem with today’s master glass artists. The many pathways being travelled by creators stemming from at times very distant horizons attest to the liveliness of the contemporary glass art scene. Mudac is happy to put its acquisitions policy at the service of that scene’s plurality and dynamism.

Published jointly by La Bibliothèque des Arts and mudac, a trilingual publication, Le verre vivant [Living Glass] accompanies this exhibition. This richly illustrated volume featuring some fifty of mudac’s recent acquisitions, encompasses contributions by art dealers and promoters, and by designers, artists and curators from many European countries. It promises pleasurable reading for both the general public and confirmed specialists.

Museum hours:
September-October: Tuesday to Sunday, 11.00 - 18.00
July-August: Monday to Sunday, 11.00-18.00
Open on official holidays, including Mondays.

CONTACT
Danaé Panchaud (Public Relations), danae.panchaud@lausanne.ch
General information, info@mudac.ch
Tel. +41 315 25 30

mudac – musée de design et d’arts appliqués contemporains
Place de la Cathédrale 6
CH-1005 Lausanne
Switzerland
www.mudac.ch

Above: formafantasma (Andrea Trimarchi et Simone Farresin), Jug, 2011, Verre soufflé et os. Image © Arnaud Conne – atelier de numérisation de la Ville de Lausanne

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Jos Devriendt: Day & Night / Pierre Marie Giraud, Bruxelles
January 17 - February 1, 2014

"Since 20 years I have been working on the archetype of the mushroom. It has been a search for a form that could be a sculpture with two different lives. A mushroom during daytime with an obvious and colourful expression capturing the light, and at night an abstract form giving light.

As a sculptor I want to reshape the form from day to night, solely with light: the daylight, which shines upon the sculpture and the artificial light, which comes from within and erases the material form. After researching the form, I experimented with different colours as a means to alter the meaning of the form. Like abstract painters use colours to give a meaning to their work, I do in a three dimensional way.
 
Artists have been expressing feelings through the sea, nudes or geometric forms.
Why not use mushrooms?
They have a lot of meaning in life.
Basically you can eat them and may be poisoned.
There is the hallucinating effect of some of the exotic species.
The sexual connotation of the mushroom is in many cultures an important element of mythology.
In essence, mushrooms bring me to the big themes of art: life, love and death, and last but not least to humour.”

Gallery
With a specialty in contemporary decorative arts, Pierre Marie Giraud represents international artists working with glass, ceramics and silver. The gallery also collaborates with designers for the production of unique objects or limited editions. A rich selection of modern and contemporary pieces makes the ceramics section particularly noteworthy.

The best among European, north American and Japanese artists are represented permanently at the gallery and featured in solo or thematic exhibits. The gallery takes part regularly in fairs such as Design Basel, Design Miami and TEFAF. It also issues publications about the artists featured in its exhibits. In addition, it collaborates with a number of museums on the promotion of contemporary ceramics.

CONTACT
info@pierremariegiraud.com
Tel. +32 (0)2 503 03 51

Pierre Marie Giraud
7 rue de Praetere
1050 Bruxelles
Belgium
www.pierremariegiraud.com

Above: Jos Devriendt, N° 23, 24, 25, Ceramic, glaze, 68x48x48 / 30x24x17 / 16x16x16 cm.

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Betül Demir Karakaya & Gökçe Özer: 1+1 / Terakki Foundation Art Gallery, Istanbul
January 9 - February 8, 2014

"Suddenly a voice is heard from 1+1…
One is quiet, whereas two is loud. 1+1 represents something more than a simple mathematical equation and the solution to this equation “2” is more than a number. It is an option against singularity.

The ceramic work of Betül Demir Karakaya and Gökçe Özer show us how different ones can add up to “2”. Özer’s ceramic sculptures portraying small heads on twirling bodies with hearts that have turned into black buttons carry the signs of a quiet but threatening power, while sculptures with open mouths, made using the same technique, create a place to hide from this threat. Whereas Demir’s ceramic bells give the signals of giving up an artist’s competence. With the game,she has extended an invitation to the audience by presenting a way to speak with them. Soil, that has been the common heritage of human kind, accumulates with a voice from two different languages in two female artists’ hands.

