JANUARY 11 – FEBRUARY 24, 2019
Emily Galusha Gallery
Fogelberg, Red Wing, and Anonymous Artists features the work of Katie Bosley and Olivia Tani, 2017 recipients of the Fogelberg Studio Fellowship; Evan Hauser and Austyn Taylor, 2017 Anonymous Artist Studio Fellows; and Katharine Eksuzian, the 2018 Red Wing Collectors Society Foundation Award recipient.
Katie Bosley has always appreciated ornamentation and its ability to elevate the ordinary into something magnificent. She is driven to create work that is beautiful in its precision and attention to detail. Her seamlessly combined, double-walled pieces, with pierced exteriors, use physical depth to promote curiosity and a desire for interaction. By carving a deep line and a pillow-like finish, she blurs the line between surface and form. Each object reflects a love of the tight, geometric designs of Islamic tile work, the grand rib-vaulted ceilings of Gothic cathedrals, and the graceful curves of Art Nouveau.
Olivia Tani says formal exploration drives her practice. She generates objects that are formally diverse and inventive, while speaking with a coherent style and vocabulary of planes, angles, volume, and compositional balance. She shares the following insight, “Though I make functional pottery, I indulge in moments of excess that guide my formal stylization. The resultant ornamental and compositional features lend a sculptural quality to the work.” Questions circulate until a vocabulary of shapes emerge: where should planes intersect, how is composition of line affected, where to create the illusion of inflated mass, and what does that inflation do to proportion and composition?
Evan Hauser records the complicated impact land has on the human experience, taking the conversation beyond beauty and resources to investigate constructs of cultural and societal ideals in varying regions, as a result of interactions between the individual and nature. His process begins with reflection upon national decisions made about what is private and what is public land. Acknowledging his perspective is a prototypical view of a Euro-American interpreting a western experience, he says, “When looking at a national park, we are confronted by land that is supposedly wild and natural. In reality, the lands within the park are a construct as the wildlife is managed, fires suppressed, and paths are designated for wandering tourists.”
Austyn Taylor’s primary interest within her creative work and study is coming to terms with the curious gap between an amoral, objective, scientific perspective on physical reality and the moral, spiritually divine nature of conscious beings. This has led her to study evolutionary psychology, behavioral biology, and global mythologies. She has developed a personal mythology with a cast of characters embodying archetypal personas. She has two distinct styles of work — one is haunting and gestural, the other more illustrative and puzzle-like.
Katharine Eksuzian’s work is a contemporary take, with regional reflections, on traditional Japanese concepts like umami, “an over-all harmonious state of perfection,” and “shinrin-yoku,” a Japanese term that means “taking in the forest atmosphere” or “forest bathing.” She stretches the tensile strength of clay’s surface to create an organic, but uniform cracking of the vessel’s skin. Katharine’s goal “is to create innately organic impressions and intuitive pieces that portray balance and harmony.”
Related Events
Opening reception: Friday, January 11, 6 – 8 pm
Artist Talks, NCC Library: Friday, January 11, 4 pm