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2009 Exhibitions 

'tis a gift... the 19th Annual Holiday Exhibition and Sale

Sales Gallery and Gallery M
November 22, 2009 – January 3, 2010

 

Whether you celebrate for one or seven or eight or 12 days, there is no better place to find beautiful and functional gifts this
holiday season than Northern Clay Center.  Once again, NCC has a spectacular selection of work from more than sixty-five regional and national ceramic artists.  Everyone on your gift list can appreciate unique, hand-made objects created by outstanding
contemporary craft artists.  Our 19th annual Holiday Exhibition and Sale offers quality and variety that will make your season bright! 

Please Note: NCC galleries will be closed for installation November 19 - 21 during normal business hours.  Starting November 24th, Extended Holiday Hours are: Tuesday through Friday, 10 am - 7 pm; Saturday and Sunday, 10 am - 6 pm.  'tis a gift… will be open from 5 - 8 pm to volunteers on Monday, November 30 and to members and donors on Monday, December 7  for holiday treats and special quiet shopping.

Participating artists include:  Jennifer Allen, Martye Allen, Judith Altobell, Posey Bacopoulos, Megan Bergström, Margaret Bohls, Birdie Boone, William Brouillard, Kevin Caufield, Rebecca Chappell, Victoria Christen, Blair Clemo, Michael Connelly, Sandra Daulton Shaughnessy, Andrea Leila Denecke, Josh DeWeese, Paul Dresang, Sanam Emami, Gary Erickson, Jil Franke, Emily Free Wilson, Willem Gebben, Steve Godfrey, Bill Gossman, Katharine Gotham, Ryan Greenheck, James Grittner, Richard Gruchalla & Carrin Rosetti, Butch Holden, Bob & Cheryl Husby, Mike Jabbur, Sarah Jaeger, Eric Jensen, Shirley Johnson, Matt Kelleher, Kristen Kieffer, Maren Kloppmann, Gib Krohn, Steven Young Lee, Lee Love, Warren MacKenzie, Tim Marcotte, Ruth Martin, Laura McCaul, Allison McGowan, Jan McKeachie Johnston, Ron Meyers, Forrest Lesch-Middelton, Mike Norman, Jeffrey Noska, Jeffrey Oestreich, Elizabeth Robinson, S. C. Rolf, Monica Rudquist, Irene Saito, Patricia Sannit, Pete Scherzer, Deborah Schwartzkopf, Johanna Severson, Laurie Shaman, McKenzie Smith, Aaron Sober, Will Swanson, Munemitsu Taguchi, Shoko Teruyama, Christy Wert, Geoffrey Wheeler, Tara Wilson, Michael Wisner.

Holiday Open House – November 22,2009, 12 noon – 4 pm

Part of a long-standing tradition, NCC will celebrate the opening of 'tis a gift…with a festive Holiday Open House.  Shop our galleries for gifts or make your own in the Center's studios, where kids and adults of all ages can create and decorate colorful ornaments and tiles.  Kids and parents can alternate between the front and back of NCC for secret present shopping.  Clay work will be fired and available for pick-up beginning December 1.  There is a $5 charge for materials and firing.

Additionally, artists will perform demonstrations on the potter's wheel.  NCC's knowledgeable and friendly tour guides will be on hand to walk visitors through the building.  Delicious cake and coffee will be served to further indulge your senses.  Bring your friends and family!

 

Margaret O'Rorke: Light Sculptures

Gallery A
November 22, 2009 – January 3, 2010

 

2009 McKnight Resident Artist, Margaret O'Rorke returns to NCC this November with an ambitious exhibition in Gallery A.  This exhibition will include large-scale translucent porcelain-lit wall sculptures and a lit fountain, showcasing O'Rorke's explorations with light through wheel-thrown forms and multiples.  This exhibition will travel to Philadelphia in conjunction with next year's NCECA
conference.

Margaret O'Rorke lives and works in Oxford, England.  She holds two National Diplomas in Design—one in painting from the Chelsea School of Art and one in pottery from the Camberwell School of Art.  O'Rorke has produced her own work from her home studio in Oxford since 1980.  Her porcelain sculptures have been featured in such publications as Ceramics Review, Ceramics Monthly, Naked Clay (A & C Black) and Ceramic Technology for Potters and Sculptors (A & C Black).  Additionally, she exhibits her work throughout England, China, and Finland.  O'Rorke states: “the translucency of fine high-fired porcelain has led me...to throw forms which give light.  These ideas stem from the nature of the material, forms that can grow from the potter's wheel, the process of firing, and a sense of adventure with light and space."

