Photos and reporting by Robert Kokenyesi, Ceramic Artist, Beachfront Pottery, Godfrey, IL, 62035, USA. If you enjoyed this post, then give me a “like” on my Facebook page. There is additional information about Beachfront Pottery on my web site.
The Venue
The Attention to Detail exhibit took place in the gallery of ArtStLouis, St Louis, Missouri from January 12 through February, 13 2019.
The Call for Entry
This juried exhibition calls for artworks that are predominately defined by the details of their composition: Artworks that are either marked by a density of detail or intricacy, or by details presented in isolation or contrast to surrounding elements—all works where significance, meaning or impact is achieved principally in or through detail. All explorations & interpretations of this theme are invited. All media, styles and techniques encouraged. Eligibility: Open to all St. Louis regional artists 21+ residing in 200-mile radius of St. Louis, MO. Jurors: St. Louis-based artists M. Shawn Cornell and Marie Oberkirsch. M. Shawn Cornell, is an award-winning plein air painter whose works have been exhibited nationally in gallery exhibitions as well as plein air festivals and art fairs. In addition to painting, he is ceramic artist and printmaker.
The Ceramic Art Pieces
His narrative reads: “This artwork, “The Gardens of Shaw” is inspired by the Japanese & Koi fish pond located in the Missouri Botanical Garden, which Henry Shaw founded. The colors on the inside Koi reflect the flowers of spring, summer & the sky. The glaze on the outside echoes the buds of the spring. Made of stoneware clay and coated with the artist-mix of porcelain.” Jerry’s Facebook page doesn’t have recent posts, but check it out anyway. I didn’t find a website for him.
His narrative reads: ” I grew up in both the tropics of Trinidad and the lush woods of New York state. Then many years in New York City, where streets were lined with Ginkgo trees. Illinois has been home for 26 years. All these gave me a rich visual repertoire of nature’s sensual and evocative forms, and an ineffable longing to capture their spirit.” Check out his Facebook page and his Instagram site for more info and new works.
On his web site Ian writes: “Attachment, Permanence, Connections, & Legacy. These four themes have continually floated to the top of my thoughts and practice over the last several years. These new ideas continue to overpower those in my previous work, such as transportation, organization, and trajectory. What is real? How are these different? Where does this lead? These are all questions I thrust upon my viewers as they explore my work and its various ciphers and tokens to embark on a journey exploring the bonds of attachment, the boundaries of permanence, the strength and complexity of connections, and of course, the charting of a legacy seen in and between my work’s objects and symbols.…
In this and all my work, I take liberty in blurring the lines between real and imagined, moving and stationary, new and old. As always, I find pleasure in skewing the way objects relate to one another and in upsetting the balance between what remains and what is cursory.”
Her narrative for this piece reads: ” I’m not a production potter. I’m not particularly interested in making functional ware. What interests me is the challenge of creating sculptural clay works utilizing handbuilding techniques. Creating large pieces from hand-rolled coils is where my best work comes forth. Building a structure one coil at a time, adding twists and turns, paying attention to detail is artful meditation.” Check out her other works at her web site.
Ryan’s narrative reads: ” The heart of my work has always been centered on the human condition and, more specifically, my own condition. As viewers, we can identify with what it means to be human and the every day chaos that comes with our daily lives. The creation process is a source of therapy. Through this process of making and self-discovery I try to connect with the frustration, amusement, disgust, happiness, and pain that I feel internally and that is present in our society/popular culture. I use the human form while also substituting such objects as dolls, tools, furniture, and toys to make a medley with which the viewer can engage. Such issues as innocence, mortality, , and the potency of humanity are constant filaments within my design process. My work can be very dark and surreal. I am greatly influenced by the California Funk Art movement which was anti-establishment and reacted to non-objective art in the 1960s. Funk artists took everyday objects and placed them in irrational arrangements as a protest to the slick forms oft he abstract movement. The absurdity has also carried over into my work which tends to have a whimsical playfulness to its composition.”