2010 Exhibitions 

INsideOUT

Gallery M
March 26 – June 6

Click Here for Images from the Exhibition

 

 

This group exhibition will include sculptures by four contemporary ceramic artists who create objects that explore the idea of enclosing or disclosing spaces, such as those created by traditional vessel shapes as well as more abstract forms. Yih-Wen Kuo and Virginia Scotchie focus on the exterior surface of contained spaces, like the skin of a house, making us imagine the interiors; occasionally they cut into the surface to give us a teasing glimpse of what’s inside. Steven Heinemann and Anne Hirondelle focus on the interior spaces, cutting or altering the walls to expose the insides of the forms—as Heinemann notes, stretching the idea of a bowl as a container of space. An opening reception for the exhibition will take place on Friday, March 26 from 6 – 8 pm.


Steven Heinemann, AparitionSteven Heinemann lives and works in Ontario, Canada. He received a B.F.A. in ceramics from Kansas City Art Institute and an M.F.A. from New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. Since completing his MFA, he has taught widely in Canada and the United States. His residencies have taken him to the United States, Holland, Hungary and Korea. Heinemann exhibits his work extensively throughout North America and Europe, including a recent solo exhibition at Lacoste Gallery
in Concord, Massachusetts. In 1996, Heinemann was granted the Saidye Bronfman Award, Canada's foremost honor for excellence in the fine crafts. His pieces are in major collections around the world including the Museum of Arts & Design, New York City, the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art, Toronto, Ontario. Heinemann explains: “ In my current work the vessel has re-emerged as the context for some of these concerns, along with more recent ones. … the bowls signal a renewed interest in a more intimate framework; one whose power lies precisely in its limitations, in its familiarity, in its universality. In keeping with this emblem of "craft", a heightened involvement with surface —and a growing regard for the language of pattern, motif and symbol—has occurred.”


Anne Hirondelle, Tumble 6Anne Hirondelle received a B.F.A. from the University of Washington in Seattle, after earning a B.A. in English and an M.A. in Psychology. She has exhibited her work around the United States, including shows in Los Angeles, Atlanta, Philadelphia and New York. Her pieces are in numerous private and public collections, including the White House, Museum of Arts and Design, L.A. County Museum of Art, and the Arizona State University Art Museum. She received an individual artist grant from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1988, and recently was awarded the 2009 Twining Humber Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement. She states, “For over 20 years I was drawn to the vessel as an abstraction and metaphor for containment. I took ideas from traditional functional pots and stretched them into architectural and later, more organic sculptural forms. Staying true to my clay roots of vessel-making, my 2008 body of work has evolved from a simple bowl form. By deconstructing and reconfiguring, by distorting and manipulating, by combining two forms to make one, by grouping multiple pieces to create one, and by incorporating new materials—fabric, cardboard, wire mesh, and sea salt—I have tapped a new well of sculptural possibilities.  The work has been the leader, and I have followed: paying careful attention to its needs and coaxing it, by small revolutions, into being.”


Yih-Wen Kuo, E.H. SeriesYih-Wen Kuo earned an M.F.A. from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois, and a B.Ed. from the National Taiwan Normal University in Taipei, Taiwan. For the past twenty years he has been an Associate Professor of Ceramics at Northern Illinois University, DeKalb. He is currently represented by Loveed Fine Arts of New York. His works have been exhibited throughout the United States, Taiwan, Korea, New Zealand, and Poland. Kuo’s work is in public and private collections all over the world, including the Daum Museum in Sedalia, Missouri, Everson Museum of Arts, Syracuse, New York, and Taipei County Yingge Ceramics Museum, Taipei, Taiwan. “My sculptural work has evolved out of the traditional concept of the vessel, but my interest is not in making functional pots. I retain the understanding of a vase as a space container. However, my fascination lies in using the Inside/Outside space as a format for expression…. It is much more challenging to create abstract forms of my own. I tend to produce simple, universal forms because they evoke multi-dimensional meaning. These geometric and minimalistic forms with their mysterious openings express a sense of the unseen and the unknown.”