This exhibition is the second in 2009 supported with a generous grant from Continental Clay, George and Frances Reid, and the Windgate Charitable Foundation.

(Images, RIGHT: Woven Light and Porcelain, 2009, woven steel and fiber optics incorporating porcelain, 118" x 31.5" x 6".  Photograph by Tuukka Paikkari.  LEFT: Cast Moon Light, 2009, cast porcelain, 7" x 7". Photograph by Elysia Athanatos.)

 

2009 Regis Masters: Ron Meyers and Patti Warashina

Gallery M
September 25 – November 8, 2009

 

As part of the 2009 Regis Masters Series Exhibition, Northern Clay Center will mount a two-person exhibition of new work by 2008 Regis Master Ron Meyers and 2009 Regis Master Patti Warashina.  The exhibition will showcase the work of these renowned artists.  Both Mr. Meyers and Ms. Warashina will attend the opening of the exhibition of their work at Northern Clay Center on Friday, September 25 from 6 to 8 pm.

Ron Meyers received both a B.S. (1956) and an M.S. (1961) in art education from the State University College at Buffalo, and an M.F.A. (1967) from the School for American Craftsmen, Rochester Institute of Technology.  Meyers first taught for six years at the University of South Carolina, and then in 1972 began a long career of teaching ceramics at the University of Georgia in Athens, where he remains today as Professor Emeritus.  Working with earthenware, Meyers makes functional pots in a casual spontaneous manner—revealing the juiciness of the material as well as the pleasure of the process.  The colored slip paintings that float on the surface integrate a gestural style while telling a story.  Meyers’ work has been shown extensively around this country and the world and is in many public and private collections.

Patti Warashina earned a B.F.A. and an M.F.A. from the University of Washington in Seattle, where she went on to teach for twenty-five years.  In 2001, she was honored with a Lifetime Achievement/Woman of the Year Award by Seattle’s Artist Trust, and received cultural exchange invitations from China and Korea.  Warashina’s work is found in public collections including the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, Japan; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and the John Michael Kohler Art Museum, Sheboygan, Wisconsin.  Warashina states, “The human figure has been an absorbing visual fascination in my work.  I use the figure in voyeuristic situations in which irony, humor, and absurdities portray human behavior as a relief from society’s pressure and frustrations on mankind.  At times, I use the figure in complex arrangements so that it will be seethingly alive.  I like the visual stimulation of portraying human energy, as a way to compare it to any biological organization found in nature.”

Regis Masters Series Lecture: Patti Warashina

Saturday, September 26, 2009, 2 pm
Minneapolis Institute of Arts
Pillsbury Auditorium
2400 3rd Ave S, Minneapolis
Free for MIA and NCC Members
$5 for general public

Ron Meyers and Patti Warashina In Conversation

Sunday, September 27, 2009, noon – 2 pm
Northern Clay Center
For those of you that missed this incredible conversation between Patti Warashina and Ron Meyers, here are some images from the gallery walkthrough

       

Click here to view the online exhibition

 

 

College Bowl II/09

Gallery A
September 25 – November 8, 2009

 

In this two-part, multi-generational group exhibition, Northern Clay Center features work by Minnesota ceramics professors and their students, affiliated with colleges and universities in the Twin Cities metro area and points south.  Earlier this year College Bowl I/09 featured artists from the metro area and northern Minnesotan schools.    Professors from all four-year institutions offering degrees in ceramics nominated up to three undergraduate or graduate students for consideration by the jury.  A reception for College Bowl II/09 artists will take place from 6 - 8 pm on Friday, September 25.

Professors participating in College Bowl II/09 include: Kelly Connole (Carleton College); Gary Erickson (Macalester College); Kate Fisher (St. Olaf College); Kirk Freeman (Bethel University); Ron Gallas (St. Olaf College); Nicole Hoiland (Gustavus Adolphus College); Tom Lane (University of Minnesota); Mika Negishi Laidlaw (Minnesota State University, Mankato); Mark Pharis (University of Minnesota); Anne Scott Plummer (Winona State University); Todd Shanafelt (Minnesota State University, Mankato); Keith Williams (Concordia University); and Tetsuya Yamada (University of Minnesota).

The guest curator for this exhibition is Kelly Connole, ceramic sculptor and assistant professor of art at Carleton College.

 

2009 Artists of NCC

Galleries M and A

July 17 – August 30, 2009

Opening Reception, Friday, July 17, 6 – 8 pm

Once every two years, Northern Clay Center turns the exhibition spotlight on our many talented teachers, students, resident artists, and clay camp-goers.  We invite you to view the wide variety of art making that goes on at NCC: functional and sculptural works, made with low- and high-fire clays, traditional reduction glazes and soda-fired surfaces, and everything in between.

