2012 Exhibitions 

Holiday Exhibition and Sale

November 18, 2012 – January 6, 2013

Sales Gallery and Gallery M

NCC opens its 22nd annual Exhibition and Sale the Sunday before Thanksgiving.  Bring family and friends to shop the sale; there are be pots by your favorite artists, by those whose work you’ve been collecting for years and years, and by artists new to the gallery.  There are 70+ artists represented in the Holiday Exhibition; the work is diverse and engaging—from serving platters fit for your holiday feast, to your next favorite mug for winter beverages.

Featuring work by over 75 artists from across the country:
Jennifer Allen, Martye Allen, Marion Angelica, Posey Bacopoulos, Megan Bergström, Nicholas Bivins, Margaret Bohls, Birdie Boone, William Brouillard, Lisa Buck, Kevin Caufield, Victoria Christen, Bede Clarke, Sunshine Cobb, Steven Colby, Michael Corney, Sandra Daulton Shaughnessy, Chandra DeBuse, Leila Denecke, Josh DeWeese, Paul Dresang, Sanam Emami, Gary Erickson, Paul Eshelman, Free Ceramics, Willem Gebben, Bill Gossman, Katharine Gotham, Ryan Greenheck, Mel Griffin, Richard Gruchalla & Carrin Rosetti, Ursula Hargens, Mike Helke, Butch Holden, Michael Hunt & Naomi Dalglish, Bob & Cheryl Husby, Sarah Jaeger, Eric Jensen, Matt Kelleher, Kristen Kieffer , Kathy King, Michael Kline, Maren Kloppmann, Karin Kraemer, Gib Krohn, Matt Krousey, Jamie Lang, Martina Lantin, Lee Love, Warren MacKenzie, Andrew Martin , Ruth Martin, Jan McKeachie Johnston, Ron Meyers, Mike Norman, Sean O’Connell, Jeffrey Oestreich, Kip O’Krongly, Rita Panton, Kristin Pavelka, David Peters, Elizabeth Robinson, S. C. Rolf, Monica Rudquist, Pete Scherzer, Deborah Schwartzkopf, Yoko Sekino-Bové, Johanna Severson, Laurie Shaman, Will Swanson, David Swenson, Munemitsu Taguchi, Kyla Toomey, Christy Wert, Betsy Williams , Tara Wilson, Michael Wisner

 

November 18, 2012 – January 6, 2013

Emily Galusha Gallery

In conjunction with the release of the new PBS special, Craft in America: Crossroads, Northern Clay Center is pleased to present the work of Clary Illian, Warren MacKenzie, and Jeff Oestreich, who are featured in this particular episode of the series.  The paths of these Midwestern potters were greatly influenced by the time they spent as apprentices at the Leach Pottery in St. Ives, Cornwall, England.  (Illian: 1964 – 65, MacKenzie: 1950 – 52, Oestreich: 1969 – 71.)   Now, 40+ years later, they are still actively making, showing, and exhibiting their work

In 1920, the Leach Pottery was founded by Bernard Leach and Shoji Hamada.  Today, it is credited as the birthplace of British studio pottery.  Hundreds of potters trained and apprenticed at the Leach Pottery throughout its history.  It is still actively producing a new line of Standardware.

This exhibition includes historical and contemporary examples of work by Illian, MacKenzie, and Oestreich, as well as photographs from their time at the Pottery.  The Craft in America: Crossroads excerpt is also on view in the gallery. 

Clary Illian graduated from the University of Iowa in 1963, after receiving her BFA in ceramics.  From 1964 – 1965, she was an apprentice at the Bernard Leach Pottery in England. Since that time, she’s been a full-time maker of utilitarian pottery, with studios in various locations throughout Iowa.  She has taught workshops around the country and was a sabbatical replacement instructor at the University of Iowa and at the Kansas City Art Institute.  After 45 years of working exclusively in porcelain and stoneware, Illian has recently switched to earthenware.  The pots are still intended for use, but are more “decorated and lighthearted, if not downright frivolous.”

Warren MacKenzie studied painting and ceramics at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago and later traveled to England where he, and his then-wife Alix, apprenticed with Bernard Leach from 1949 – 1952.  In 1952, he began his tenure at the University of Minnesota—Twin Cities, where he is now a professor emeritus.  MacKenzie was bestowed with the honor of Regis Master by Northern Clay Center in 1997, in honor of his influence on 20th and 21st Century ceramics.  Now in his eighties, he still makes pots daily at his home studio in Stillwater, and he sells his wares at a handful of galleries throughout the states, including at NCC.

Jeff Oestreich was an apprentice at The Bernard Leach Pottery from 1969 – 1971; prior to that he studied art and ceramics at Bemidji State University and the University of Minnesota—Twin Cities.  He has been an artist-in-residence and instructor at such institutions as Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, NC; The Penland School of Crafts in NC; and Anderson Ranch School of Crafts in Snowmass Village, CO; among others.  He is a recipient of a McKnight Ceramic Artist Fellowship, through Northern Clay Center, a Jerome Foundation Travel and Study Grant, and a Minnesota State Arts Board Assistance Fellowship Grant.  Oestreich continues to create his functional wares from his home studio in Taylor’s Falls, MN, a host site on the annual St. Croix Valley Pottery Tour.


