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Current Exhibitions
Three Jerome Artists
January 13 – February 26, 2012
Gallery MThree Jerome Artists, the 2012 Jerome Artists exhibition will feature the work of Felice Amato, Casey Hochhalter, and Tom Jaszczak, each of whom was awarded a 2011 Jerome Ceramic Artist Project Grant. This award recognizes artists who have displayed strong artistic development to this point of their careers and who promise further growth during the term of the grant and in the future. A free opening reception for the artists will be held on Friday, January 13, from 6 to 8 pm.
Felice Amato received a BA in art from the University of Minnesota– Twin Cities. She has exhibited her tile work throughout Minnesota as well as created murals at the Minnesota Children’s Museum and Adams Spanish Immersion, both in St. Paul. With the Jerome Grant she planned to create a series of tympanas, narrative reliefs that suggest doorway pediments. Amato explains; “I love the unintended mark or impression and the unexpected finish resulting from a series of chance decisions. I am at my best when I am synthesizing so I have been nurturing the development of a collage approach. I combine small components into a scene or setting—sometimes taking weeks or months to find the connections.” 
Casey Hochhalter received his MFA in ceramics from Illinois State University in Normal and his BFA from Minnesota State University in Mankato. He has exhibited his abstract sculptures in numerous exhibitions around the United States including exhibits at the San Angelo Museum, San Angelo, Texas and The Clay Studio, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Hochhalter says; “To make sculpture is a process of investigation; personally it is an exploration of nature and imagination. Nature creates the most curious and sometimes unexplainable forms. My work is inspired by the temporal processes of the life and death of nature’s forms. I make sculpture that introduces an imaginary exchange of energy from one form to another, a fictional interplay that suggests the interchange between a living being and its environment.”
Tom Jaszczak received his BA in visual arts and a BS in biology from Bemidji State University, Minnesota. This summer he was an artist-in-residence at the Archie Bray Foundation, Helena, Montana and has been a studio assistant at Penland School of Craft, North Carolina. His wood-fired pottery has been exhibited throughout the US in various juried and invitational exhibitions. Jaszczak states; “Line and form drive my making. Most of my shaping is done on the wheel head after the form is thrown. I work in an aggressive way, pushing, pulling, and scraping. I show the softness of clay in attachments, surface, feet, and rims.... I respond to each form as it is taken off the wheel. Every form becomes unique but similar, trimming is done similarly; I love the process of reduction, the scraping and cutting of clay.”Grant information and deadline for the 2012 Jerome Ceramic Artists Project Grants can be found here.
Fogelberg, Anonymous Potter, and Red Wing Artists
January 13 – February 26, 2012
Gallery ANorthern Clay Center presents an exhibition featuring the work of recipients of the 2010 Fogelberg Studio Fellowships—Adam Gruetzmacher and Matthew Krousey; Anonymous Potter Studio Fellowship—Matthew Jorgensen; and the 2011 Red Wing Collectors Society Foundation Award—JD Jorgenson. An opening reception for the artists will take place on January 13, from 6 to 8 pm.
The Fogelberg Studio Fellowship program provides two emerging ceramic artists an opportunity to be in residence for up to one year at Northern Clay Center and is intended to support young artists as they develop their clay work while immersing themselves within a community environment that encourages an exchange of ideas and knowledge with other ceramic artists.
Adam Gruetzmacher received his BFA in ceramics from the University of Wisconsin– Stout in Menomonie. His work was featured in the book 500 Vases as well as in Ceramics Monthly’s “Undergraduate Showcase.” He says about his work, “My work in ceramics is an examination of the understanding of what makes a pot fundamentally viable as a means of communication. As a craftsman, I find myself contented with the creation of the functional object, and as a visual artist, I strive to activate my work with a vitality that is visual as well as tactile.”
Matthew Krousey received his BFA in ceramics from the University of Minnesota–Twin Cities. His work has been featured in several juried and group exhibitions throughout Minnesota. He currently maintains a studio at Northern Clay Center, where he is also the exhibitions and sales gallery assistant. Krousey explains: “I use the ceramic material to create objects and pots upon which I can place imagery, evoking memory within the viewer. The subject of this imagery is the vanishing landscapes, flora, and fauna of Minnesota. This region is being vastly altered by man’s hand, which is the reason I seek to preserve it upon the durable ceramic surface.”The Red Wing Collectors Society Foundation has endowed an annual award, made through nomination of an emerging potter or a historian researching the history of pottery. The 2011 award was made to JD Jorgenson.
JD Jorgenson received a BA in ceramics from the University of Iowa. In 2002, he was awarded a Jerome Foundation Emerging Artist Grant at the Saint John’s Pottery in Collegeville, Minnesota, where he worked closely with Richard Bresnahan. He currently maintains a studio, Jorgenson Pottery, in St. Joseph. His work has been exhibited throughout the Midwest in solo and group exhibitions.“My work is formed on wooden kick wheels involving the entire body, emphasizing breathing and balance. I draw inspiration from nature and my surroundings, incorporating them into the work. I believe that the line between functional work and art objects should be blurred. I strive to approach that line as often as possible by creating pieces which, through their everyday use, are also experienced as a ceramic art object.” Jorgenson also uses local clays and glaze materials as well as recycled materials whenever possible.
The Anonymous Potter Studio Fellowship is designed to nurture the creative expression of aspiring ceramic artists by providing them with an opportunity to be in residence for one year at Northern Clay Center, where they can develop their own work and, at the same time, exchange ideas and knowledge with other ceramic artists.
Matthew Jorgensen earned his BFA from Kansas City Art Institute, Missouri in 2010 and studied art and interior design at Arapahoe Community College, Littleton, Colorado. He states; “My aesthetic decisions are informed by a deepening interest in the intersections of Arts and Crafts philosophies with principles of 20th century modern design. It is between these two movements that there can be found an interaction between what develops ornamentally and what is designed for efficiency and visual purity. My interest is in the bridge from the language of decorative tendencies in craft traditions to an economy of form that gives clarity through good design.”Grant information and deadline for the 2012 Fogelberg Studio Fellowships can be found here.
Grant information and deadline for the 2012 Anonymous Potter Studio (APS) Fellowship can be found here.