Participating studio artists and instructors confirmed as of press time include:
Mary Aguilar, Kate Bauman, Sue Bergan, Megan Bergström, Margaret Bohls, Karen Brown, Kasey Bullerman, Philip Burke, Cynthia Burns, Tom Carli, Ryan Casey, Krissy Catt, Kevin Caufield, Alex Chinn, Eileen Cohen, Attila Ray Dabasi, Andrea Leila Denecke, Ann Fendorf, Joel Froehle, Art Gannett, Daniel Gardner, Katharine Gotham, Martha Grover, Jim Gubernick, Ursula Hargens, Lois Ann Helgeson, Mike Helke, Bob Hemming, Jim Holan, Peter Jadoonath, Andy Juelich, Julie Kinney, Matthew Krousey, Cynthia Levine, Angie Renee Lund, Peter Lupori, Roberta Massuch, Tippy Maurant, Karin Muchemore, Susan Obermeyer, Claire O'Connor, Kip O'Krongly, Patti Olson, Mary Otremba-Olson, Claudia Poser, Erik Riese, Mary Roettger, Jennifer Rogers, Suzanna Schlesinger, Ginny Sims, Aaron Sober, Steve Wicklund, Michele Wiegand, Holly Williams, Lucy Yogerst.

The following are the eligibility criteria and submission requirements for any present or past students interested in participating in this exhibition:

NCC students are eligible to participate if you have completed at least two regularly scheduled adult or children’s classes between the dates of July 1, 2007 and June 30, 2009.  These students are invited to deliver one piece to the exhibition gallery on Thursday, July 9 from 12 noon – 6:00 pm.  This work will be subject to a juried selection process.  A panel of two instructors and Jamie Lang will select up to 30 student works for this representative group exhibition.  If your work is not selected, you must be available to pick it up Saturday or Sunday, July 11 or 12 from 12 noon – 4 pm.

Clay Camp students are invited to deliver one piece created during clay camps in the summers of 2008 and 2009 (to date) on Thursday July 9 from 12 noon – 6:30 pm.  This work will also be subject to a juried selection process.  If your work is not selected, you must be available to pick it up Saturday or Sunday July 11 or 12 from 12 noon – 4 pm.


(Pictured above:  Joel Froehle, Gouge, 2008, earthenware, 36" x 14" x 15"; Philip Burke, NOT a duplex in Duluth, 2008, cone 10 soda-fired stoneware, 8" x 5" x 5.5"; Roberta Massuch, Yellow Bowl, 2008, earthenware, 12" x 10" x 8"; Ginny Sims, Baskets, 2008, stoneware, 4" x 8" x 8")

 

Six McKnight Artists

 

May 15 – July 5
Gallery M & A

New work by 2008 McKnight Fellowship recipients Andrea Leila Denecke (Scandia) and Marko Fields (St. Paul) will be exhibited in Gallery A.  Gallery M will feature the work of four McKnight Resident Artists: 2007 recipients Lee Love (Japan/now living in Minnesota), Greg Crowe (Australia), Alyssa Wood (North Carolina) and 2008 recipient Margaret O'Rorke (Oxford, England). 

An opening reception for the artists is scheduled for Friday, May 15, 6 - 8 pm.

Andrea Leila Denecke received a B.A. from Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa; a diploma with honors from the Tekisui Museum of Art, Ceramic Art Research Institute, in Ashiya, Japan; and an M.F.A. from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.  A 1998 McKnight Residency recipient and a 2004 Fellowship recipient, Denecke has exhibited her functional and sculptural ceramic work throughout Japan and Minnesota.  Her work is part of several public collections including Franconia Sculpture Park, The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and Seto City Cultural Center in Seto, Japan.  Denecke states: “I create objects which evoke memory responses or instill a meditative state based on stimuli which have influenced me.”

Marko Fields is currently a resident artist and professor of ceramics, drawing, design, and film at Concordia University in St. Paul.  He received his B.F.A. and M.F.A. in ceramics from Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas, and is currently the publications director for the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA).  In addition to exhibiting his work throughout the country, Fields' ceramic sculptures and pots have been featured in such publications as 500 Teapots, 500 Figures in Clay, and Wheel Thrown Ceramics (all published by Lark Books).  He has also contributed his own writing to Ceramics Monthly  and Ceramics: Art & Perception.  Fields is “enamored of the metaphor of the vessel, particularly teapots or bottles, as they contain, serve and pour, significant activities when humans gather.  Clearly, the sociology of vessels intrigues me.”