Repetitive Nature

September 22 – November 4

Gallery M
Like miniature landscapes unto themselves, each of the sculptures in Repetitive Nature not only resonates its power as a singular object, but also as part of the whole environment created within the gallery setting. The exhibition is comprised of tightly-decorated, ornate spheres of modular leaves and flowers, undulating whisper-thin porcelain husks, and layered topographical “mountains” of fingerprints. Simultaneously minimalist and lush, Kim Dickey’s spheres reference decorative architectural ornamentation and the construction of environments both interior and exterior. Cheryl Ann Thomas’ tall, meticulously hand-coiled columns are surrendered to the kiln, inviting accident. This challenges any level of control she may have had over the final forms, but results in unpredictable and dynamic organic shapes. Janet Williams’ objects treat the fingerprint as uncharted territory, laying out a highly personal, yet refreshingly new landscape in clay. The iterative process apparent in the ceramic objects in ¨Repetitive Nature reminds us that labor can be a commitment to something greater than the self. The word “repetitive” can connote boredom or monotony, but, in this case, the repetitive act opens up contemplative space and results in sculpture harmonious with the world of nature.

Currently a Professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder, Kim Dickey received her BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and her MFA from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. From 1991–1994, she served as Director of Greenwich House Pottery in New York, where she curated over twenty exhibitions of contemporary ceramics. Her own work has been featured in numerous solo and group invitational shows in Germany, Japan, Korea, Sweden, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Dickey has created permanent installations for the Danish Ministry of Culture in Slagelse, Denmark, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver, and The Lab at Belmar, and she has exhibited at Mass MOCA, the Everson Museum, the American Craft Museum, the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Honolulu, among many others. Dickey has contributed catalogue essays for several exhibition catalogues, including the Sidney Myer Fund Australian Ceramics Award 2010 exhibition, Shepparton, Australia. She is currently working on a large-scale installation for the Denver International Airport to open in December 2012.

Cheryl Ann Thomas graduated from the Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, California in 1982, and she lives and works in California. Having studied as a painter, and worked as a grade school teacher for several years, Thomas emerged as a ceramic sculptor in the late 1990s. Her ceramic sculptures have been featured in recent international group shows in Paris and Japan, as well as in the 2009 World Contemporary Ceramic Exhibition and World Ceramic Biennale in Icheon, Korea. Thomas has shown her artwork in several solo exhibitions throughout California, and in New York and New Mexico. Her ceramics are included in the collections of the American Museum of Ceramic Art, Fuller Craft Museum, Long Beach Museum of Art, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and the Gardiner Museum in Toronto, among many others.

Janet Williams grew up in South Wales, UK, and received her undergraduate education in London in Fine Arts at Middlesex Polytechnic and in ceramics at Goldsmith’s College, London University. She obtained her MFA in Ceramics from Cranbrook Academy of Art and is now a dual citizen of the USA & UK. For 12 years, Williams was based at Art Farm, a non-profit artist residency program in Marquette, Nebraska, that she co-founded and co-directed. Williams has taught at the University of 
Nebraska–Lincoln, the Cleveland Institute of Art, and the University of Michigan. Her work has been exhibited throughout the United States and internationally, and she has received numerous awards ¨including the Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant, two McKnight ¨Ceramic Artist Residencies, and fellowships from the Nebraska Arts Council and the Arts & Science Council, NC. She has completed a 1% for the Arts Commission for the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Williams has attended artist residencies in the United States, Canada, Europe, and China, and is currently an Assistant Professor of Ceramics and Ceramics Area Coordinator at UNC–Charlotte.


Regis Master: Jun Kaneko

September 22 – November 4

Emily Galusha Gallery

NCC will host Jun Kaneko as its 25th Regis Master.  Kaneko is one of two ceramic artists awarded this title in 2012.  The other, 
Richard Shaw, visited NCC in May for a 
lecture and exhibition.  The Regis Masters 
Series began in 1997 and continues to recognize ceramic artists, over the age of 65, who have had a major impact on the development of ceramics in the last century and this 
century.  The artists bestowed with the title of Regis Master are from this country and from across the world.  They receive an 
honorarium, participate in an exhibition at NCC, and deliver a lecture about their life and work.  In doing so, they add to the 
limited stock of oral history of a senior 
generation of ceramic artists. We are very pleased to add Jun Kaneko to this distinguished group of Regis Master 
artists. 

Kaneko was born in 1942 in Nagoya, Japan.  By his teen years, he was making pencil sketches, by the hundreds, which were soon discovered by his mother.  Shortly after, Kaneko began studying drawing and painting with a private teacher, by day, and attending high school at night.  “‘After a year of painting in his studio, I knew that’s what I wanted to do’,” Kaneko said.* 

In his early 20s, his work in painting had changed dramatically and his subject matter had become more abstract.  At the suggestion of his teacher, Kaneko went to America to study art.  Serendipitously, he stayed with a couple—the Marers—that collected clay work from artists such as Peter Voulkos and Ken Price.  Fred Marer documented the work of Voulkos and acted as a sort of PR agent for the artist.  In the early 1960s in California, clay was becoming an art medium with seemingly limitless possibilities.  This transformative time period—in combination with Kaneko’s living situation and his peer artist-group—ultimately inspired him to pursue ceramics and shaped his approach to the material. 

