American Ceramics
Ranging from the historical to the contemporary, this selection of functional and decorative ceramic objects from our current exhibition, OBJECTS: USA 2020, represents some of the most influential and innovative examples of the clay medium.
Born in Nigeria, passing through the Caribbean, and now living in Detroit, Michigan, Ebitenyefa (Ebi) Baralaye is a ceramicist, sculptor, and designer. While a resident artist at the Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts in Newcastle, Maine, 2019, Baralaye created Serpent I in terracotta. This wall work reflects his interest in the psychological agency of objects and how this power reveals practical, poetic, and spiritual dimensions of the piece.
Ashwini Bhat was born in southern India and currently lives and works in the Bay Area, California. Informed by a perception of movement and composition from her earlier career in classical Indian dance, Bhat's series Assembling California explores the territory she now calls home. Shifting habitats, forest fires, and the natural environment's vibrancy and resilience are all captured using clay in this dynamic group of work.
Born in Germany, 1919, Ruth Duckworth lived in London between 1936 and 1964 and then moved to the United States upon accepting a teaching position at the University of Chicago. Duckworth's creative process became deeply embedded in the notion of "play," drawing inspiration from the Bronze Age to Expressionism in order to create magnificent abstract and organic compositions in clay.
Born in Japan in 1942, Jun Kaneko moved to California in 1963 and studied with Peter Voulkos, Paul Soldner, and Jerry Rothman. In the late 1960s, Kaneko created a group of ceramic sculptures focused on movement and balance called Sanbon ashi ("three legs" in Japanese). He cleverly named the series after a pattern of make-up used on the back of kabuki actors, geisha, and their apprentices.
Originally from Chicago, Steven Young Lee is now based in Helena, Montana, where he is the resident artist director of the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts. As the son of Korean immigrant parents, Lee states that he is "often situated between cultures looking from one side into another." His Korean American Artifact showcases a domain of traditional forms and his ability to disrupt them, offering a myriad of possibilities for interpretation.
Arguably one of the most important ceramicists of the twentieth century and credited for a revolution in American ceramics, Peter Voulkos merged abstract expressionism and clay. Born to a Greek immigrant family in 1924, Voulkos was raised in Montana but settled in California in the 1950s, where he taught generations of artists. His stoneware vessel effortlessly borrows from utilitarian forms, while simultaneously flowing into the realm of sculpture.