Greg Crowe was born in England and immigrated to Australia in 1963, where he has maintained a home and studio since 1980.  He earned an associateship in architecture and a B.A. in ceramics and design from Curtin University in Perth, Australia.  Crowe's ceramic work has been included in solo and group exhibitions throughout Western Australia, Ireland, and Japan.  In 2002, he was a guest artist at the home of Jeff Oestreich as part of the Upper St. Croix Valley Potters' Tour, where he also co-taught one of NCC's first woodfire workshops.  Crowe has lectured and presented workshops in Singapore, Ireland, Canada, and at various TAFE colleges throughout Australia (vocational education and training providers.)  In his ceramic work, Crowe strives to combine both texture and the “plastic responsive nature of clay” in a meaningful way, completely integrating “surface and form, clay body and throwing.”  

Lee Love was born in Osaka, Japan and raised in Michigan.  He moved to Minnesota in 1983 to study with the late Zen teacher, Dainin Katagiri Roshi.  Love's ceramic education has been supplemented with classes at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, under the direction of Curt Hoard and Mark Pharis.  Additionally, he has traveled extensively throughout Japan, studying pottery.  Following a three-year apprenticeship with Living National Treasure Tatsuzo Shimaoka in Mashiko, Japan, he built a wood kiln and set up a studio in Mashiko, where he continued to make pots and started writing a book about craft, Zen practice, and beauty.  Love received a 1996 Jerome Ceramic Artist Project Grant, a 1998 Jerome Foundation Asian American Renaissance Career Development Grant, and a 1999 Jerome Travel and Study Grant.  His functional pots can be found in NCC's sales gallery, and have been exhibited throughout the Twin Cities, as well as in Washington and Japan.

Margaret O'Rorke lives and works in Oxford, England.  She holds two National Diplomas in Design—one in painting from the Chelsea School of Art and one in pottery from the Camberwell School of Art.  O'Rorke has produced her own work from her home studio in Oxford since 1980.  Her porcelain sculptures have been featured in such publications as Ceramics Review, Ceramics Monthly, Naked Clay (A & C Black) and Ceramic Technology for Potters and Sculptors (A & C Black).  Additionally, she exhibits her work throughout England, China, and Finland.  O'Rorke states: “the translucency of fine high-fired porcelain has led me...to throw forms which give light.  These ideas stem from the nature of the material, forms that can grow from the potter's wheel, the process of firing and a sense of adventure with light and space."  In addition to the McKnight show, she has two additional upcoming exhibitions in the U.S.: another at the Clay Center in November, and one in conjunction with next year's NCECA conference in Philadelphia.


Alyssa Wood lives and works in Davidson, North Carolina.  She received her B.F.A. and M.F.A. in ceramics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  She has lectured extensively throughout North Carolina, as well as in Minnesota and Texas.  Recent solo and group exhibitions have included Housekeeping, Stretch Gallery in Pineville, North Carolina; Altered Books: First Edition, Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, Houston, Texas; At Home and Away: Intimate Portraits, Webster University, Louisville, Kentucky; and Works of Art on Paper, Long Beach Island Foundation of the Arts and Sciences, Long Beach, California.  Prior to her residency at NCC, Wood was an artist in residence at the Ragdale Foundation in Lake Forest, Illinois.  Wood uses ceramic tiles as a canvas for her drawn and sculpted portraits of “objects we take for granted like forks, knives and spoons, chairs, scissors, and baby buggies.”

 

Contemporary Monsters

VIEW EXHIBITION
March 13 – May 3

Gallery M

Guest-curated by ceramic artist Edith Garcia (London), this dark and dreamlike exhibition will feature the work of six artists who work within the realms of the surreal, yet with unique sensibilities.  Participants include the curator along with Wesley Anderegg (Lompoc, California), Tom Bartel (Bowling Green, Kentucky), Cynthia Consentino (Northampton, Massachusetts), John de Fazio (San Francisco, California), Arthur González (Alameda, California), and Michael Lucero (Upper Nyack, New York).  All of these artists translate everyday monsters into sublime sculptural works, offering original voices in an expressive and overwhelmingly physical manner.

Edith Garcia (guest curator) is a professional artist living and working in London. She creates work that draws viewers into an alluring world of installation and sculpture.  Her figurative sculptures playfully and somewhat fiercely alter and exaggerate the human form, erasing features or subtracting limbs.  In doing so, she thinks about how to dismantle the limitations of the natural world in order to imagine a world of fantasy  She found this tactile language, pursuing the literal meanings of figurative phrases, such as “I’ll wash your mouth out with soap” in her Peeling Off the Skin of Childhood series. 

