High Fired is on view at Galerie Franzis Engels, Amsterdam
September 1 – October 15, 2022
Ceramics is hot! And not only because it is fired so hot, but especially because it is such a fantastic material with almost inexhaustible possibilities for making a sculpture. Techniques and forms of expression are almost limitless. From white as snow to ink black and all the colours in between, matt or glossy, figurative or abstract, traditional, rough or very delicate, whatever an artist dreams up (and these are often very exceptional sculptures) everything seems possible with clay and porcelain. Clay and porcelain are magical materials that, under the hands of the artist, transform from an unformed lump into wonderful sculptures.
Artists: Anne Marie Laureys, Deirdre McLoughlin, Eileen Cohen Sussholz, Joke Raes, Marga Knaven, Marja Kennis, Nathalie Campion, Reinier Lagendijk.
Nathalie Campion wants to express the strength and fragility of the natural world. Her work is inspired by the cycle of life and nature. In her sculptures, the body is secretly present. The different forms, the tree trunks imply this presence. They have no face; as a tribute, a final elegy, the ceramics remind us of distant forests.
For Marja Kennis, the identity of a place is determined by its habitat. The presence of local life forms, especially plants, is not only the result of the natural environment, but also of the presence of man. Man determines which plants are allowed to appear, whereby cultural regulations regarding economic and aesthetic qualities, among other things, are decisive.
In the work of Marga Knaven, materiality is significant and all-decisive. Sometimes through their physical appearance fragile and vulnerable. Sometimes by their sensory impact, you cannot escape it.
The fragile beauty and long history of porcelain stimulated her to seek out the limits of this special clay. After some time, she succeeded in casting wafer-thin sheets that, after drying, were loosely folded and seemingly carelessly left behind in the room.
Reinier Lagendijk’s work consists of sculptures, installations and monumental work in which nature plays a prominent role. All his work refers to the cultivation of our nature and landscape.
Living flora is his greatest source of inspiration; in all its facets, he is most fascinated by its growth, malleability and transience. Clay gives the possibility to give shape to this malleability, and to solidify transience in time.
Clay, wheel throwing, ‘centuries old’… is the concept ‘an sich’. in the works of Annemarie Laureys. The source is a series of forms thrown on the potters wheel. The plastic wall of the still wet and soft pot is deformable with hand and fingers with fine and strong movements. The clay itself, this matter, is the core of inspiration. Twisted and deformed pot parts, volume, skin, texture and colour all this is assembled into a whole. Unique anthropomorphic sculptures emerge, which, starting from the form, make the sensory and narrative imagination tangible.
For Deirdre McLoughlin, hope is part of the process of exploring the clay to find what needs to be expressed. It is an adventure into the unknown. Energy is the key – then focus. She herself is the instrument with which she works. She has explored different physical movement disciplines and meditation exercises. She has also placed herself in other cultures, situations and environments to absorb knowledge.
The porcelain sculptures of Joke Raes seem to come about effortlessly. But when you look at them up close, the detail makes you dizzy: each work is made with great care, betrays an obsession with the surface and everything that lies behind it. Her organic imagery is that of the Amazon forest, of the rampant, wriggling nature in which man is one species among hundreds of thousands.
The ceramic sculptures of Eileen Cohen Sussholz take the form of assemblages of objects cast individually in moulds that she makes from things that populate our cultural landscape. Whether plucked from the pedestal of art history or from the trash heap in the basement, her work acknowledges that we live in, and interact with, a world of objects. She also ironically questions cultural clichés and contemporary notions of taste, just as she questions the status of the art object itself.
Contact
contact@FranzisEngels.nl
Galerie Franzis Engels
Nieuwevaart 200
1018ZN Amsterdam
the Netherlands
