sign in sign up
<<
Home , Ceramic art, Porcelain

ceramic excellence

FELLOWSHIPS AT THE ARCHIE BRAY FOUNDATION 2013–2014 Annually, the Archie Bray Foundation invites a critic to spend time at the Bray—to meet with the , experience the Bray’s unique environment and develop essays for the fellowship exhibition catalogue. This year the residency was awarded to Nancy M. Servis. Servis is an author, curator and historian who resides in Northern California. She is presently completing her book detailing the history of Northern California ceramics.

THE ARCHIE BRAY FOUNDATION FOR THE INTRODUCTION “Where is there more opportunity to be determined by others who has always been an ongoing experiment, a place and experience than in Montana for creation of... sought to sustain the founder’s idea. broad margins, physical and Much—though not all—of what with no artistic boundaries. The extensive facilities, the freedom intellectual? Where is there more Archie Bray Sr. designed for his to explore and the creative exchange that occurs within the opportunity to enjoy the elemental center has come to pass. Yet his community of resident artists provide a profound opportunity values of living, bright sun and broad Montana vision and optimism clean air and ? We have have remained, as indicated by the for artistic growth, both for individual artists and for the field room. We can be neighbors foundation’s long-term success of ceramics. without getting in each other’s and stylistic variety, which is evident hair. We can be individuals.”1 in its many short- and long-term To further encourage the Bray “experiment,” Robert and residents. Chris Dufala, Adam Field, Suzanne Taunt established the Taunt Fellowship in 1998. he seeds of creative thought Tom Jaszczak, Zemer Peled, Inspired by the Taunts’ vision and generosity, others established can come from unexpected and Joanna Powell are presently additional awards, including the Myhre Fellowship in 1999 and T places. While originality often long-term fellowship artists whose evolves out of rigorous and repeated tenure started in 2013. Their 2000, the Lilian Fellowship since 2001, the Lincoln Fellowship effort, the spark of an idea fuels the extended time at the Bray supports in 2004, the Matsutani Fellowship in 2006, the MJD Fellowship creative path. A testament to artistic the development of evolved in 2007, the Anonymous and Speyer Fellowships in 2011, variety is the ceramic artworks bodies of work that, as a group, and artifacts found throughout range from to conceptual and most recently, the Windgate Fellowships in 2012. Each the grounds of the Archie Bray installation. These fellows draw fellowship provides $5,000 and a one-year residency to a Foundation for the Ceramic Arts from an international scope of ceramic who demonstrates exceptional merit and promise, (the Bray). They are tangible records inquiry, investigating ancient of success and failure, artistic pottery practices, probing social allowing them to focus more completely on producing and remnants intermingled with mounds commentary, musing upon ceramic exhibiting a significant body of work during their fellowship year. of brick, eventually to be subsumed painterliness, and interpreting by nature. While each piece alone sculptural landscape. Their stylistic signals a unique time of a specific pluralism illustrates ’s success Individuals wishing to establish a fellowship at the Archie Bray maker, their totality renders rich as a versatile medium that can be Foundation are encouraged to contact resident artist director meaning to those who make and anchored in the realm of while Steven Young Lee. appreciate pottery and . also unleashed to serve sculptural In 1951 Archie Bray Sr. realized notions—echoing the scope of his dream of opening a pottery in possibilities posited by Archie Bray association with the Western Brick Sr. more than 60 years ago. Company, with two 1 now-legendary Montanans, Rudy Joseph Kinsey Howard, Autio and , as its first Montana: High, Wide, and Handsome This publication is generously (Lincoln, Nebraska: University of funded by the Joliet Foundation. residents. His untimely death in Nebraska Press, 2003) p. xviii. 1953 left the course of the Bray Chris Dufala MJD FELLOW