Ceramic works of Özer and Demir that have chosen two’s dynamism, instead of the competence of one -that isolates, makes blind and fattens- and two’s dialogue, instead of one’s monologue, will meet its audience at Terakki Art.” Words by Hazal Aksoy

Betül Demir Karakaya was born in 1978 in Izmir-Turkey, and started art education at Stragonov Moscow State University of Industrial and Applied Arts in 1998. Graduated from Hacettepe University Fine Arts Faculty Ceramics Department in 2002. In 2010 she has concluded her MFA at Anadolu University Institute of Fine Arts with the theme “Ceramic Bells Throughout History”. She is writing her PhD thesis at the same institute. She has many art pieces at private and public collections, including MIC Faenza International Ceramic Museum. She works at Karatekin University Fine Arts Faculty Ceramics Department as a lecturer.

Gökçe Özer was born in 1984 in Afyon. In 2002, she graduated from Ankara Anatolian High School of Fine Arts, Department of Painting, and in 2010 she graduated from Anadolu University Faculty of Fine Arts Ceramics Department. She studied as an exchange student between 2009-2010 at Universitat zu Köln. Presently she is working as a research assistant at Anadolu University Faculty of Fine Arts ceramic department and studied MA at the Institute of Fine Arts on ‘Influence of Wabi-sabi Aesthetic on Japanese Ceramic Art’. Currently she is a PhD candidate at Anadolu University Institute of Fine Arts.

CONTACT
iletisim@terakkisanat.com
Tel. 0212 351 00 60

Terakki Foundation Art Gallery
Ebulula Mardin Caddesi Öztürk Sokak, 2
34335 Levent-İstanbul
Turkey
www.terakkisanat.com

Above: Gökçe Özer, Cemaat V, 2014, Stoneware (1200°C), 30x22x10 cm.

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Betül Demir Karakaya & Gökçe Özer: 1+1 at Terakki Foundation Art Gallery, Istanbul
January 9 - February 8, 2014

© the artists. (source)

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Gareth Mason: More is more / Jason Jacques Gallery, New York
January 22 - February 22, 2014

Opening: Thursday, January 22, from 6-9 pm.

We are very excited to invite you to our newest exhibition with our first contemporary master ceramicist Gareth Mason. Following a show at the American Museum of Ceramic Art and an exhibition at the Korea Cultural Center in London. Gareth will be having his second solo exhibition at Jason Jacques Gallery. We are Publishing a 200 page catalog of Gareth’s work and the first publication of a series of letters between Gareth Mason and Ceramics collector Richard Jacobs which is a discourse of the nature of art and ceramics collecting. We are planning a series of lectures between Gareth Mason and his favorite Collector Richard Jacobs more information in the new year.

Gareth Mason new sculptural vessels are inspired by humanity’s connection to fire “Fire is humanity’s muse. Since the earliest humans pondered the nature of the sun, fire has captivated us with its mysterious force. Hominid fire — progenitor of dreams — spur to our noblest and most terrifying achievements, key to our aspirations and inextricable from the survival of our race, it burns literally and metaphorically in a place distinct from all other stimuli and matter. No wonder then that fire holds such creative potency for the human brain; as we gaze into its depths we ever behold a power of poetic and epic proportions. Of all the arts; silicate, ferric, kinetic, dramatic, sonic, plastic; of whatever place in the assumed hierarchy of creative genres, ceramics offers a unique spotlight on this most potent element. Through ceramics, it is possible to ‘fire’ the imagination and the spirit because ceramic metamorphosis is redolent of human experience. This belief underpins all my ceramic work. The igneous fusion of materials is analogous to human emotion. This is fertile ground for creative exploration and discovery.

The gallery is open by appointment 7 days a week.