Garcia received her M.F.A. in ceramics and digital media from California College of the Arts in 2004 and her B.F.A. in sculpture from Minneapolis College of Art and Design in 1998.  She has exhibited her work throughout North America and Europe in places such as the Royal College of Art, United Kingdom; John Toki Gallery, California; and Baltimore Clayworks, Maryland.  She has received numerous awards including a Jerome Artist Project Grant and a McKnight Artist Residency at Northern Clay Center.  Her work has been published in all the major ceramic publications and recently included in Judith Schwartz’s Confrontational Ceramics. 

Wesley Anderegg’s sculptures speak of everyday life and society in imaginary ways through which each of us can connect to the real world.  He is best known for his disproportionately modeled figures, which are often used to create humorous, nonsensical narratives.  The work draws comparisons to antique folk art and pop art.  Of his work he states, “I have always been a people watcher.  In the first grade I did not play with the other kids.  I stood back and watched.  And I have been watching ever since.  I watch what people do and imagine what they might like to do.”  Anderegg’s sculptural work makes reference to traditional functional forms such as vessels and cups.  He makes use of earthenware clay and various layers of slips and underglazes.

Anderegg received his B.S. in geography from Arizona State University in Tempe, and has been a resident artist at the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts in Helena, Montana, and at Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass Village, Colorado.  His work is included in such collections as the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian, Mint Museum of Craft and Design and the Fredrick R. Weisman Museum in Minneapolis, among others.  Anderegg’s ceramic sculptures have been included in numerous exhibitions, including solo shows at The Works Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; the Goldesberry Gallery, Houston, Texas; and the John Michael Kohler Art Center, Sheboygan, Wisconsin.

Tom Bartel is known for his disturbing and often humorous fragmented figures that show influences ranging from antiquity to popular culture.  He’s fascinated by the human condition, which becomes a starting point for all his work.  Bartel states, “my work questions various stages of life, which are determined primarily by the biological development of the body from birth to death.  I see the human life cycle as an experience containing many beginnings and endings.  Connections between the beginning and ending of life are a continual source of inspiration.”  A vital component to the work is his ceramic surfaces, which he uses to confront the viewer’s attention.  He sees the heavily worn surfaces as a record of the figure’s history or story.

Bartel is currently an associate professor at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, and has taught numerous workshops over the years at places such as Santa Fe Clay, Ox-Bow (SAIC), Michigan, Idyllwild Arts, California, and Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, Tennessee.  He received his B.F.A. from Kent State University in 1993 and his M.F.A. from Indiana University, Bloomington in 1996.  Bartel has an extensive exhibition record, including over 20 solo shows, and has participated in exhibitions throughout the world in Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan and the Czech Republic.  Bartel's work is included in numerous public and private collections and he has received individual artist fellowships from the Pennsylvania Arts Council and the Kentucky Arts Council.  He has been featured in numerous publications and included in several books, most recently in Judith Schwartz’s Confrontational Ceramics.

Cynthia Consentino’s work explores the nature of gender and its inherited stereotypes in addition to investigating fairy tales and their vast cast of characters.  In her work, expectations are shifted and uprooted.  Little girls with guns, human figures with animal heads and young girls spontaneously sprout flowers.  She states “metaphor and story are used to make connections, provide layers of meaning and incorporate the universal within the personal.  Objects and/or qualities from different worlds are juxtaposed and exaggeration and/or distortion are used to address dualities and apparent incongruities within human experience.” 

She received an M.F.A. from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and a B.F.A. from The Cooper Union College of Arts and Sciences, New York, NY.  Her work has been shown at numerous galleries and museums including: Ferrin Gallery, Lenox, Massachusetts, Dubhe Carreño Gallery, Chicago, Illinois, The Society of Arts and Crafts, Boston, American Museum of Ceramic Art (AMOCA), Pomona, California, DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Lincoln, Massachusetts, and the American Craft Museum, New York.  She has received awards from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, American Craft Council, The Society of Arts and Crafts, and a Blanche E. Colman Award. She has also been an artist-in-resident at the John Michael Kohler Arts/Industry Program, Kohler, Wisconsin; La Napoule Art Foundation, Mandelieu-La Napoule, France; and the Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park, Shigaraki, Japan.  Her first public art commission was completed in 2005 for the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, Wisconsin.  The Women's Room, one of six artist-designed washrooms at the center, has over 2000 relief and painted tiles.

John de Fazio earned a B.F.A in ceramics from Philadelphia College of Art, Pennsylvania in 1981 and an M.F.A. in sculpture form San Francisco Art Institute, California in 1984.  He’s been a visiting artist at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Nevada and the University of Washington, Seattle.  DeFazio’s awards include a National Endowment for the Arts Visual Arts Fellowship and New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship.
   