“The cohesiveness is Anchored by trompe l’oeil imagery, the works ceramicness.” 1 probing commentary is deepened using the monoprint process where detailed drawn images, rendered on hris Dufala’s is a plaster slab, are transferred to a deceiving, and purposely so. ceramic ground. This technically CFor many years he has been challenging process furthers the exploring a direction that satisfies idea of manipulation into his work. his interests, while also He intentionally distances the Using this dual language, he builds messaging his societal concerns authenticity of the image from its narrative with “conglomerate through ceramic sculpture. He original drawn reality—equating sculpture,” depicting industrial develops social, economic, and the idea to calculated layers of detritus signaled through added environmental commentary using deception in American culture. gesture. These compositions include trompe l’oeil imagery intensified by Clay’s capacity to simulate realistic both freestanding and wall-mounted the multi-step monoprint process. form completes the double works and reinforce Dufala’s Both are foundational to his artistic entendre in his work. preoccupation with the conflicting goal of rendering poignant meaning Dufala’s -driven sculpture relationship between the culture of through visual and conceptual is dominated by nostalgic symbols. convenience and the natural world. illusion. Circa 1960s appliances or toys While at the Archie Bray Sculptural interpretations of summon sentimentality that is Foundation for Ceramic Arts, Dufala domestic from a bygone era metaphorically addressed. His expert has unveiled a new, though related assert Dufala’s unsettling ideas. makership continues the ceramic body of ceramic work that furthers Also, wall-mounted frieze-like practice of “fetish finish,” rendering his point of view. Cast soda-fired imagery references his fondness societal “objects of convenience” and tea bowls are imprinted for the rich lineage of poster art. with hyper-realism. Overturned with newspaper articles from linoleum Gesturing hands, private symbols, or wheelbarrows, radio-flyer wagons, presses, circa 1949 in Buffalo, New partial words foster illusion through outdated ovens, or old washing York. These societal snippets are ceramic , serving, he machines illustrate this idea. For the artistically reissued as commentary explains, “... as the cornerstone of artist, these mid-twentieth-century in vessel form, revealing outdated my building process and a catalyst suburban appliances are the last and sometimes alarming points of for my conceptualizations.” generation of machinery with view. While these are functional integrity as they were built to last works that are easily handheld, they and not be tossed. Need for continue Dufala’s innuendo within convenience, he believes, has a more intimate medium. led humanity down a wasteful, If pressed, Dufala’s body of work destructive, and perhaps irreversible could be considered confrontational, path. Through familiar iconography, though he purposely recoils from this Dufala creates a lingering discomfort idea. Provocation is not his primary that is both nostalgic and woeful. concern. His body of ceramic work Dufala’s messaging broadens stands as a societal harbinger. through gesturing hand symbols that 1 equate to the figure, and are Adam Welch, “The Margin: A Theory of also the most prevalent feature Resistance in Contemporary Ceramics,” integrating this sculptor’s work Ceramics: Art and Perception, 79 (2009): pp. 42-47. with his lifelong pursuit of drawing.

Who’s to Blame?, 2012, , , terra sig, glaze, stain, Forward Progress, 2014, earthenware, 28" x 25" x 4.5" underglaze, 21" x 14" x 3" Adam Field SPEYER FELLOW

“It is in the realm of... submerged his more stylized wheel-thrown and memory-traces that creative art carved vessels. moves, bringing them into the During his early development as orbit of everyday life and making an emerging potter in Northern them available to the experience California fifteen years ago, Field of others by formalizing and practiced fire methods projecting them onto elements and folk craft aesthetics. of the familiar world...”1 Porcelain dominated Field’s ceramic output while living in Hawai’i; a deliberate and fruitful oasis where vessel’s form. Field summarizes he idea of trace resides in the he solidified his abstract surface these complexities, saying, “I find work of many ceramists, often and restrained organic form, to be a gratifying T appearing in the fingerprint, heightened by his use of celadon and challenging balance between scrape, or physical manipulation of glazes. While living in Icheon, South structure, techniques, instinctive the clay. It documents the story of , for a year, Field studied decision making, and spontaneity.” a piece, often described by potters traditional pottery under a The essence of Field’s work and ceramic sculptors alike. In sixth-generation master, Kim lll resides in his critical assessment of Adam Field’s pottery, cultural trace Mahn. The rigors of preparing the ceramic features and interlacing supersedes materiality, permeating harvested clay, while abstract pattern with related form. his elegant forms, which are fully following precise protocols of Adept at historic pottery practices, appreciated through active use. He form, equipped him with technical he embraces modernization to make developed his reserved suggestive prowess that invigorated his his series of , cups, bottles, aesthetic through keen observation, aesthetic concerns. and jars. Though pottery-minded, he shared experience with other His present-day large and also ponders ideas by sculptors who potters, and responding to his seemingly rustic Onggi jars are have both validated and challenged environment, which extends as far finished with finger wipes through his contemporary makership. In turn, as Hawai’i and . As one the glaze; while his Field resourcefully creates exceptional who interprets cultural hallmarks flourish with subtle appliqué aligning experiential pottery. into personal nuance, Field has with extensive incising that leads Field’s two practices now developed a refined body of vessel- to ebullient glaze drips. Surface coalesce, resulting in amplified ware that is reflective of his unique rhythms are also echoed in the form with extensive surface design, ceramic pursuit in today’s societal edging this self-described potter’s pluralism. work toward contemporary Two distinct bodies of work, installation. His core motivation derived from many years of remains: to make ceramic vessels disciplined studio practice, illustrate that speak to an authentic his mature focus. Both address complexity of lineage while his sense of order, accomplished integrating refined and throwing, and precise finishing preserving long-lasting function. technique. Field’s work alternates 1 between large paddle coil-built Philip Rawson, Ceramics (University Korean Onggi fermenting jars and of Pennsylvania Press, 1984) p. 16.