CONTACT
jason@jasonjacques.com
Tel. 212.535.7500

Jason Jacques Gallery
29 East 73rd Street
New York, NY 10021
www.jasonjacques.com

Above: Gareth Mason (from left to right),
Inner Surveillance, 2010, Stoneware, Porcelain, Vitreous Slips, Shards, Lustre.
Precisions Instrument, 2011-2013, Porcelain, Stoneware, Ceramic Detritus, Glaze, Lustre.
Chattel, 2011-2013, Stoneware, Porcelain, Glaze, Lustre, Ceramic Detritus.
Tapies, 2012, Porcelain, Glaze, Lustre.

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Byrdcliffe Artist in Residence Program / Woodstock, NY
Applications deadline: March 15, 2014

Residency description
The Byrdcliffe Artist in Residence program provides artists of exceptional talent with uninterrupted time and creative space to research and create new work. Lasting four weeks (or a possible eight weeks for ceramic artists), residencies provide artists with private studio space within a community of peers and the serene natural setting of the Byrdcliffe Art Colony. Artists are invited to participate in open studios, work-shares, communal dinners and field trips, or may spend their residency working in the creative solitude of a private studio. Byrdcliffe’s residencies are particularly beneficial to those who find it restorative to live in a simple, communal environment in close proximity to natural beauty.

Surrounded by the Catskill Mountains and just west of the Hudson River, the Byrdcliffe Art Colony is home to over 80 artists each year, fifty of whom are hosted by the Artist in Residence Program. Beyond the AIR program, the Colony is comprised of more than a dozen artist cottages, the Byrdcliffe Theater, the Byrdcliffe Barn, a tennis court and the Mt. Guardian hiking trail, as well as the Kleinert/James Center for the Arts which is located in the center of Woodstock. Byrdcliffe hosts a regular schedule of artist talks, exhibitions, concerts, theater productions and guided hikes, most of which are year-round. Public events allow artists the opportunity to connect with the community at large. At Byrdcliffe creative time is sacrosanct, and artists are given free rein to decide what activities will contribute to their residency experience. Byrdcliffe offers a unique experience in simplicity of living amid the natural beauty of a 250 acre campus of protected fields and woodland. At the same time, Byrdcliffe provides the opportunity to live in a community of creative people of all ages and backgrounds who are dedicated to honoring the creative spirit.

Eligibility
The main criterion for acceptance to Byrdcliffe’s AIR program is artistic excellence and a demonstrated commitment to one’s field of endeavor. Byrdcliffe seeks to pull together artists from varying perspectives and demographics, engaging in a broad range of artistic practices. Emerging as well as established artists are invited to apply.

Ceramics: Please apply using the Visual Artists’ online application! Byrdcliffe accepts artists working in handbuilding and wheelthrowing techniques. To be eligible for the residency, artists must have prior experience in glaze mixing and kiln firing.

Selection Committee
Residents are chosen by a selection committee of professionals in the arts. The major criterion for acceptance is proof of serious commitment to one’s field of endeavor. Professional recognition is helpful for admission, but is not essential.

Panelists in the past have included: Gregory Amenoff, Jake Berthot, Joan Snyder, Portia Munson, Melissa Meyer and Donald Elder and literary panelists included Gail Godwin, Matthew Spireng, Martha Frankel (fiction), Olga Broumas (poetry), Gus Schulenburg, Evangeline Morphos, Rob Handel and Nancy Golladay (BMI Faculty).

Support Materials
- Copy of your professional resume (PDF)
- Work samples: 10 images (5 MB max. each: JPG, PNG, GIF) of your work along with the title, date, dimensions, and medium. Please also indicate your experience in glaze mixing and kiln firing.
- Two references (one professional reference (completed by an authority in the applicant’s field who is familiar with his/her work) and one personal reference)
- Optional (if you want to apply for a fellowship): your most recent tax return (only the first two pages need to be attached).