Virginia Scotchie, Indigo Double BowlVirginia Scotchie received a B.F.A. in ceramics from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and an M.F.A. from New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. Since 1992, she has been head of ceramics at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, South Carolina. Scotchie exhibits her work extensively throughout the United States and abroad, including a solo exhibition in March at The 1912 Gallery 
at Emory & Henry College in Emory, Virginia. She has received numerous awards including the Sydney Meyer Fund International Ceramics Premiere Award from Shepparton Museum in Victoria, Australia. Her work is in public and private collections including the Yingge Ceramics Museum in Taiwan and the FuLe International Ceramic Art Museums in Shaanxi, China. Scotchie states, “ I have an obsession with spouts, handles and knobs. This probably comes from being a potter when I first worked in clay. I think it is also about wanting my work to be verb-like in its reference to the everyday. Because I work with objects, I think about the arrangement of these objects in space. I want the space that my work inhabits to serve as a domain that is halfway between the concrete reality of the things I make and that of the meaning objects acquire when they are perceived in the subjective terms of the self."

Tricia Schmidt Teapot and CupArt Smart

Gallery A

May 6 – June 6

This multi-generational invitational group exhibition will showcase the clay work of selected Twin Cities high school ceramics teachers and their students.  Inspired by NCC's College Bowl series, this show highlights the talents of not only Minnesota's amazing high school ceramic art educators, but also its next generation of ceramic artists.  Each of the educators was invited to select two of their most promising high school ceramics students to exhibit alongside their own clay work.  Educators were selected based on their past involvement in NCC's various art educator workshops, classes and programs.

Lisa Buck Baking Dish insideArt educators include: Barry Braun (Wayzata High School); Lisa Buck (Mounds Park Academy); Terry Chamberlain (Hopkins High School); Lane Connolly (Mayo High School); Nancy Hanily Dolan (Wayzata High School); Pat Fair (Robbinsdale Armstrong High School); Jil Franke (Breck School); Nancy Gallas (Eden Prairie High School); Angela Heida (Andover High School); Lisa Himmelstrup (Central High School); Sarah Hjelmberg (Coon Rapids Senior High); Kent Miller (Johnson Senior High School); Paul Moeller (Roseville High School); Alison Nieber (Chaska High School); Randy Schutt (Creative Arts High School); Tricia Schmidt (Woodbury High School School); Jan Suter (John Marshall High).

A reception for ArtSmart artists will take place from 5 - 7 pm on Thursday, May 6.

 

ArtHealthy

Gallery A

March 26 – May 1

Northern Clay Center presents an exhibition featuring clay work created in our fall and winter partnerships with 55+ers at Amherst H. Wilder Foundation, Episcopal Homes, Ebenezer Ridges, Ebenezer Park Apartments and the Martin Luther Campus. In addition to clay objects made by residents and clients, this exhibition will include work by program directors and recreation therapists, as well as NCC teaching artists Kevin Caufield, Ann Fendorf, Marian Lucas, Angie Renee Lund, and Lucy Yogerst, all of whom led clay instruction with these partners. This exhibition is made possible by NCC's Wallace Foundation Excellence Award Grant.

This exhibition is presented in conjunction with the 2010 Society for Arts in Healthcare's (SAH) 21st Annual International Conference: Partners for Health, which will take place April 28 - May 1 in Minneapolis. The conference will provide opportunities for healthcare professionals and artists alike to participate in hands-on workshops, explore model programs, and learn about best practices and cutting-edge research in the arts in healthcare field. This conference will be part of a greater community wide celebration of arts in healthcare throughout the month of April, which will include gallery exhibitions, workshops and open houses.  For more information about the community celebration, visit the Midwest Arts in Healthcare (MAIHN) Web site at www.maihn.org.

Opening Reception Friday, March 26, 6 – 8 pm



Exquisite Pots

Perkins Center for the Arts - Moorestown, NJ

March 13 – April 10

 

Three Jerome Artists

Gallery M
January 15 – March 14, 2010

 

 The 2010 Jerome Artists Exhibition will feature the work of Jane Gordon, Cynthia Levine, and Roberta Massuch, each of whom was awarded a 2009 Jerome Ceramic Artist Project Grant by Northern Clay Center.  The awards recognize artists who have displayed strong artistic development to this point and promise further growth during the term of the grant and in the future.  An opening reception for the artists will be held on January 15 from 6 - 8 pm. 

Jane Gordon received a B.F.A. in ceramics from the University of Minnesota–Twin Cities.  Over the past few years, she has created several outdoor installations, which explore the relationship between nature and humans.  She incorporates her site-specific ceramic multiples into particular outdoor environments and combines them with elements of plant and animal life. “Installation work is exciting to me,” she states.  “I enjoy its flexibility, involvement with site, and ability to immerse the viewer physically in the work.”