In 1964, Kaneko studied painting and 
ceramics at the Chouinard Art Institute, 
in Los Angeles, which later became part 
of the California Institute of the Arts. He then 
assisted artist Jerry Rothman in his studio and worked to create a portfolio for entry to the University of California at Berkeley, where he studied with Peter Voulkos.  He spent a summer at the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts in 1967, the first year the Bray held its annual residency competition.  Kaneko applied to the MFA program at Claremont Graduate School in California, which was under the direction of Paul Soldner at that time, and was later accepted in 1969. He returned to Japan in 1971 to gain more knowledge about historical and contemporary Japanese ceramics.

When he returned to the states many months later, Kaneko taught at several academic 
institutions, including the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, and at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield, Michigan. He has been a two-time recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and a recipient of Honorary Doctorates from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston, the University of Nebraska at Omaha, and the Royal College of Art in London. 

In the past 30+ years, Kaneko has exhibited his artwork internationally .  His work is included in many public collections, including the Aichi Prefectural Ceramic Museum in Nagoya, Japan; the Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, New York; the European Ceramic Work Center in s’Hertogenbosch, Netherlands; and at the Icheon World 
Ceramic Center in Seoul, South Korea.

Kaneko has maintained a studio in Omaha, Nebraska, since 1986, where he continues 
to produce both intimate and large-scale 
ceramic and bronze sculptures, tiles, drawings, paintings, glass, and textiles. His repertoire of artistic contributions also includes a variety of public art pieces, as well as designs for three operatic productions, one of which is Mozart’s The Magic Flute, which premiered at the San Francisco Opera in summer of 2012.

In the clay world, Kaneko is most noted for his large-scale platters, wall tiles, monolithic heads, and dangos (the Japanese word for “rounded form”), which are closed organic forms, more than seven feet high.  His ceramic working process suggests a continual dialogue between himself, the clay, and the painting.  Kaneko has referenced his own tendency to sit and listen to the piece-in-progress, waiting to hear what the form is saying, which ultimately guides his hand in the painting.  He and the admirers of his work are continually fascinated by mark-making’s possibilities.

NCC hopes you too will find yourself fascinated by the work.

Watch the video of Jun Kaneko's lecture at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts


The Regis Masters Series is made possible by a generous grant from Regis and Friends. The lectures are co-sponsored by the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

*As quoted in Susan Peterson, Jun Kaneko (Laurence King Publishing, London, 2001), 17.

7 McKnight Artists

July 13 – August 26

Gallery M and Emily Galusha Gallery

New work by 2011 McKnight Fellowship recipients Gerard Justin Ferrari (La Crescent) and Mika Negishi Laidlaw (Mankato) is on view in the Emily Galusha Gallery.  Gallery M will feature the work of five McKnight Resident Artists: 2010 recipients William Cravis (Minnesota), Rina Hongo (Gifu-ken prefecture, Japan), Naoto Nakada (Tokyo, Japan), and Kevin Snipes (New Mexico); and 2011 recipient David Allyn (Rhode Island).
Gerard Justin Ferrari used his McKnight Fellowship year to continue his work with Super Objects, a collection of pieces that embody extreme craftsmanship and heavy content.  He was able to experiment with various processes that allowed him to add two-dimensional imagery to the surface of his sculptures in the Poisoned Cocoon series.

Ferrari received his BA from Berea College in Kentucky and his MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. His intricately carved sculptures with trompe l’oeil surfaces have been exhibited nationally, most recently in Feats of Clay XXIV, Lincoln Arts, Lincoln, Nebraska; 18th San Angelo National Ceramic Competition, San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts, San Angelo, Texas; Strange Brew: The Gerry & Daphina Cramer Teapot Collection, Arizona State University Art Museum Research Center, Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts, Tempe, Arizona; and various SOFA Chicago art shows.

Mika Negishi Laidlaw used her McKnight Fellowship year to create a new body of ceramic sculpture based on the idea of “Memory of Cells.”  By stacking and arranging slip-cast forms, she was able to create larger-scale work not achieved in her past sculptures.  She was also able to begin investigating  different visual expressions in Buddhist art, as well as its connection to her ancestry and heritage.

Laidlaw received her BA in studio art from Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville and her MFA in ceramics from Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas. She was an apprentice at the Akishino-Pottery for Masaya Imanishi in Nara-City, Japan, from 1994 – 1997.  She is currently an associate professor of art and ceramics at Minnesota State University in Mankato.

Her voluptuous sculptural and functional forms have been included in exhibitions such as Seven-Year Itch, Les Laidlaw and Mika Negishi Laidlaw, two-person exhibition, Carnegie Center for Art, Mankato, Minnesota; Immigrant Impact, Duncan McClellan Gallery, St. Petersburg, Florida; 2010 International Orton Cone Box show, Holt/Russell Gallery, Baldwin, Kansas; 8 Fluid Ounces, Glassell Gallery, Louisiana State University; and Art of Fine Craft, Lux Center for the Arts, Lincoln, Nebraska.