Application Fee: A nonrefundable processing fee of $40 (US) is required with each application. Applicants pay the processing fee by debit or credit card through a secure site when submitting the completed online application.

Residency Fee: Byrdcliffe’s Residency fee is $600 per artist per 4-week session. Fees are due one month prior to the start date of each residency session.

Financial Aid: Byrdcliffe offers a number of fellowships each summer based on a combination of financial need and artistic merit, ranging from partial to full coverage of residency fees. To be eligible for a fellowship, artists must submit their most recent tax return with their application. Byrdcliffe strives to make the residency accessible and no one should be discouraged from applying based on financial grounds.

Read more about the residency / Click here to apply online

CONTACT
air@woodstockguild.org

Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild
34 Tinker Street
Woodstock, NY 12498
United States
www.woodstockguild.org

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David Hicks: Nucleus / Cross MacKenzie Gallery, Washington DC
January 10 - February 28, 2014

Cross MacKenzie Gallery is pleased to present “Nucleus” an exhibition of new ceramic sculpture by the prolific and compelling California based artist, David Hicks. This is his third solo show at our gallery.

“I am still digging in the dirt to understand my attraction to the agricultural,” the artist says of this new body of work. Though Hicks continues in these botanic and organic themes, his compositions have opened up and become less dense – no longer hanging down with the force of gravity from vertical wires. The new work is metaphorically blossoming. His array of gourd-like shapes of various textures, hues and dimensions are now suspended from a metal armature fixed to the wall, projecting outward like sconces, flower-like, hovering in space. 

In her 2013 review of Hicks’ 2011 exhibition, “Farewell” at our gallery for Ceramic Art and Perception, Janet Koplos described Hicks’ sculpture; “the works are wonderfully sensuous abstractions (as all pottery can be) and are especially appealing for both color and texture”.

Every element is unique and unfamiliar, inhabiting a place in one’s imagination between associations: at once a cantaloupe or pear, then a beached bouy, an insect pod, a bird’s nest or an exotic dirt encrusted seed. Koplos describes the density of Hicks’ previous work; “But the numbers, the depth of accumulation and the softly worn surfaces hint that they have been retired and frugally held in reserve. It is a library of objects”. Though the artist still draws from that library, the new presentation is more precious, now demanding examination and appreciation for the individual elements rather than focusing the viewer’s attention on the clustered mass. The ceramic forms are one-by-one lovingly harnessed into fitted brackets, more akin to diamond settings now than the sinkers on fishing lines of the past. Even with the artist’s fresh approach and careful selection, his paring down on the amount of objects in the sculptures, Hicks is far from being a minimalist. His wall pieces continue the artist’s themes of nature’s abundance and excess, the forces of bearing fruit and multiplying.

The sense of planting seeds is even more obvious in the two pedestal pieces in the show that sit tree-like with a central weighted stalk, branching out with the ceramic forms perched on and suspended from the metal limbs. We are tempted with the tactile rawness, to pick the heavy fruit before it drops.

David Hicks received his B.F.A. from California State University, Long Beach, CA. and his M.F.A. from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. His work is in several prominent collections including the World Ceramic Museum, Icheon, Korea, the American Museum of Ceramic Art–AMOCO, Pomona CA, the American Embassy in Figi through the State Department’s, Art in Embassies program and the Arizona State University Art Museum in Tempe, AZ. He lives and works in Visalia CA. with his wife and new baby daughter.

Gallery Hours: Wednesday to Saturday, 12-6:00 pm.

CONTACT
Rebecca Cross, becca@crossmackenzie.com
Tel. 202.333.7970

Cross MacKenzue Gallery
2026 R St. NW
Washington DC 2000
United States
www.crossmackenzie.com

Above: David Hicks, Still Life (In Frost), 2013, Ceramic, slips, glaze, steel paint, 71x40x40 cm. Courtesy the artist and Cross MacKenzie Gallery.