DeFazio creates assembled works from molded ready-mades, items mostly considered kitsch, transforming them into ironic and humorous sculptures.  His work draws from childhood memories while blending themes of Pop culture with classic mythologies.  His work has widely been exhibited, with shows at the American Craft Museum, New York, San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts, Texas; and was included in the 1993 Venice Biennale.  His work is in such collections as the Museum of Contemporary Ceramic Art in the Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park, Shigaraki, Japan, Mint Museum of Craft and Design, North Carolina, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.  He’s an adjunct professor, Ceramics, Industrial Design, and Interdisciplinary Studies at California College of Art and visiting faculty in the Sculpture department at the San Francisco Art Institute.

Arthur González’s work has been described as dark, somber and ominous.  He reflects on the relationship between personal concerns and world issues, and draws heavy influences from literature such as the work of Chaucer, Lorca and Collodi.  His sculptures, often raw in form, have rough surfaces that suggest process and a historical presence.  Gonzalez states, “My figures capture the core of human spirit and character.  I plumb the relationships between the human and the natural world, mining humanity’s raw elements.  My language is completely layered and rare, as I traverse the depths of the soul in determination for truth.  A creator of unique forms, these transcriptions hover beautifully, in liminality—betwixt the between.”  He’s currently Associate Professor of Art at the California College of the Arts. 
  
Gonzalez received his M.A. in painting from California State University, Sacramento and a M.F.A. in sculpture from University of California, Davis. has participated in numerous artist residencies, including at the University of Georgia, Athens; Penland School of Crafts, North Carolina; and at Taiwan National University of the Arts in Taiwan.  His work has been exhibited throughout the world including over forty solo shows.  He has received many awards including two from the Virginia Groot Foundation and four from the National Endowment for the Arts.  His work is in numerous collections and museums including the American Craft Museum, New York; Yingge Ceramics Museum, Taipai, Taiwan; and Mint Museum of Craft and Design, Charlotte, North Carolina.

Michael Lucero’s work mixes personal iconography and historical reference, filled with an inquiring intellect and a fascination for storytelling.  He summarizes the scope of his ceramic works: “For me, the idea of reclamation seemed to come at a time when found objects interested me more and more.  I frequent thrift shops, antique shops, antique malls, and antique fairs.  This habit of mine might be considered my way of attempting a social study of American culture, of other cultures, of this conglomerate of all sorts of things from different times and different places.  Different worlds collide in these places, and that really interests me.”  Lucero has challenged the traditional perceived limitation of clay by giving it the importance of painting or marble sculpture.

He received his M.F.A. from the University of Washington, Seattle in 1978 and a B.A., Humboldt State University, Arcata, California, in 1975.  His work can be seen in the collections of the American Craft Museum, The Carnegie Museum, The Hirschhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art among countless others around the United States and abroad.  In 1996, the Mint Museum of Art organized a retrospective of his work entitled “ Michael Lucero: Sculpture 1976 – 1995,” which toured to several museums around the United States.  He has also received several awards and grants including three National Endowment for the Arts Artist Fellowships.

College Bowl I/09

March 13 – May 3

Gallery A

In this two-part, multi-generational group exhibition, Northern Clay Center features work by Minnesota ceramics professors and their students.  Professors from all four-year institutions offering degrees in ceramics nominated up to three undergraduate or graduate students for consideration by the jury.  College Bowl I/09 presents work by artists affiliated with colleges and universities in the Twin Cities metro area and points north.  Later this year (September 25 - November 8), College Bowl II/09 will feature additional artists from the metro area and southern Minnesotan schools.  A reception for College Bowl I/09 artists will take place from 6 – 8 pm on Friday, March 13, 2009.

Professors participating in College Bowl I/09 include: Kevin Flicker (University of Minnesota–Morris); Butch Holden (Bemidji State University); Elizabeth James (University of Minnesota–Duluth); Samuel Johnson (College of St. Benedict/St. John’s University); Holly Jorde Anderson (University of Minnesota–Duluth); James Klueg (University of Minnesota–Duluth); Keisuke Mizuno (St. Cloud State University); Heather Nameth-Bren (Northwestern College); Kristin Pavelka (Hamline University); Monica Rudquist (College of St. Catherine); Wil Shynkaruk (Minnesota State University–Moorhead); Kelli Sinner (Minnesota State University–Moorhead) and Robert Tom (Augsburg College).

The guest curator for this exhibition is Kelly Connole, ceramic sculptor and assistant professor of art at Carleton College.