William Cravis spent his three-month residency attempting to fulfill his proposed project of creating a series of large double-walled vessels.  While he was somewhat successful—one of four pieces survived the entire process—he was also able to make a body of smaller, more intimate pieces, into which he hopes to incorporate video.

Cravis received his BFA from the California College of the Arts in Oakland and his MFA from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  He has been in residence at a variety of art centers, including the Boston Center for the Arts in Massachusetts; the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, Wisconsin; the Skowhegan School of Sculpture and Painting in Maine; and an international residency at Stiftung Futur in Rapperswil, Switzerland.  

Rina Hongo was one of two artists awarded a McKnight Residency in 2010 through a nominative process, which selects one to two mid-career artists who would make strong candidates for 3-month residencies at NCC. While in residence at Northern Clay Center, Hongo continued her sculptural work that combines layers upon layers of newspaper and slurry, as well as screen-printed cloths, to create seemingly rough, brick-like, yet extremely delicate forms.

Hongo currently resides in the Gifu-ken prefecture in Japan. She received her BFA from the Kyoto University of Art and Design in 2007 and has exhibited her ceramic sculpture and pottery in Gifu-ken, Mino, and Tokyo, as well as in Minneapolis, MN.

Naoto Nakada was the second of two artists awarded a McKnight Residency in 2010 through a nominative process.  He focused his three-month residency on creating a new body of work, a set of molded ceramic license plates, which he documented in use on each plate’s respective automobile.   

Nakada comes from Tokyo. He completed his undergraduate degree at Nagoya University of Arts in Nagoya and his postgraduate courses at Tama Art University in Tokyo. He has exhibited his sculptures in solo and group shows in Tokyo, Kyoto, Chiba, Osaka, and Shiga, as well as in Minneapolis, MN. Through humor and ambiguity, Nakada’s ceramic installations elicit interaction with the viewer. He occasionally employs materials other than ceramics in his mini-installations and outlandish sculptures, but does so to draw a point of comparison.

Kevin Snipes used his McKnight Residency to further develop his current body of work.  Originally intending to increase the scale of his functional sculptures, he instead tried to develop his pieces conceptually, finding greater importance in looking further at the intimate relationship functional ceramics can have with its viewers or handlers.

Snipes received his BFA in ceramics and drawing from the Cleveland Institute of Art in Ohio and his MFA from the University of Florida, Gainesville. Prior to being in residence at Northern Clay Center, Snipes was also a resident at the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, Montana; Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts in Newcastle, Maine; The Clay Studio in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Worcester Center for Crafts in Worcester, Massachusetts. His ceramic wares have been featured in solo and group exhibitions at AKAR, The Clay Studio, Lillstreet Art Center, and Santa Fe Clay.

During his 3-month McKnight residency, David Allyn was pleased to have time and space to work creatively on his highly colorful and image-filled objects.  While continuing his work with screen printing, decals, and stencils, he was also able to work outside of his normal techniques by utilizing atmospheric firing.  He also enjoyed becoming a part of NCC’s “factory of learning,” a term he coined for Northern Clay Center’s studio area.

Allyn received his BFA from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh and his MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design, where he was an instructor of ceramics. His functional wares and tiles have been included in exhibitions such as Using It Up, Rabbit Hole Gallery, New York, New York; Political Craft, Society of Arts and Crafts, Boston, Massachusetts; and group, Art Interactive, Boston, Massachusetts.  He lives in Providence, Rhode Island, where he is the founding department head of ceramics at the Steel Yard, an organization located in the industrial valley district of Providence.

McKnight Artists Fellowships and Residencies for Ceramic Artist, and this exhibition are made possible by generous financial support from The McKnight Foundation, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Self-[contained]

May 11 – July 1

Gallery M
The exhibition, Self-[contained], features freestanding ceramic sculptures and large-scale vessels that evoke the whimsical, the mournful, the absurd, and the fantastical through depictions of the human face or figure. Some of these works suggest a bodily transmutation into otherworldly, human chimeras. Others exaggerate the human form, thereby bringing the private psychologies we often project onto figural artwork to the forefront. Imaginative, yet grounded in the reality of emotion, the artwork in Self-[contained] gestures toward the body we inhabit and the consciousness within which we exist. Artists included in the exhibition are Lisa Clague, Michael Corney, Jenny Mendes, Andy Nasisse, Derek Weisberg, Janis Mars Wunderlich, and Kensuke Yamada.
Lisa Clague always knew that she wanted to be an artist. After years of studio education studying illustration, painting, textiles, and jewelry, she became interested in ceramics and the possibilities of experimenting with materials. Clague’s work depicts what she calls “masked hybrid creatures” which are inspired by her “dreams, delightful fancies, or feverish horrors. Nature, ancient art, antique toys, old dolls that are beyond repair, all feed my imagination.”