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Arlene Shechet: Meissen Recast / RISD Museum, Providence, USA
January 17 – July 6, 2014

© Arlene Shechet. Courtesy of the artist.
Installation view Courtesy of the RISD Museum, Providence, RI.

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Arlene Shechet: Meissen Recast / RISD Museum, Providence, USA
January 17 – July 6, 2014

In the first U.S. exhibition of her one-of-a-kind Meissen sculptures, Arlene Shechet presents works she produced during a recent artist residency at the world-renowned German porcelain manufacturer. Arlene Shechet: Meissen Recast is a two-part exhibition on view at the RISD Museum from January 17 to July 6, 2014.

It is the utilitarian factory casts behind fine porcelain production, rather than the ornate ceramic confections, that inform Shechet’s “Meissen” series. Her range of sculpture brings to the fore the seams, plate impressions, indentations, inventory numbers, and other evidence of the industrial process that an 18th-century Meissen craftsman would have sought to erase. Almost every sculpture on view in the Museum’s Upper Farago Gallery is derived from one or more of 47 historic Meissen mold patterns, reconceived in unanticipated combinations of forms and scale. Shechet’s complete reinstallation of the Museum’s historic Meissen collection of figurines and tableware in the Porcelain Gallery completes the two-part show—connecting the past and present, fine arts and decorative arts.

“The Museum is excited to present this compelling new work by RISD alumna Arlene Shechet,” says John W. Smith, director of the RISD Museum. “Meissen Recast extends the Museum’s long and groundbreaking tradition of encouraging artists to use the collection—dating from Andy Warhol’s Raid the Icebox (1970) to Spencer Finch’s Painting Air exhibition (2012). By moving some of RISD’s Meissen figures—including the famous Monkey Band—from their normal location in the Porcelain Gallery to the contemporary Upper Farago Gallery and, conversely, inserting her own porcelain sculptures into the cases of the more traditional, wood-paneled room, she heightens our awareness and appreciation for the refined historical pieces and her own more organic, intuitive approach.”

Adjunct RISD Museum curator and exhibition organizer Judith Tannenbaum adds, “Arlene Shechet has become well known for ceramic sculpture that reveals the nature of her materials and working process. By casting fine porcelain in the Meissen factory’s forms designed for plaster, she makes fine porcelain objects out of industrial molds. The surprise is that by looking behind the scenes of this luxury production, which once represented a high-water mark in culture, she has created a body of work that is virtuosic in entirely contemporary terms.”

During her 2012-2013 residency at the Meissen Manufactory, Shechet gained access to all areas of the renowned production facility—working alongside Meissen artisans, learning their techniques, using their tools, and observing the company’s internal traditions. “If there is a common thread in these works, it is my desire to leave a remnant of the memory of the factory. So if a screw is there, I might have cast it along with a fingerprint—I find these inadvertent traces to be beautiful and also thrilling, because they show the original thought that went into the porcelain making and, perhaps, even something of the worker,” the artist explains.

The exhibition design of Arlene Shechet: Meissen Recast also reflects the artist’s desire to upset cultural hierarchy. A number of tall vase-shaped objects are installed on the floor, with other works placed atop a deconstructed wooden table. Some of the Plexiglas vitrines are underneath, rather than on top of, pedestal bases. “Expect to see drawers coming out of the wall, like magic, and some of the Museum’s finest Meissen pieces displayed from all sides like abstract sculpture,” Shechet says.

Arlene Shechet (RISD MFA, Ceramics) has exhibited her work extensively, most recently in Slip, a solo exhibition that opened at Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York City, in October 2013. Another solo show, That Time, was on view earlier in the year at the Weatherspoon Art Museum in Greensboro, NC, following its 2012 debut at the VCUarts Anderson Gallery in Richmond, VA.

Shechet is the recipient of numerous awards, including a John S. Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, an Anonymous Was A Woman Artist Award, a Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant, and an American Arts and Letters Award for Art; she was also the subject of a 2012 Art in America cover story. Her work is included in important public collections including the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. She lives and works in New York City and upstate New York.