 

Four Jerome Artist

January 16 – March 1
Gallery M

The 2009 Jerome Artists exhibition will feature the work of Jan Bilek, Mike Helke, and Jennifer Rogers, each of whom was awarded a 2008 Jerome Ceramic Artist Project Grant, and Jackie Rines, who was awarded a 2007 Jerome Ceramic Artist Residency Grant.  The awards recognize ceramic artists at relatively early stages in their careers, as they accomplish short-term, specific objectives.  A free opening reception for the artists will be held on January 16, from 6 - 8 pm.

Jan Bilek  has been exhibiting her wheel-thrown porcelain vessels at such venues as the American Craft Council Show in Baltimore, Maryland; the Coconut Grove Arts Festival in Coconut Grove, Florida; Seasons on St. Croix in Hudson, Wisconsin; and the Cherry Creek Arts Festival in Denver, Colorado.  Additionally, her work can be found in collections throughout the Twin Cities.  She has been affiliated with Fired Up Studios, Inc. in Minneapolis for seven years, where she has been a gallery manager, firing technician, and teaching artist.

Inspired by nature, Jan strives to create work that “is sensitively crafted and evokes a sense of natural wonder, harmony and beautiful perfection.”  Her training in interior design and watercolor is reflected in her pairing of wheel-thrown bottles with delicate and slender necks with layers of fluid glazes in translucent colors.  Bilek used her grant year to upgrade her studio with the purchase of an additional kiln and potter's wheel, as well as a lapidary grinder to finish the fired work.  Ultimately, she hopes her work will evolve and gain regional and national attention through this experimentation with new equipment and materials.

Mike Helke received a B.F.A. in ceramics from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.  He maintains a studio at NCC, where he is also the sales gallery and exhibitions assistant and a regular teaching artist for adult and children's classes.  His thrown and altered functional wares have most recently been exhibited at the North American Ceramic Cup Show at Siena Heights University in Adrian, Michigan; Infusion 10x10, a teapot exhibition at the Craft Alliance in St. Louis, Missouri; and Lillstreet International at Lillstreet in Chicago, Illinois.

Helke's mid-range pots reflect his interest in “the permanence of decorative pottery in domestic spaces.”  He values the familiarity and rapport established between the pot and its user.  He uses the surfaces of his pitchers, cups and jars as canvases for the marriage between three-dimensional forms and two-dimensional drawings and paintings.  Helke used his grant year to further develop his forms and surfaces, researching traditional decorative pottery from Italy, China, and Japan. 

Jennifer Rogers holds a B.A. in art from Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and an M.F.A. from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities,  where she was a teaching, research, and studio assistant for various programs.  Her ceramic and mixed media installations have been featured in such exhibitions as Virtual Field: Seed Project at the Schroeder Romero Project Space in the Winkleman Gallery in New York, New York; The Marge Brown Kolodner Graduate Student Exhibition at the Clay Studio in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Open Door III at the Rosalux Gallery in Minneapolis.

Rogers combines mold-made clay multiples of everyday household objects with mixed media in various installations that communicate “the extent to which we are all essentially caught in a series of repetitive, monotonous, and laborious actions.”  She creates dense spaces piled with objects and arranged in an effort to have the viewer experience “the weight of monotony.”  Rogers spent her grant year exploring scale, color, surface and material in the hopes of broadening her “artistic vocabulary.”

Jackie Rines received her B.F.A. from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University.  She was a student liaison at the Greenwich House Pottery in New York, New York; an intern at MacKenzie Childs pottery in Aurora, New York; and a studio assistant at the Shelburne Craft School in Shelburne, Vermont.
She says of her work, “I make loud, colorful sculptures because I believe in eye candy.  The imagery comes from highly recognizable objects because they are accessible and come with people's own conceived narrative.”  Her whimsical work is often life-size and incorporates paint, sequins, beads, and whatever else she can find at a craft store.

As a residency applicant and recipient, Rines did not submit a formal project proposal, but initially expressed her desire to leave New York City and fully immerse herself in the Twin Cities culture and arts scene and let the work come naturally.  Rines completed her 6-month residency at NCC from January to July ,2008.

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Fogelberg and Red Wing Artists Exhibition

January 16 – March 1

Gallery A

Northern Clay Center presents an exhibition featuring the work of 2007 Fogelberg Fellowship recipients Daniel Gardner, Martha Grover, and Aaron Sober; and Red Wing Collectors Society Foundation Award recipients Blair Clemo (2007) and Aaron Sober (2008).

The Fogelberg Fellowship Program provides 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 to develop their own ceramic body of work while immersing themselves in a community environment that encourages an exchange of ideas and knowledge with other ceramic artists. 