Michael Corney received his BFA from California State University, Fullerton, and an MFA from Cranbook Academy of Art. He has been artist-in-residence at the Cleveland Institute of Art, the Kohler Arts in Industry Program, and the California College of Arts and Crafts. Corney’s philosophy is that if the artist’s intention must be explained to the viewer, then “we are not doing our job as ‘visual’ artists.” He became a visual artist because, in his view, it was the most successful way to express complex ideas. Corney currently resides in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and works as a studio artist and teacher.

Jenny Mendes holds a BFA from Washington University and was resident artist at the Penland School of Crafts. She has received numerous awards for her work including the Artists’ Choice Bronze Award at the Smithsonian Craft Show (2006) and Cain Park Arts Festival-Juror’s Selection (2004). Mendes explains, “Using clay as my primary material, I have found an entry way into my subconscious…First I create a structure which I overlay with painted patterns of emotional experience, sensory based memories, cellular formations, and other discoveries. Working within a human/animal narrative, I engage in a dialogue that witnesses and reflects an invitation into my world.”

Andy Nasisse is Professor Emeritus at the University of Georgia and a studio artist. He has received numerous awards and commissions over the years including the Ford Foundation Research Grant and a National Endowment for the Arts Regional Fellowship, as well as a major commission for the Atlanta Hartsfield International Airport. Nasisse is interested in the “tension between opposites: light and dark; male and female; between expansion and contradiction; good and evil; organic and geometric; ration and intuition; mind and body; night and day; between our conscious lives and our subconscious self; between matter and spirit.”

Derek Weisberg received his BFA from the California College of Arts and Crafts. Since then, he has co-owned a gallery, curated exhibitions, and exhibited his sculptures nationally and internationally. About the emotional intensity of his artwork, Weisberg states, “I create works of art that are emotional and psychological self-portraits. Through my work I aim to make sense of my life, my experiences, and the times in which I live.…My goal is to create images that are accessible and allow the viewer to have an experience that can not be easily articulated, but felt.” Weisberg currently lives and works in New York, and is a resident studio technician at Greenwich House Pottery.

Janis Mars Wunderlich received her BFA from Brigham Young University in Utah and her MFA from Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. Wunderlich has been represented in more than 70 national and international exhibitions in the past five years including Confrontational Clay at the American Craft Museum, NY; NCECA Clay National, Las Vegas; and Heim und Handwerk, Munich Convention Hall, Munich, Germany. She notes, “Children’s literature is a big influence in my work, from Peter Rabbit and Curious George to the Wild Things and Grimm’s fairy tales. …These stories, much like my sculptures, are filled with animalistic creatures who provoke the mind to look beyond reality into the realm of imagination.”

Having moved to the United States as an exchange student, Kensuke Yamada earned a BA from The Evergreen State College, Olympia, Washington, and an MFA in Ceramic Sculpture from the University of Montana, Missoula. Yamada has enjoyed several artist residencies including positions at the Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, Maine, and the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts, Helena, Montana. His work has been shown at several national venues and has been featured in International Examiner, Ceramics Monthly, and in the Seattle Times. Yamada’s experiences as a foreigner navigating a new language led to a focus on “human gestures and facial expressions,” which are embodied in his sculpture. He explains, “The ceramic figures I create convey this collective understanding shared by all individuals by using facial expression and simple body language to communicate on a universal level.”

2012 Regis Master Exhibition: Richard Shaw

May 11 – July 1

Emily Galusha Gallery

“Having to come up with new stuff all the time keeps me alive.”
— Richard Shaw
Richard Shaw, Northern Clay Center’s 24th Regis Master, is one of two ceramic artists bestowed with this title in 2012. The other, Jun Kaneko, will be featured in an exhibition later this year. The Regis Masters Series began in 1997 and honors senior artists, over the age of 65, who have had a major impact on the development of 20th century—now 21st century—ceramics. Shaw will add to an oral history of a senior generation of ceramic artists on Saturday, May 26, at 2 pm, with a free public lecture at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

Richard Shaw was born in Hollywood in 1941 to an artist mother and cartoonist father. He received his BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1965 and his MFA from the University of California at Davis in 1968. He later received an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from the San Francisco Art Institute. Shaw was part of the San Francisco Bay Area Funk movement, with other ceramic greats: Viola Frey, Ron Nagle, Robert Arneson, and James Melchert.

He received Visual Artist Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1971 and 1974. His roster of solo and group exhibitions is extensive, with shows at Frank Lloyd Gallery in Santa Monica, the Braunstein/Quay Gallery in San Francisco, Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art in Kansas City, Perimeter Gallery in Chicago, Thomas Segal Gallery in Boston, and Davis & Cline Gallery in Ashland, Oregon.

Since 1987, Shaw has been a professor at the University of California at Berkeley. Prior to that, he was a lecturer at the University of California at Davis, the College of Marin in Kentfield, California, and the University of Wisconsin at Madison. The spontaneity of the material propels his and his students' learning. “Being with students keeps me alive,” he stated of his work at UC Berkeley.

Shaw bought his home in Fairfax, California in 1976, where he still lives today. His home and yard are filled with old memorabilia—old gas pumps, a “funky” car—making him feel as if he was “stuck in the 1930’s”. His studio is the same studio that he’s worked in since the mid–70s. His library of molds is stacked floor to ceiling. Shaw was said to have wanted to make the whole world out of clay; his home and surroundings certainly provide inspiration for that goal. 