Cynthia LevineCynthia Levine received a B.A. in French with a minor in studio arts from the University of Minnesota–Twin Cities.  Following a residency with Richard Bresnahan at St. John's University Levine discovered the dramatic effect that flashes of soda or drips of ash had on her coil-built vessels.  “At this time,” she states, “the primary focus of my work is the coil-built vessel, which provides me with a defined arena from which I can explore my sculptural and formal interests.”  For this project grant she focused on translating her ideas about volume, space, and containment into a more vertical format.  In 2005, she received a Jerome Artist Project Grant from NCC, as well as an Artists Initiative Grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board.

Roberta MassuchRoberta Massuch received her B.F.A. from Northern Illinois University in DeKalb and was a studio assistant and artist-in-residence at the Worcester Center for Craft in Massachusetts.  She was a 2008 Fogelberg Fellowship recipient and maintains a studio at NCC, where she teaches both adult and children's classes.  In August 2009 she received a two-month studio assistantship from Penland School of Crafts.  Massuch's work incorporates soft and firm slabs of earthenware, which are combined by pressing and folding each component together, creating tension with the form.  These soft, playful forms evoke feelings of childhood and comfort.

Support for this exhibition and the individual artist's grants is provided by the Jerome Foundation, St. Paul.

 

Fogelberg and Red Wing Fellowship Exhibition

Gallery A
January 15 – March 14, 2010

 

 Northern Clay Center presents an exhibition featuring the work of 2008 Fogelberg Fellowship recipients Rebecca Chappell and Roberta Massuch, and 2009 Red Wing Collectors Society Foundation Award recipient Peter Jadoonath.  An opening reception for the artists will be held on January 15, from 6 to 8 pm.

The Fogelberg Fellowship provides emerging ceramic artists an opportunity to be in residence for up to one year at Northern Clay Center.  It is intended to support young artists developing their ceramic body of work while immersing themselves in a community environment that encourages an exchange of ideas and knowledge with other ceramic artists.  

Becky ChappellRebecca Chappell received her M.F.A. from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University in 2008 and her B.F.A. from the Cleveland Institute of Art. Chappell has participated in solo and group exhibitions across the US.  Additionally, her work has appeared in several publications, including Ceramics Monthly, Ceramics: Art and Perception, and Clay Times.  Chappell's simple, elegant porcelain forms are highlighted by minimal marks and transparent glazes.  For past years, she has been working on a series of multi-part vases, each one individually designed to hold a different, specific type of flower.  She states: "I am interested in making objects that require subtle, playful interactions.  I see them as objects that need attention and care from an outside force.  They ask to be considered and noticed; in fact, they depend on it."

Roberta Massuch was awarded a 2009 Jerome Ceramic Artists Project Grant.  Massuch's functional and sculptural earthenware is delightful both in form and imagery. Those who visit NCC's exhibition galleries between January and March will find her work featured in the Fogelberg Exhibition as well as the Jerome Exhibition. Please read more about Massuch's recent work in the above exhibition.

The Red Wing Fellowship is made possible by the Red Wing Collectors Society Foundation.  It is presented by Northern Clay Center to a deserving individual pursuing a career in pottery or studying or researching the historical aspects of the pottery industry.  

Peter JadoonathPeter Jadoonath attended Bemidji State University where he earned a B.F.A. in studio ceramics and painting in 1998.  His studies at Bemidji provided the “foundation of creativity” for Jadoonath that continues to have an influence on his work process and his development of new ideas.  He is currently co-owner of Toppot Clay Studio, and a member of Back Alley Gallery located in St. Paul.  He exhibits work at local and national festivals as well as local galleries.  Jadoonath teaches at Northern Clay Center and at Fired Up, where he is a studio technician.  In 2007 he received a Jerome Ceramic Artist Project Grant.

Jadoonath creates stoneware pottery that focuses on “texture, gesture, and building a sculptural presence.”  The work he creates is narrative, animated, and open to suggestion and interpretation by the viewer.  “I find inspiration from scientific mystery, unexplained history, small complex ideas, and large simple ideas,” says Jadoonath.  “Through my craft it is important for me to honor timelessness, tradition, ancestors….  I strive for this by following my intuition, seeking self-realization, working hard, and gathering the patience to take risks.”  Jadoonath’s pots are formed using the basic clay building concepts of “squeezing, paddling, throwing, pinching, coiling, folding, smashing, polishing, and carving.”  The surface treatment is then built up with layers of colored slips and stains as well as layers of “pitted glazes and thin washes of glaze,” creating a skin that transforms and enhances the textured surfaces of his work.