Daniel Gardner relocated to Minneapolis last year from Indianapolis, Indiana, where he had taught at the Herron School of Art.  He received his B.F.A. from Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville and his M.F.A. from Indiana University in Bloomington, where he was a graduate teaching assistant and an associate instructor.  He is currently a glaze technician at North Prairie Tileworks in Minneapolis and a teaching artist at NCC.  His utilitarian vessels have been included in recent exhibitions throughout the country, including the San Angelo Art Museum in Texas; the Downtown Gallery in Kent, Ohio; the Main Street Art Gallery in Edwardsville, Illinois; and the SOFA Gallery in Bloomington, Indiana.

Gardner's wheel-thrown vessels “explore abstract relationships between the human body and pots.”  His fondness for one of the oldest known ceramic works of art, an ample female form created some 30,000 years ago, has influenced his exploration of “clay's paradoxical charm—its stony fluidity, its geological flesh.” 

Martha Grover received her M.F.A. in ceramics from the University of Massachusetts–Dartmouth, was a special student at Syracuse University in New York, and received her B.A. from Bennington College in Vermont.  She has taught a variety of ceramic courses at the University of Massachusetts; Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Deer Isle, Maine; and at NCC.  She recently completed a summer residency at the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts.  Her functional pots have been exhibited at the 16th San Angelo National Ceramic Competition at the San Angelo Museum of Fine Art in Texas; the NCECA Regional Student Juried Show in Baltimore, Maryland; and Gifted at the Worcester Center for Crafts in Massachusetts.

Grover throws and alters porcelain clay to form various perfume bottles, vases, teapots, and creamer and sugar sets.  She strives to create “a sense of elegance for the user while in contact with each piece.”  Grover calls on images of orchids, the human body, and the movement of a dancer to inform her work.  She pays close attention to details in an effort to draw in the viewer and user for closer inspection.

Blair Clemo, the 2007 Red Wing award recipient, received his B.F.A. in ceramics from the University of Montana in Missoula and is currently pursuing his M.F.A. at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University.  Examples of his functional work are published in 500 Pitchers and 500 Plates and Chargers (Lark Books).  Additionally, Clemo's work has been exhibited in It's Only Clay at the Bemidji Community Art Center in Bemidji, Minnesota; at the Dow Studio in Deer Isle, Maine; and in Platters and Pourers at Baltimore Clayworks in Maryland.

Of his work, Clemo states, “I intend to strike a balance between form and function, between beauty and performance.  Service vessels, such as soup tureens and pitchers, not only contain and serve food, but can also act as an aesthetic center point from which a meal begins, sustaining our minds as well as our bodies.”  His thrown and altered porcelain pots can be found in NCC's sales gallery, as well as at Lillstreet in Chicago, Illinois.

Northern Clay Center proudly announces the 2008 recipient of the Red Wing Collectors Society Foundation Award, Aaron Sober.  He received his B.A. in ceramics from Macalester College in 2001, was a special student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a core student at Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina.  Sober was a 2007 Fogelberg Fellowship recipient as well.

“Like a worn pair of jeans or perfect pair of boots, my pots are made to be durable and masculine, but also not without grace,” Sober says of his soda-fired stoneware pots.  His work speaks about both the beauty and truths of the natural world.  Sober pairs imagery of strange animals, thorny plants, predatory fish, and bucktooth rabbits with traditional functional forms such as cups, bowls, and plates.

This particular award is made possible by the Red Wing Collectors Society Foundation, and is presented by Northern Clay Center to a deserving individual pursuing a career in pottery or studying or researching the historical aspects of the pottery industry.  The Foundation endeavors to broaden appreciation of pottery, past and present, for the general public and maintains the Red Wing Pottery Museum in Red Wing, Minnesota.  This is the fifth year in which the Clay Center has facilitated the grant.  Earlier recipients were Ursula Hargens, Rebecca Chappell, Mike Helke, and Blair Clemo.

Pictured above: Jan Bilek, Blue Bottle Trio, 2008, wheel-thrown porcelain; Mike Helke, Pitcher, 2008, white stoneware; Jennifer Rogers, Apart (detail), 2008-2009 ceramics, newspaper, paint, and string; Jackie Rines, Untitled (detail), 2008, ceramic and paint; Daniel Gardner, Decanter Set, 2008, soda-fired stoneware; Martha Grover, Tulip Vase, 2008, thrown and altered porcelain; Blair Clemo, Teapot, 2008, residual fired porcelain; Aaron Sober, Welcome to the Yard, 2008, soda-fired stoneware.