Prior to college, Shaw was interested in filmmaking and painting. At Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, California, Shaw first fell in love with clay. In graduate school, Shaw made miniatures in wood, with clay, metal, and glass parts. Wanting to prove to his peers that he practiced what he preached (in the academic setting), he returned to ceramics in 1970.

At White Gate Ranch, a former dairy town in Stinson Beach, California, Shaw collaborated with fellow artist Robert Hudson for several years. Their wives worked in mixed media and painting, respectively, with their children underfoot. The Years at White Gate Ranch, an exhibition catalogue published by the Bolinas Museum for the Art and History of Coastal Marin, documents this time period and the work of these and other artists.

Shaw and Hudson created hundreds of works of ceramic art in a shared studio. They collaborated on the creation of porcelain wares made from slip cast found objects; the resulting objects did not resemble traditional utilitarian pots. This exercise paved the way for ongoing exploration of trompe l'oeil ceramics, of which Shaw is now a master, with his slip cast renderings of books, skulls, food, playing cards, and tools for art making.

His three-dimensional still lifes begin with multi-part plaster molds that produce lifelike clay objects, later assembled and brought to life with the addition of silk-screened and overglaze, transfer decals. His sculptures are so lifelike that even the most skilled ceramicist must pause to examine a piece.  In an episode of public television station’s KQED’s arts program Spark, Shaw stated, “When you fool other guys making ceramics, you’ve got it,” in response to a viewer’s inquiry into why a particular piece included a glass bottle. Shaw’s sculptures trick the eye and call attention to commonly overlooked objects and imagery. He engages viewers through illusion, humor, and sometimes, sentiment. “Sentiment is practically what all of this stuff is about, in a serious way. No, 'sentimental' to me is not a bad word. I mean, I love all this old stuff. 'Sentimental' is more about memory art, maybe times that are old, which you might not even understand” (Richard Shaw: New Work, catalogue produced by the Braunstein/Quay Gallery, 2007; interview with Richard Whittaker, 2006).

Shaw presented his Regis Masters lecture at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts on Saturday, May 26.

The Regis Masters Series is made possible by a generous grant from Regis and Friends. The lectures are co-sponsored by the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

*Richard Shaw plate images courtesy Braunstein/Quay Gallery; photo credit Alice Shaw
**Sewing Box image courtesy Goodwin Fine Art

Functional Redesign

March 9 – April 29

Gallery M

This group exhibition explores how ceramicists, who work in a high-design aesthetic and often use molds to create their functional objects, engage with today’s industry, the consumer, and the ceramics community at-large. Bridging the roles of artist/designer/ceramicist, these individuals redefine traditional consumer-consumption relationships by offering dinnerware and other functional pottery to enhance the consumption experience, question mass production methods, or experiment with utilitarian design itself. Participating artists include: Nicholas Bivins, Ryan Fletcher, Andrew Gilliatt, Hiroe Hanazono, Jason Miller, and Lenneke Wispelwey. In conjunction with the exhibition, Artist Ryan Fletcher was in residency at NCC March 8th – 26th.

Originally from the California Bay Area, Nicholas Bivins holds degrees from the University of Washington (BFA, BA) and Ohio University (MFA). He has been an artist-in-residence at Red Lodge Clay Center and is currently a long-term resident at the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts in Helena, Montana, where he received the Matsutani Fellowship. Bivins has recently been selected as a 2012 NCECA Emerging Artist for the conference to be held in Seattle.

Ryan Fletcher holds a BFA in ceramics from the Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, Missouri. His interests in functional ceramics began more than ten years ago when he was first introduced to clay in high school. Fletcher’s interest in product design came through studying Bauhaus philosophies and writings. “Seeing the visual relationships in the products I use in my everyday life is intriguing to me now that I realize the forethought that was put into making some of them. I see all my projects as an experiment in design: an experiment that tells me vital information about how my objects work and how people interact with and view them.” Fletcher has designed porcelain serve-ware, “Tapas Micros,” in conjunction with Kansas City chefs for their restaurants.

Andrew Gilliatt earned an MFA in ceramics in 2011 from Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, and a BFA in graphic design from Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, in 2003. This past year Gilliatt’s ceramics have been exhibited nationwide in shows from Florida to Washington. On the subject of consumerism, Gilliatt says, “I am fascinated [with] how we personalize and define ourselves through the objects we use and accumulate…. I am interested in the phenomenon of how we look and shop for objects. Once the requirements of fit, occasion, and agency have all been established (a size 11 running shoe that wears comfortably, for example), to what degree are we further attracted to the point of purchase? Is it the pattern of the shirt, the cut of the dress, or the color of the shoe that makes us want to own that object, or is it simply a matter of cost and convenience?”

Hiroe Hanazono, a native of Japan, received her MFA from Ohio University in 2008 and a BA in spatial art from California State University, Hayward. A past artist-in-residence at Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts and Worcester Center for Crafts, Hanazono has also worked and studied at various artist communities including Peters Valley Craft Center and Haystack Mountain School of Crafts. Her work has been shown both nationally and internationally, and she was the recipient of the 2008-2009 Evelyn Shapiro Foundation Fellowship at The Clay Studio in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she currently maintains a studio.