Arlene Shechet: Meissen Recast is supported by the Providence Pottery and Porcelain Club, Gretchen and William Viall, and the Robert Lehman Foundation.

Hours: Tuesdays through Sundays, 10 am – 5 pm. Thursdays, 10 am – 9 pm.

CONTACT
Tel. 401 454 6500

Museum of Art Rhode Island School of Design (RISD Museum)
20 North Main St
Providence, RI 02903
United States
www.risdmuseum.org

Above: Arlene Shechet, The Idol, 2012, Glazed Meissen porcelain and gold, 14 1/2 x 8 1/2 x 12 in. © Arlene Shechet. Courtesy of the artist.

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Living Glass / Musée de design et d’arts appliqués contemporains, Lausanne, Switzerland
December 11, 2013 - November 16, 2014

Images © Arnaud Conne, Marie Humair – atelier de numérisation de la Ville de Lausanne.

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Being Here & Being Thus. Sculpture, Object & Stage / Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt
January 23 - April 13, 2014

Opening reception: Thursday, January 23, 2014, from 8 pm.

The world of things seems to be dissolving. Due to digitalization, our living environment is rapidly becoming more and more immaterial—despite the unlimited amount of consumer items that we encounter on a daily basis. At the same time, it is possible to observe a growing interest in the lost and changing materiality of the world around us. Recently the cultural and social sciences announced a “material turn.” One is discovering the material aspects of knowledge production and social practices as well as the material aspects of communication processes and aesthetic production. Also in sculpture a reassessment of materials, things, and objects seems to be taking place. Bringing together unusual elements, artists are creating a new formal language, which produces a confrontation between the things as they are and the aesthetic of materials.

The exhibition Being Here & Being Thus. Sculpture, Object & Stage presents works by nine artists who use sculpture in a variety of ways. They combine additive and subtractive processes, the manipulation of scale, and installation. Things and materials are cast, folded, glued, carved, and cut; they are combined with additional elements to underscore or minimize physical, symbolic, or narrative qualities. The exhibition unfolds as an exploration of the concepts of “sculpture,” “object,” and “stage.” Some works appear to viewers as a physical counterpart. Others consist of elements, whose former purpose is still recognizable. Nevertheless, the original function of the object is underscored. A third group of works take the form of spatial arrangements that can be entered, variables in a temporary situation in which inter-relationships play a primary role—with the viewer as a component of the work. All works in the exhibition “Being Here & Being Thus” are characterized by an immediate quality. As technical or organic configurations, they convey a character, an expressiveness, and an immense presence, referring thereby to nothing beyond themselves.

Exhibited artists: Maria Anisimowa, Peter Buggenhout, Sandra Havlicek, Sofia Hultén, Sabine Kuehnle, Thomas Moecker, Simon Rübesamen, Michael E. Smith, Andrea Winkler
Curators: Holger Kube Ventura and Lilian Engelmann

The exhibition received support from Hessische Kulturstiftung, Stiftung Kunstfonds Bonn and the Hessian Ministry of Research and the Arts.

Hours: Tue, Thu, Fri: 11 am – 7 pm, Wed: 11 am – 9 pm, Sat and Sun: 10 am – 7 pm. Closed on Monday.

CONTACT
post@fkv.de
Tel. +49 (0)69 219314-0

Frankfurter Kunstverein
Steinernes Haus am Römerberg
Markt 44
60311 Frankfurt am Main
Germany
www.fkv.de

Above: Simon Rübesamen, CP4G, 2008, Porcelain, Glaze, 50x75 cm. Pedestal: MDF, Lacquer, Veneer, 50x50x80 cm. © The artist.

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David Hicks: Nucleus / Cross MacKenzie Gallery, Washington DC
January 10 – February 28, 2014

Sculpture photographs Courtesy the artist and Cross MacKenzie Gallery.
Installation photos by Maxwell MacKenzie.

