Upcoming Exhibitions 

Functional Redesign

March 9 – April 29

Gallery M

This group exhibition explores how ceramicists, who work in a high-design aesthetic and often use molds to create their functional objects, engage with today’s industry, the consumer, and the ceramics community at-large. Bridging the roles of artist/designer/ceramicist, these individuals redefine traditional consumer-consumption relationships by offering dinnerware and other functional pottery to enhance the consumption experience, question mass production methods, or experiment with utilitarian design itself. Participating artists include: Nicholas Bivins, Ryan Fletcher, Andrew Gilliatt, Hiroe Hanazono, Jason Miller, and Lenneke Wispelwey.

On Saturday, March 10, there will be an artists’ workshop presentation with selected exhibiting artists. Artist Ryan Fletcher will be in residence at NCC March 8th – 26th. Please stay tuned for special events during his residency.

Originally from the California Bay Area, Nicholas Bivins holds degrees from the University of Washington (BFA, BA) and Ohio University (MFA). He has been an artist-in-residence at Red Lodge Clay Center and is currently a long-term resident at the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts in Helena, Montana, where he received the Matsutani Fellowship. Bivins has recently been selected as a 2012 NCECA Emerging Artist for the conference to be held in Seattle.

Ryan Fletcher holds a BFA in ceramics from the Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, Missouri. His interests in functional ceramics began more than ten years ago when he was first introduced to clay in high school. Fletcher’s interest in product design came through studying Bauhaus philosophies and writings. “Seeing the visual relationships in the products I use in my everyday life is intriguing to me now that I realize the forethought that was put into making some of them. I see all my projects as an experiment in design: an experiment that tells me vital information about how my objects work and how people interact with and view them.” Fletcher has designed porcelain serve-ware, “Tapas Micros,” in conjunction with Kansas City chefs for their restaurants.

Andrew Gilliatt earned an MFA in ceramics in 2011 from Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, and a BFA in graphic design from Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, in 2003. This past year Gilliatt’s ceramics have been exhibited nationwide in shows from Florida to Washington. On the subject of consumerism, Gilliatt says, “I am fascinated [with] how we personalize and define ourselves through the objects we use and accumulate…. I am interested in the phenomenon of how we look and shop for objects. Once the requirements of fit, occasion, and agency have all been established (a size 11 running shoe that wears comfortably, for example), to what degree are we further attracted to the point of purchase? Is it the pattern of the shirt, the cut of the dress, or the color of the shoe that makes us want to own that object, or is it simply a matter of cost and convenience?”

Hiroe Hanazono, a native of Japan, received her MFA from Ohio University in 2008 and a BA in spatial art from California State University, Hayward. A past artist-in-residence at Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts and Worcester Center for Crafts, Hanazono has also worked and studied at various artist communities including Peters Valley Craft Center and Haystack Mountain School of Crafts. Her work has been shown both nationally and internationally, and she was the recipient of the 2008-2009 Evelyn Shapiro Foundation Fellowship at The Clay Studio in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she currently maintains a studio.

Jason Miller received a BA from Indiana University in 1993 and an MFA from New York Academy of Art in 1995. Between 1995 and 2001, Miller worked as a studio assistant for Jeff Koons, as an art director for Ogilvy and Mather, and as a designer for Karim Rashid. In 2001, he started his own design studio. Miller designs everything from furniture to tchotchke to interiors and works in a multitude of mediums. Miller’s work has been included in numerous international solo exhibitions, and he has been featured in countless publications ranging from Wallpaper to The Wall Street Journal. In 2005, Miller received the Bombay Sapphire “Rising Star Award.” In 2007, he was named “Best Breakthrough Designer” by Wallpaper magazine. Forbes.com included him in their list of 2007 “Tastemakers.” Miller’s work is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Arts and Design in New York.

Lenneke Wispelwey founded her ceramics design studio in 2008 in Arnhem, the Netherlands. Her low-tech design methods result in pastel-colored, porcelain objects with geometric patterns. Lenneke finds a simple approach to techniques and materials very important to communicating her vision. Her work is known for the use of different shades of one color and for playing with the contrast between bisqued and glazed porcelain. She creates honest and harmonious designs, inspired by her memories and antiques. Wispelwey’s designs have been shown throughout the Netherlands and featured in numerous Dutch design publications.



Minnesota Potters: Sharing the Fire

March 9 - April 29

Emily Galusha Gallery

Northern Clay Center will host Minnesota Potters: Sharing the Fire, an exhibition documenting how ceramic art is passed on from one artist to another in an effort to keep Minnesota's vibrant ceramic tradition and community flourishing. The exhibition is on view March 9 through April 29 in NCC's gallery A. An opening reception is scheduled for Friday, March 9, from 6 - 8 pm at NCC.

Spearheaded by Mark Lambert of Anoka Ramsey Community College, the Sharing the Fire exhibition is part of a larger roster of programming, which will document the work of select Minnesota ceramic artists, their methods of working with clay, and the way in which they pass on their skills.

In addition to this exhibition, a documentary screening and a lecture by Janet Koplos will be held at Anoka Ramsey Community College on Saturday March 10, 2012 from 1 - 3 pm in the Performing Arts Center. The documentary will provide a view into the lives and work of eight Minnesota potters—four pairs of artists whose unique relationships celebrate some of the many ways that knowledge, experience and spirit are passed from person to person in this field. This documentary tracks the amazing sphere of these potters' stories with each other— exposing the challenge of becoming and subsisting as a practicing potter, detailing many of their processes, and, through the clear voice of art critic and cultural specialist Janet Koplas, offering insight into the bigger Minnesota potters' narrative.

At NCC (and other sites as attendance demands), a series of evening gallery conversations and artist talks will take place. The tentative schedule:

Thursday, March 15, 6 - 7 pm      Warren MacKenzie and Guillermo Cuellar
Thursday, March 22, 6 - 7 pm      Linda Christianson and Jil Franke
Thursday, March 29, 6 - 7 pm      Robert Briscoe and Jason Trebbs
Tuesday, April 3, 6 - 7 pm            Richard Bresnahan and Steven Lemke

For registration, location and additional information, please email sharingthefire@anokaramsey.edu or visit www.anokaramsey.edu/fire.

In partnership with Northern Clay Center, Anoka-Ramsey Community College is a fiscal year 2011 recipient of a Folk and Traditional Arts grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. This activity is funded, in part, by the arts and cultural heritage fund as appropriated by the Minnesota State Legislature with money from the Legacy Amendment vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4, 2008. For more information, please visit http://www.arts.state.mn.us/grants/support.htm.