Three exhibitions at The Clay Studio, Philadelphia, PA
October 4-28, 2012
Peter Morgan: All Aboard at Harrison Gallery
The 2011-2012 Evelyn Shapiro Foundation Fellowship Exhibition
All Aboard includes work that Morgan made this past year, while serving as the Evelyn Shapiro Foundation Fellow. This fellowship afforded him a monthly living stipend, materials and firing stipend, free studio space, this solo exhibition and a tri-fold publication produced in support. A representational sculptor, Morgan received a BA in fine arts from Roanoke College, Salem, VA, a BFA from the California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland, CA and his MFA in 2005 from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, Alfred NY. His work builds on a tradition in ceramics that began in the 1960’s and emerged out of California’s Bay Area. The artists working within this tradition created representational sculpture, oftentimes humorous and/or tongue in cheek, irreverent and anti-establishment, their inspiration drawn from the beat movement, Pop Art, and the then burgeoning counter culture revolution.
Morgan employs many of the practices of his Funk predecessors using word puns and humor, to create surreal narrative compositions, layered in meaning. His sculptures may grow out of a childhood memory, his love of a specific food item, history or a perplexing current event. With All Aboard, Morgan takes the viewer on a train ride like none other they’ve had. As in all his work, the train cars are skillfully and sensitively sculpted, Morgan’s interest in and love for his subject matter evident and felt.
His sculptures are real and unreal, familiar yet foreign. Morgan states, “The work is an investigation and celebration of cultural mythologies. I think of my sculptures as being platonic ideals in physical form. They focus on our ideal understandings and desires of these objects in our minds, yet they often bear very little in common with the actuality of these concerns.” Jeff Guido, Artistic Director
Blue and White at Reed Smith Gallery
The field of ceramics is laden with numerous traditions of technique, material, style, and form specific to a given culture and or specific time period. Few traditions moved beyond borders or lasted through time to become significant to multiple cultures. The tradition of Blue & White is one that has; a white clay body serving as ground for blue decoration applied by hand, stenciling, or screen transfer. Islamic tin-glazed tile of the 9th century, pinyin or blue flowers drawn on 14th century Chinese porcelain pots, the narrative hand-painted Delft pots of the 16th century Dutch, to the English and American traditions of Willowware, the process of cobalt blue decoration on fine, translucent, and white porcelain is a deeply rooted tradition, crossing cultures and spanning great lengths of time.
Contemporary makers who use blue and white are certainly aware of its history. Depending upon when in time and where in our world, Blue & White work was revered, disdained, collected, tossed aside, incredibly expensive or ridiculously cheap, for only the most elite social class, to being as tourist ware. Some makers in this exhibition exploit that history referencing very specific cultures and time periods. Others wish to build on its rich tradition, and use it purely for aesthetic reasons. Each of these makers honor the rich history of blue and white ware, each uniquely harvesting it to create works relevant to contemporary ceramics and reflective of our modern world.
Artists: Anat Shiftan (New Paltz, NY), Giselle Hicks (Philadelphia, PA), Charles Krafft (Seattle, WA), Robert Dawson (England), Paul Scott (England) and Kurt Weiser (Phoenix, AZ).
Dip, Dash, Pour & Spread at Bonovitz Space
This show features functional items used in order to Dip, Dash, Pour and Spread. Items selected include salt + pepper shakers, gravy boats, syrup pitchers, butter dishes, cream + sugar sets, ramekins, condiment dishes, and more. It’s time to enhance your thanksgiving day table!
Artists: Sebastian Moh, Jenni Brant, Karen Newgard, Ben Carter, Sam Scott, Janet Macpherson, Jil Franke, Adam Field, Stanley Mace Andersen, Natalie Tornatore, Emily Reason, Victoria Rose Martin, Sue Tirrell.
CONTACT
Mallory Wetherell, Gallery Coordinator
mallory@theclaystudio.org
Tel. 215/925-3453 x14
The Clay Studio
137 N. Second Street
Philadelphia, PA 19106
United States
www.theclaystudio.org
Above:
(first image) Peter Morgan, Dino-namic Flatbed Car, Orange Juice Train Boxcar, Giraffe Transport Car, Maple Syrup Tanker, 2012.
(second image) Charles Krafft, Ming Dynasty AK47, 2011, Hand Painted Slipcast, Earthenware, 34 x 10 x 1.5 in.
(third image) Karen Newgard, Cream and Sugar Set, 2012, Porcelain.