Covered Jar, 2013, porcelain with , 2014, porcelain with incised pattern, 14" x 9.5" x 9.5" incised pattern, 10" x 6" x 6" Tom Jaszczak LINCOLN FELLOW

“As the identity of domestic space are slab built. He is a resourceful has changed so has the meaning of potter who determines vessel ceramics: the idea that meaning production by the size of an empty could lie in how they were handled ware-board. Quantitative gauging is or placed rather than in their central to his pottery output, yet he decoration became significant. deeply savors the near-sculpting For some, the idea that you could practice of altering forms prior to their black serve as his hallmark. Their pick up the object and take leather hard stage. His wheel-thrown surface placement reverberates ‘sensuous possession’ of it symmetrical works become angularly the vessel’s structure. This detail 1 became the endpoint...” shaped, with modified profile—a satisfies the artist-maker in his practice Jaszczak likens to sketching pursuit for personal ceramic on the wheel. Capturing the softness statement through functional ware. om Jaszczak is a functional of the clay, emphasized by surface Jaszczak acknowledges the potter. His development as a imperfections he develops, is the methods of traditional American Tceramist began around the key to this potter’s aesthetic. His and Japanese-inspired ceramics, wood fire and soda of many character-infusing process creates and he believes his modernizations artisans in Minnesota, Wisconsin, seasoned pieces with a worn individualize his functional work. and Montana. During that nomadic surface enhanced by imperfect form. His wide-footed vessels subtly rise time, he favored the rich flame- Surface texture and structural in presence. They are further driven and atmospheric aesthetics alteration are just a part of what emphasized by the subdued primary that served as a basis for his work. Jaszczak describes as the pot’s colors in geometric shapes overlaid While these early experiences were narrative. Although production is an on the -coated surface. The directive, this spirited potter now important guide, the individual pot’s vessel’s profile is emphasized by the focuses solely on soda firing his history is his driving force. Trace- interplay of color, texture, and form. pottery, which is rubbed, scuffed, marks left in the soft clay, like an With this as his goal, Jaszczak says, and altered before it enters the . imperfect seam, or “I want my pots to be grounded Today, Jaszczak develops his the flash marks from firing, add to in form and have an identity as a own non-communal work, which Jaszczak’s suggestive and rich material.” These measures fulfill has both aesthetic and production aesthetic. Hours spent carving each his desire for authenticity as an goals guiding his variety of piece with implements like a wood artful potter. : cups, plates, , rasp heighten character and reveal Jaszczak’s ceramic practice is bowls, serving trays, casseroles, compositional contents of the clay. shifting while at the Archie Bray , bottles, jars and pitchers. No two works look or feel alike, Foundation. Unpressured to Most are uniquely thrown on his though they were made as part of a produce tableware, he currently low-momentum motorized potter’s series. Select color blocking of small makes oversize vases. As the scale wheel, while some, like casseroles geometric shapes outlined in subtle of his pottery grows, so does his vision for functional work and his role as a modernist potter.

1 , 20th Century Ceramics (New York and London: Thames and Hudson, 2003) p. 9.

Place setting, 2014, soda fired red earthenware, slips, , dinner : 1" x 10" x 10"

Pitcher, 2014, soda fired red earthenware, slips, underglazes, 9" x 6" x 6" Zemer Peled TAUNT FELLOW

