Tag: stoneware

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  In Leigh’s version, facial features have been replaced by large cowrie shells that hint at eyes or mouths but also point to the past use of the shells as currency.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.

Lindsey Lou Howard at Launch F18

Amusingly excessive, Lindsay Lou Howard’s new ceramics at Launch F18 speak to overconsumption with a sense of humor and a lot of imagination. Here, ‘Plant Based’ offers nutrition to the worms still wriggling in the dirt (?) or fake meat (?) of this giant, 2-foot-tall sandwich.  Other pieces in the show, including a lamp made of thick spaghetti in red sauce (interspersed with chocolate, veggies and a can of Sprite) and a sandwich holding a giant ‘Faberge’ egg between pieces of white bread, ask if we really ‘want it all.’ (On view in Tribeca through Oct 15th).

Lindsey Lou Howard, Plant Based, stoneware, glaze, 30 x 15 x 15 inches, 2022.

Toshiko Takaezu at James Cohan Gallery

Hawaii-born master ceramicist Toshiko Takaezu’s sculptural forms from the 90s, on view at James Cohan Gallery, synthesize Abstract Expressionism and Japanese art tradition with understated beauty.  Working in a palette of colors inspired by nature in her home state, Takaezu ventured beyond earthly inspiration to create ‘moon pots’ like this one from two half-spheres.  (On view in Tribeca through May 7th).

Toshiko Takaezu, Untitled, glazed stoneware, 16 x 21 x 21 inches, ca 1990s.

Veronica Ryan at Paula Cooper Gallery

In her solo show at Paula Cooper Gallery, Monserrat-born, England-based artist Veronica Ryan engages themes of global movement and trade with humble materials including fruits, seeds and other organic matter.  Ryan has pointed out that familiar foods bring people together to share meals and memories; she has also incorporated materials like ash from the Soufrière Hills volcano, which has covered the town in which she was born.  Pleasure and trauma also meet in this pile of stoneware cocoa beans, a product that brings happiness to many, sometimes at the expense of enslaved workers. (On view in Chelsea through May 28th).

Veronica Ryan, Cocoa Passion in Tandem, ceramic stoneware, pigment, volcanic ash, jute rug, overall: height variable x 70 7/8 x 70 7/8 inches, 2021.

Brie Ruais at Albertz Benda Gallery

Brie Ruais’s signature approach to art involves manipulating a 130 lb pile (equivalent to the artist’s weight) of clay into flat rings of ceramic sculpture textured with finger and footprints.  Here, she varies her usual circular form with this knot-shaped piece in her current show at Albertz Benda Gallery.  The artist has called her work ‘Earth Art that takes place in the studio;’ in this sculpture, the relationship between the body and landscape speaks to interconnectedness.  (On view in Chelsea through Jan 22nd.)

Brie Ruais, Intertwining, 130lbs times two (Thief Knot), glazed and pigmented stoneware, hardware, 62 x 124 x 6 inches, 2021.