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 “Ceramic Centric” exhibit took place from April 12 through May 24, 2019, in the galleries of the Foundry Art Centre, St Charles, Missouri.

 

 

 

 

The picture on the left is the title wall for the exhibit; the picture on the right is the gallery pictured from the title wall.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Call for Entry

It must be a human instinct to create with mud. Ancient civilizations around the globe seemed to reach the same conclusion about this resource at various times in history. If you take earth, wet it, shape it, and fire it, something useful, beautiful, and elemental is formed. From this invention, mud bricks, drinking vessels, and sculptures were created. With Ceramic Centric, we seek to celebrate how current artists translate this ancient medium. The artwork in this exhibition will be comprised primarily of clay. As creating with this medium is not limited to the three dimensional, wall hanging ceramic works are encouraged.

The Ceramic Art Pieces

This post, Part 4 of four, reports on abstract sculptures in the exhibit.  Part 1 was about vessels;  Part 2 was about wall pieces, and Part 3 was about figurative sculptures.

This is my piece, one of the continuous trials to bring those fabled Deep Sea Scrolls to you all.  My statement read: “I’m strongly attracted to beaches and oceans, and I always believed that each critter, shipwreck, wave form, atoll, sandy or rocky beach has a story to tell.  As an artist I’m a story teller of the oceans and beaches.  My major story lines involve the immense and unstoppable power of the oceans, the elegant beauty and vulnerability of the creatures that live on the beaches and in the oceans, the hidden mysteries of the oceans, and the spiritual and mythological aspects of the oceans.” To see more of my works please look up Beachfront Pottery, or go to the web site, or my Facebook page.

 

Sarah’s statement reads: “Continuous experimentation fuels my practice.  I create ceramics that explore the materiality of clay at its most extreme.  I employ new and traditional processes to push the material past what is traditionally considered to be its physical limits.  I aim to create a visually tactile experience of the alien, presenting  compact sculptural compositions as warped artifacts for the viewer’s investigation.  I couldn’t find a dedicated web site of hers.

 

 

 

Paula’s statement reads: ” Paula Leiter Pergament is a mixed media artist who collects natural and found objects. She celebrates their beauty and abundance by incorporating them into her work. Her mixed media compositions and sculptures reflect this in her use of color, texture, shape, and line qualities. Upon entering her studio, she disengages from her ego and intention and opens up to her intuition. When this occurs her hands and heart are free to discover the soulfulness of her work.  Since 1979, she has exhibited nationally and internationally in one-woman shows and group exhibitions, and has received numerous juried awards and commissions, and is also in many publications.  Of her work she says: drawing, printmaking, and clay are a way of life for me.   I am able to submerge myself into the making of art.   Then a dance begins.  Sometimes I am  leading, and sometimes I am following.  I re-emerge in the personal images and reflections that appear.  This is an exciting and mysterious dance that brings me closer to the spirit of creation.”  I couldn’t find a dedicated web site for her.

 

Sarah’s statement reads: ” As a ceramic artist fascinated with materiality, my recent work has focused on geological history of stone, and how their creation influences my understanding of emotion and memory.   In these smaller works I draw from the collection of stones from the farm I visited frequently as a child,  allowing myself to recreate the fascinations I have with the naturally formed world by using kiln temperatures to speed up geological processes.  By using both traditional ceramic materials and stone in combination, I’m working to understand the visceral and intertwined relationship I see between the tempering ourselves through the emotional selves through life experience,  and the formation of the geological world around us.”  I couldn’t find a dedicated web site for her works.

 

Maria’s statement reads: ”

My current body of work explores memory. The objects I create are abstract interpretations from my childhood while living in Caracas, Venezuela and my daily life experiences. While some memories are transient and others get distorted through time, the impressions left behind are very pronounced. They are like the fabrics of the city surrounded by mountains, the intertwining of textures and smells.  

Through my work, I seek to reconcile impressions from my memory, recreating forms, textures and ideas that have touched me. In a way, this is like freezing time. Living, interpreting and making are endlessly intertwined in a tangled cycle of art and daily life.

Ordinary, absurd and oddly familiar objects explore the relationship between line, color, textures and form. My hope is to create a feeling of wonder and curiosity in the viewer. And, perhaps they can construct, based on their own experiences, a narrative drawn from their own memories.”   For more of her works visit her web site.

 

Chelsea’s statement reads: “A sculptor’s work can capture past experiences and project them into the present.  As much as objects of art hold memories of time and space, such works reveal unspoken habits and untold patterns.  They might, as these works, reflect the push and pull of youthful experiences that ranged from the mundane to the desperate.  Embedded in the works are matters we often kept hidden, secret and safe.  Like the artist, many woman have patterns from a past life that haunts their present.  The object chosen in this work juxtaposes the starkness of the subject matter against the humor of the object placed in contrast with one another or the pedestal.  For more of her works visit her web site.

Sukjin’s statement reads: “We cannot stop our journey here in life. When we wake we cannot deny having another morning and then another night.  And we cannot deny our memories.  The wheel, also, then is who we are, our identity cycles like the oceans caught in the tidal dance between the moon of memory and the earth of our living day.”  This is the best web site to look at her other works.

 

 

 

This was the Juror’s Piece, and there was no statement.  For more of her works visit her web site.