Jason Miller received a BA from Indiana University in 1993 and an MFA from New York Academy of Art in 1995. Between 1995 and 2001, Miller worked as a studio assistant for Jeff Koons, as an art director for Ogilvy and Mather, and as a designer for Karim Rashid. In 2001, he started his own design studio. Miller designs everything from furniture to tchotchke to interiors and works in a multitude of mediums. Miller’s work has been included in numerous international solo exhibitions, and he has been featured in countless publications ranging from Wallpaper to The Wall Street Journal. In 2005, Miller received the Bombay Sapphire “Rising Star Award.” In 2007, he was named “Best Breakthrough Designer” by Wallpaper magazine. Forbes.com included him in their list of 2007 “Tastemakers.” Miller’s work is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Arts and Design in New York.

Lenneke Wispelwey founded her ceramics design studio in 2008 in Arnhem, the Netherlands. Her low-tech design methods result in pastel-colored, porcelain objects with geometric patterns. Lenneke finds a simple approach to techniques and materials very important to communicating her vision. Her work is known for the use of different shades of one color and for playing with the contrast between bisqued and glazed porcelain. She creates honest and harmonious designs, inspired by her memories and antiques. Wispelwey’s designs have been shown throughout the Netherlands and featured in numerous Dutch design publications.


Minnesota Potters: Sharing the Fire

March 9 - April 29

Emily Galusha Gallery

Northern Clay Center hosts Minnesota Potters: Sharing the Fire, an exhibition documenting how ceramic art is passed on from one artist to another in an effort to keep Minnesota's vibrant ceramic tradition and community flourishing. The exhibition is on view now through April 29 in NCC's Emily Galusha Gallery.

ATTENTION: Limited numbers of pots from the Minnesota Potters: Sharing the Fire exhibition are for sale. Pots marked NFS are not available for sale and are on loan to the Clay Center from various private collections. This particular exhibition will travel to four other venues throughout the state of Minnesota until the end of 2012. If you purchase a piece from this exhibition, it will not be available for your pickup until the end of the calendar year 2012. Please contact the front desk with questions.

Richard Bresnahan
Steven Lemke		 Robert Briscoe
Jason Trebs		 Linda Christianson
Jil Franke		 Warren MacKenzie
Guillermo Cuellar

Spearheaded by Mark Lambert of Anoka Ramsey Community College, the Sharing the Fire exhibition is part of a larger roster of programming, which will document the work of select Minnesota ceramic artists, their methods of working with clay, and the way in which they pass on their skills.

In addition to this exhibition, a documentary screening and a lecture by Janet Koplos was held at Anoka Ramsey Community College on Saturday March 10, 2012. The documentary provided a view into the lives and work of eight Minnesota potters—four pairs of artists whose unique relationships celebrate some of the many ways that knowledge, experience and spirit are passed from person to person in this field. This documentary tracks the amazing sphere of these potters' stories with each other— exposing the challenge of becoming and subsisting as a practicing potter, detailing many of their processes, and, through the clear voice of art critic and cultural specialist Janet Koplas, offering insight into the bigger Minnesota potters' narrative.

A series of evening gallery conversations and artist talks took place to support the exhibition.
Watch the video featuring the talk by Warren MacKenzie and Guillermo Cuellar at the University of Minnesota.

For additional information, please visit www.anokaramsey.edu/fire.

In partnership with Northern Clay Center, Anoka-Ramsey Community College is a fiscal year 2011 recipient of a Folk and Traditional Arts grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. This activity is funded, in part, by the arts and cultural heritage fund as appropriated by the Minnesota State Legislature with money from the Legacy Amendment vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4, 2008. For more information, please visit http://www.arts.state.mn.us/grants/support.htm.

Three Jerome Artists

January 13 – February 26, 2012

Gallery M
See the exhibition walkthrough

Three Jerome Artists, the 2012 Jerome Artists exhibition features the work of Felice Amato, Casey Hochhalter, and Tom Jaszczak, each of whom was awarded a 2011 Jerome Ceramic Artist Project Grant. This award recognizes artists who have displayed strong artistic development to this point of their careers and who promise further growth during the term of the grant and in the future.

Felice Amato Mercerized HopeFelice Amato received a BA in art from the University of Minnesota– Twin Cities. She has exhibited her tile work throughout Minnesota as well as created murals at the Minnesota Children’s Museum and Adams Spanish Immersion, both in St. Paul. With the Jerome Grant she planned to create a series of tympanas, narrative reliefs that suggest doorway pediments. Amato explains; “I love the unintended mark or impression and the unexpected finish resulting from a series of chance decisions. I am at my best when I am synthesizing so I have been nurturing the development of a collage approach. I combine small components into a scene or setting—sometimes taking weeks or months to find the connections.”

