Tag: ceramics

Dabin Ahn at 1969 Gallery

Inspired by traditional Korean ceramics, Chicago-based artist Dabin Ahn’s new paintings at 1969 Gallery combine art historical references with a feeling of wonder and whimsy.  Painted like an apparition, the top section of this vessel hovers in lighter tones above the more solid-looking segment below.  Perhaps once part of the decoration, the birds’ white wings continue the contour of the vase while they appear to cavort in mid-air.  Materializing as if from memory or history, the vase may be broken, but its magical quality remains.  (On view in Tribeca through April 20th).

Dabin Ahn, Phantom, 18h x 17w inches, oil on linen, 2024.

Robert Lugo at R and Company

Philadelphia-based self-styled ‘village potter,’ artist, poet and activist Robert Lugo makes his NY solo show debut at R and Company with an exhibition inspired by art history and his own life experiences.  Known for his ceramic vessels that feature renowned African Americans (many grace the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s vibrant Afro-Futurist period room), this show includes portraits of Lugo’s community members modeled after relief sculptures by Renaissance artist Andrea della Robbia and vessels that resemble Greek amphora but feature scenes from the artist’s childhood neighborhood.  Painted in the orange and black colors of prison uniforms, this striking vessel depicts mass tire theft in the neighborhood.  (On view through Oct 27th).

Robert Lugo, The Day We Had Church and Tires Were Stolen, from the Orange and Black series, glazed stoneware, 2023.

Patti Warashina in ‘Robert Pfannebecker’ at R & Company

R & Company’s celebration of post-war American craft collector Bob Pfannebecker includes nearly 70 objects by over 30 artists that are a feast for the eyes, including stunners like Patti Warashina’s ‘Deco for Kottler.’   Head of the ceramics program at University of Washington, Seattle for decades, Warashina nods to fellow professor Howard Kottler with the title of this streamlined and elegant piece from her ‘Stacked Loaf’ series.  Though abstract, this stacked form resembles architecture and rising clouds.  (On view in Tribeca through April 14th).

Patti Warashina, Deco for Kottler, from the Basket, Loaf and Arch Series, glazed ceramic, 6 (l) x 20 (w) x 27 inches (h), 1970.

Ramekon O’Arwisters in ‘Pollen on a West Wind’ at Jason Jacques Gallery

The organizing principle for Jason Jacques Gallery’s group show of innovative ceramic sculpture is not a theme but a place – all participating artists connect in some way to the Center for Contemporary Ceramics at California State University at Long Beach.  Ramekon O’Arwisters’ relationship to CSULB is less conventional and his work alluring for his creative appropriation of failed ceramic forms abandoned there into fabulously colorful and dynamic sculptures.  Inspired by an encounter with broken ceramics during a residency at the San Francisco dump, O’Arwisters added the material to his textile practice, creating exuberant yet compact compositions that energize the show.  (On view in Chelsea through March 25th).

Ramekon O’Arwisters, Cheesecake #9, fabric, ceramics from CSULB ceramic program, beads, pins, 20h x 11w x 11d, 2019.

Simone Leigh in ‘Hear Me Now: The Black Potters of Old Edgefield, South Carolina’

Simone Leigh’s monumental ‘Large Jug’ in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s exhibition ‘Hear Me Now: The Black Potters of Old Edgefield, South Carolina’ draws on the historic and influential pottery produced by enslaved Africans in Old Edgefield prior to the Civil War.  The Met’s current show includes vessels used for food preparation and storage as well as a selection of face jugs, pottery vessels bearing human likenesses and having ritual significance.  In Leigh’s version, facial features have been replaced by large cowrie shells that hint at eyes or mouths but also point to the past use of the shells as currency.  (On view through Feb 5th, 2023).

Simone Leigh, Large Jug, glazed stoneware, 62 1/2 × 40 3/4 × 45 ¾,’21 – 22.