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Ceramics Now Magazine is pleased to announce an open Call for Papers, for consideration in Issue 3
Deadline for submissions: March 7, 2014

We welcome contemporary ceramics-related research papers that are lively and engaged with current ideas and debates. The call for papers is open to any author, and any original text involving ceramic art criticism, history or theory will be considered for publication. We would also welcome all submissions that enter the following categories: exhibition, book or project reviews, and conversations.

Submissions (.docx or .doc files) should be emailed to Vasi Hirdo, Editor-in-Chief, at vasi@ceramicsnow.org
Also include your CV and a brief biography.

Accepted articles will be published in Ceramics Now Magazine - Issue 3. All credit will be given to the writers, and the articles will be promoted to our readers through Ceramics Now’s website and social media pages. Please note that publishing with Ceramics Now is done on a voluntary basis and will not be remunerated.

Image © Arina Ailincai

Clara Garesio: Desired lands / Linee Contemporanee, Salerno, Italy
January 24 - February 15, 2014

"Giving a definition of the work by Clara Garesio is fortunately impossible, since it moves beyond stereotypes or fashions. Indulges in an impulse, driven by the need to communicate their feelings, here and now , it relies on the uncertainty of the fire, as in a trance track marks in a game of bold geometric shapes and colors of scanned drunkenness explosive , eagerly awaiting the result and awe , because – as the artist says - every piece is the battle between my mind and the material that I use , and sometimes losing is just as wonderful." And here are the vessels of the slender forms, architectures dream , the perforated tiles, plates, rounds, translucent balls, terracotta reliefs soaring, archetypal installations and tiles lit by red, blue, green and yellow in harmonious contrast where the size of plastic, combined with the dynamic coloring of enamel, resulting in the tale of cloistered life that you look at the world . The icon are eyes wide on eternity and the hands that reach out beyond time and space to touch the infinite. But the symbol, the recognizable signature of Garesio, is the mandala , the magic circle, the transience and rebirth , the destructive force that becomes a source of life." Erminia Pellecchia, 2013

Clara Garesio was born in Turin, Italy, in 1938. She started her artistic career in ceramics and decoration at the age of 10 at the famous Civica Scuola di Arte Ceramica in Turin, Italy. In 1955 she was admitted to the “Istituto Statale d’Arte per la Ceramica” in Faenza (Italy) where completed her studies in 1957. In 1956 she was awarded first prize in the “International ceramic competition of Faenza”, Faenza (Italy) and in 1957 she was appointed by the Faenza Institute of Ceramics to create the pottery collection commissioned by the Persian Court. In 1957 she started teaching ceramics at the l’Istituto Statale d’Arte di Isernia where she was Head of the Ceramics Department for eight years. In 1960 she won an award in the National Competition for Decoration of the Istituto Statale d’Arte di Castelli (Teramo, Italy) and In 1961 the Italian Ministry of Education appointed her as founding artist of the “Istituto Professionale di Stato per l’Industria e l’Artigianato della Porcellana Caselli” in Naples, where she taught Porcelain decoration and ornamental plastics for 10 years. Since 1981 she served as head of the ceramic department of public schools in Naples until retirement from teaching in 2000. Since 2001 she was appointed Professor Emeritus of the School of Fine Arts in Naples, Italy While Clara Garesio’s best known works are ceramic and porcelain, she has worked in a variety of materials and other media. In addition to commissions in ceramic and porcelain, she has worked in ceramic relief and tile murals, concrete, glass, fabricated metal and plastic sculptures and jewels, and design of colorful tapestries.

CONTACT
lineecontemporanee@tin.it
Tel. +39 089 339328

Linee Contemporanee
Via Parmenide, 39
84131 Salerno
Italy

Above: Clara Garesio, Oniric Architecure, 2011, Ceramics, glaze, 50x40x40 cm.

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Gareth Mason: More is more / Jason Jacques Gallery, New York
January 22 - February 22, 2014

© Images Courtesy of Jason Jacques Inc.

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