Casey Hochhalter SenescentCasey Hochhalter received his MFA in ceramics from Illinois State University in Normal and his BFA from Minnesota State University in Mankato. He has exhibited his abstract sculptures in numerous exhibitions around the United States including exhibits at the San Angelo Museum, San Angelo, Texas and The Clay Studio, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Hochhalter says; “To make sculpture is a process of investigation; personally it is an exploration of nature and imagination. Nature creates the most curious and sometimes unexplainable forms. My work is inspired by the temporal processes of the life and death of nature’s forms. I make sculpture that introduces an imaginary exchange of energy from one form to another, a fictional interplay that suggests the interchange between a living being and its environment.”

Tom Jaszczak Dinner PlateTom Jaszczak received his BA in visual arts and a BS in biology from Bemidji State University, Minnesota. This summer he was an artist-in-residence at the Archie Bray Foundation, Helena, Montana and has been a studio assistant at Penland School of Craft, North Carolina. His wood-fired pottery has been exhibited throughout the US in various juried and invitational exhibitions. Jaszczak states; “Line and form drive my making.  Most of my shaping is done on the wheel head after the form is thrown. I work in an aggressive way, pushing, pulling, and scraping. I show the softness of clay in attachments, surface, feet, and rims.... I respond to each form as it is taken off the wheel. Every form becomes unique but similar, trimming is done similarly; I love the process of reduction, the scraping and cutting of clay.”

Grant information and deadline for the 2013 Jerome Ceramic Artists Project Grants can be found here.

Fogelberg, Anonymous Potter, and Red Wing Artists

January 13 – February 26, 2012

Gallery A

Northern Clay Center presents an exhibition featuring the work of recipients of the 2010 Fogelberg Studio Fellowships—Adam Gruetzmacher and Matthew Krousey; Anonymous Potter Studio Fellowship—Matthew Jorgensen; and the 2011 Red Wing Collectors Society Foundation Award—JD Jorgenson.

The Fogelberg Studio Fellowship program provides two emerging ceramic artists an opportunity to be in residence for up to one year at Northern Clay Center and is intended to support young artists as they develop their clay work while immersing themselves within a community environment that encourages an exchange of ideas and knowledge with other ceramic artists.

Adam Gruetzmacher MugAdam Gruetzmacher received his BFA in ceramics from the University of Wisconsin– Stout in Menomonie. His work was featured in the book 500 Vases as well as in Ceramics Monthly’s “Undergraduate Showcase.” He says about his work, “My work in ceramics is an examination of the understanding of what makes a pot fundamentally viable as a means of communication. As a craftsman, I find myself contented with the creation of the functional object, and as a visual artist, I strive to activate my work with a vitality that is visual as well as tactile.”

Matthew Krousey Crane PlatterMatthew Krousey received his BFA in ceramics from the University of Minnesota–Twin Cities. His work has been featured in several juried and group exhibitions throughout Minnesota. He currently maintains a studio at Northern Clay Center, where he is also the exhibitions and sales gallery assistant. Krousey explains: “I use the ceramic material to create objects and pots upon which I can place imagery, evoking memory within the viewer. The subject of this imagery is the vanishing landscapes, flora, and fauna of Minnesota. This region is being vastly altered by man’s hand, which is the reason I seek to preserve it upon the durable ceramic surface.”

The Red Wing Collectors Society Foundation has endowed an annual award, made through nomination of an emerging potter or a historian researching the history of pottery. The 2011 award was made to JD Jorgenson.

JD Jorgenson Wide BowlJD Jorgenson received a BA in ceramics from the University of Iowa. In 2002, he was awarded a Jerome Foundation Emerging Artist Grant at the Saint John’s Pottery in Collegeville, Minnesota, where he worked closely with Richard Bresnahan. He currently maintains a studio, Jorgenson Pottery, in St. Joseph. His work has been exhibited throughout the Midwest in solo and group exhibitions.

“My work is formed on wooden kick wheels involving the entire body, emphasizing breathing and balance. I draw inspiration from nature and my surroundings, incorporating them into the work. I believe that the line between functional work and art objects should be blurred. I strive to approach that line as often as possible by creating pieces which, through their everyday use, are also experienced as a ceramic art object.” Jorgenson also uses local clays and glaze materials as well as recycled materials whenever possible.

The Anonymous Potter Studio Fellowship is designed to nurture the creative expression of aspiring ceramic artists by providing them with an opportunity to be in residence for one year at Northern Clay Center, where they can develop their own work and, at the same time, exchange ideas and knowledge with other ceramic artists.

Matthew JorgensenMatthew Jorgensen Dinner Plate earned his BFA from Kansas City Art Institute, Missouri in 2010 and studied art and interior design at Arapahoe Community College, Littleton, Colorado. He states; “My aesthetic decisions are informed by a deepening interest in the intersections of Arts and Crafts philosophies with principles of 20th century modern design. It is between these two movements that there can be found an interaction between what develops ornamentally and what is designed for efficiency and visual purity. My interest is in the bridge from the language of decorative tendencies in craft traditions to an economy of form that gives clarity through good design.”

Grant information and deadline for the 2013 Fogelberg Studio Fellowships can be found here.

Grant information and deadline for the 2013 Anonymous Potter Studio (APS) Fellowship can be found here.