“... landscape is... a revelation sharp two-inch pieces used to of forms owing to the material cover her work. This step of inflicting and non-material intervention chaos, so to speak, and rebuilding of humankind. It is a product of form is an intense and necessary nature, work, perception, and creative process for the sculptor. representation. In the art of the Destruction and decay transform landscape we find a fusion of spirit into enlivened elements that with stick-shaped pieces that were and matter, a correspondence empower her work. Such features cut from a thin slab before firing. between and nature.”1 create a revitalizing nature that she Her shift from exclusively breaking rebuilds indoors. “How do we put shards to carving segments is a nature inside?” She posits, “and notable evolution in the psychology emer Peled brings an why do we need nature?” These of her work. international perspective to questions find partial resolution Peled’s reordering of nature Z her sculptural ceramic work. from her sculptural response to her in relation to interior space is a Born and raised on a kibbutz in the immediate locale, as placement is temporal pause, as her creative Yizre’el Valley in Israel, nature’s instrumental to her provocative, drive broadens as she seeks to harsh beauty left its imprint, laying site-specific work. Through evoke emotion from each new the groundwork for her present-day nomadism often experienced by intended site of display. The Archie prickly organic forms. Her shard- potters, Peled’s gain Bray Foundation occasions one coated sculptures are often life-sized force with each new intervention. of her largest installations. The or larger, creating an arena where is created by her site’s resonating ceramic history tactility, movement, emotion, and multiplicity of shards combined with with strewn vessels, sculptures, even perceived sound coexist. the artist’s selective use of color. ceramic shards, and remnant brick Leaving Israel to study in London Large sculptures employ black and on a mountainous plateau aligns and now living in Montana, Peled’s compressed clay or cut with her strength of reinvention. landscape sculptures evolve through and white glazed strips. One recent Peled’s pieces engage nature in a her direct inquiry and response to blue and white installation was compelling dialogue that propels this her immediate natural surroundings. spawned by the floral imagery of an artist further on her sculptural quest. While reinventing form with Igezara plate from . Exhibited 1Raffaele Milani, The Art of Landscape, shards is not new to the realm of in , the sculpture used her translated by Corrado Federici, (Quebec, ceramics, Peled’s process is crucial broken-shard aesthetic combined Canada: McGill-Queens University Press, to her sculptural ideas. 2009) p. xii. They are consistent with 2 the meaningful Lurianic For an insightful discussion of these ideas, Kabbalah concepts of see Flowers of the Ashes: shevirah (breaking) and Feeling of Guilt and Seeds tikkun (mending), which of Hope by Avraham can also be considered Shapira in association with as renewal.2 She makes Tel Aviv , 2011. and then breaks fired undulating ceramic sheets, creating the

Large Peony and Peeping Blue & White Porcelain Tom, 2014, ceramic Shard Flower, 2014, shards, clay, metal, wood porcelain shards, fired clay, 72" x 47" x 30" 8" x 8" x 3" Joanna Powell MATSUTANI FELLOW

“If a piece gets too located, too meaning; intermingling the two- specific, it’s too much like facts. dimensional canvas and the three- I would rather something dreamed dimensional domestic object, or remembered... a sensation of she effectively sidesteps artistic something coming into focus. categorization. Feelings have more layers and “My pieces are more about touch fewer facts.” 1 than they are about form,” she states. The touch to which she alludes is not the physical trace often oanna Powell’s range of work associated with ceramics or pottery. on her canvases, heightening the includes , ceramic It is, rather, an emotive record of suggestive delicacy of her work. J vessels and installation. her remembered experience, a While working from a spectrum Thoughts fostered by memory, reclaimed association from the past of associative ideas, Powell mostly attachment to domestic objects and and possibly a reordered projection looks to for developing her sensorial affiliations fuel her creative of the future. The capacity for clay to aesthetic. The formal components of assertions. While experienced in immediately capture her emotional her installations include large 3' x 4' throwing pottery and developing moment takes precedent over any paintings, domestic clay objects on glaze, Powell’s ideas flow between goal of planned building. high wood pedestals and tactile media to heighten her artistic inquiry. This sensorial nature of her work symbols that empower her artistic She renders the casual and directly influences her decision- pursuit. This interweaving unleashes unpretentious, eschewing the pursuit making process. A synesthetic her private narrative and may of the perfect in their completion. consideration of hue guides her invoke familial notions or societal Perfectionism, she believes, equates paint and glaze choices, specifically relativity. Considered as a physical to finalization that destroys the how color might taste as opposed manifestation of her emotive ideas, work’s ability to live. Through to how it works in a design. Pieces her mysterious tableaux are installation, the artist contextualizes are often glazed with one painterly experiential dwellings rather than common objects with personal hue void of any marking except the didactic forums. Her ethereal artist’s physical touch, illustrating language, as expressed by the her claim that “In pure color there staged vessel-ware, paintings and is pure sensation.” This premise the prefabricated objects that serve is shifting slightly as she explores as talismans, envelopes the viewer majolica, especially gold luster in a fluid context of sensorial glazing. is her preferred meaning. Powell’s environments ceramic material for its immediate are comprised of emotive objects responsiveness works best with that address her primal idea that her. “I can see really well with it,” she is summoning up cultural relics she explains. from her own self-described tribe. Her ceramic vessels and implements are integral to her large 1 Judy Pfaff as quoted in Judith Olch tableaux of ideas. Their forms, Richards, Inside the Studio: Two though not pursuant of the artist’s Decades of Talks with Artists in New York intent, relationally echo actions (New York: Independent Curators International (ICI), 2004) p. 168.

Sugarbaby Take Him These Ants are Plaid Fruit, 2014, earthenware, Gonna Sting Me Sure As the World, majolica, gold luster 2014, terracotta, slip, glaze, gold luster, 9.25" x 6.5" x 6.5" pine, acrylic on , 66" x 72" x 36" PAST FELLOWSHIP RECIPIENTS

1999 2009 Board of Directors Marc Digeros, Taunt Fellow Martha Grover, Taunt Fellow Jon Satre, Sharon Brush, Myhre Fellow Sean Irwin, Lilian Fellow President Gwendolyn Yoppolo, Lincoln Fellow 2000 Kelly Garrett Rathbone, Wally Bivins, Eric Eley, Taunt Fellow Matsutani Fellow Vice President John Byrd, Myhre Fellow Kensuke Yamada, MJD Fellow Susan Ricklefs, Secretary 2001 2010 Margaret Woo, Jiman Choi, Taunt Fellow Jana Evans, Taunt Fellow John Utgaard, Lilian Fellow Mathew McConnell, Lilian Fellow Treasurer Courtney Murphy, Lincoln Fellow John Balistreri 2002 Nicholas Bivins, Matsutani Fellow Mike Casey Jason Walker, Taunt Fellow Aaron Benson, MJD Fellow Josh DeWeese Sandra Trujillo, Lilian Fellow Julia Galloway 2011 2003 Lindsay Pichaske, Taunt Fellow Emily Galusha Jeremy Kane, Taunt Fellow Jonathan Read, Lilian Fellow Andrea Gill Karen Swyler, Lilian Fellow Kenyon Hansen, Lincoln Fellow Tony Marsh Sean O’Connell, Matsutani Fellow Aidan Myhre 2004 Andrew Casto, MJD Fellow Mark Pharis Trey Hill, Taunt Fellow Alanna DeRocchi, Speyer Fellow Miranda Howe, Lilian Fellow Jeff Campana, Anonymous Fellow Paul Sacaridiz Kowkie Durst, Lincoln Fellow Ann Shaner 2012 Tim Speyer 2005 Mel Griffin, Taunt Fellow Patti Warashina Koi Neng Liew, Taunt Fellow Giselle Hicks, Lilian Fellow Deborah Schwartzkopf, Sunshine Cobb, Lincoln Fellow Lilian Fellow Peter Christian Johnson, Resident Artist Director Melissa Mencini, Lincoln Fellow Matsutani Fellow Steven Young Lee Chris Pickett, MJD Fellow 2006 Andrew Gilliatt, Speyer Fellow Jennifer Allen, Taunt Fellow Jeff Campana, Windgate Fellow Christina West, Lilian Fellow Alanna DeRocchi, Windgate Fellow Joseph Pintz, Lincoln Fellow Sean O’Connell, Windgate Fellow Jonathan Read, Windgate Fellow 2007 Jeremy Hatch, Taunt Fellow 2013 Brian Rochefort, Lilian Fellow Zemer Peled, Taunt Fellow Renee Audette, Lincoln Fellow Sunshine Cobb, Lilian Fellow* Anne Drew Potter, Tom Jaszczak, Lincoln Fellow Matsutani Fellow Joanna Powell, Matsutani Fellow Chris Dufala, MJD Fellow 2008 Adam Field, Speyer Fellow Kevin Snipes, Taunt Fellow Andrew Gilliatt, Windgate Fellow* Donna Flanery, Lilian Fellow Mel Griffin, Windgate Fellow* Birdie Boone, Lincoln Fellow Giselle Hicks, Windgate Fellow* David Peters, Matsutani Fellow Chris Pickett, Windgate Fellow* Nathan Craven, MJD Fellow *Stories featured in previous year’s monograph. 2915 Country Club Ave. Helena, MT 59602 406-443-3502 [email protected] www.archiebray.org