by Carole Epp | May 27, 2016 | Uncategorized
Opening Thursday June 2nd 7pm
(show runs until June 18th)
Fourteen artists present new works that disturb the boundaries of their
individual practices. Through critical reflection and collaborative
exchange, unexpected themes and forms have emerged over a ten month
mentorship program led by Linda Sormin, and programmed by FUSION: The Ontario Clay and Glass Association.
Close observations of nature collide with the forms and realities of
urban life. Experimentation with raw materials is unearthing memories,
reshaping personal metaphors and once-familiar landscapes. Through
photography, video, pottery and sculpture, these artists unsettle
established ways of thinking and making.
Are small transgressions the slippery slope to bad behavior?
These conversations offer diverse interpretations of play, threat,
beauty, gesture, sexuality, parenthood, family, community and
environment. In sharing ideas and concerns, examining potential pitfalls
and solutions, this group of makes has in many ways sped up their
artistic research, yet slowed the impulse to cast judgment. Fearlessly,
gently tending to bright wounds of doubt, these artists have created
bodies of work that articulate distinct visions in the contemporary
context.
Linda Sormin
The gallery is pleased to be asked to host this exhibition with works
from the original exhibit plus they had created new works to compliment
using the knowledge they have taken away with them
Please join Jonathon & and I in welcoming Small Transgression II to London
Brian Cooke Curator
258 Dundas Street London, ON
519-434-5443
[email protected]
jonathons.ca
by Carole Epp | Feb 1, 2016 | Uncategorized
The mentorship was sponsored by the Hamilton and Region Potter’s Guild.
It ran from September 2014 to February 2016.
Tony Clennell was the mentor.
The mentees are Duncan Aird, Jen Drysdale, Chris de Takacsy, Teresa Dunlop, Barbara Rose, Annemarie Row and Emma Smith
by Carole Epp | Jan 10, 2016 | Uncategorized
January 9-29 @ Charlie Cummings Gallery
Profit Margin,
curated by Derek Reeverts is now online. This exhibition features
ceramic sculpture and vessels, printmaking, and poetry by national
artists.
Curator’s Statement
Profit Margin explores modern incarnations of class warfare.
Tension between socioeconomic classes exists in a variety of forms
because Fox News is wrong; class structure is not a singular identity.
It is something that exists in varying degrees depending on each
individual’s makeup -their region, gender, culture, education, etc.
There is no singular, universal group who has sole access to the means
of production, a Marxist term referring to society’s resources and
production facilities. In today’s world there are multiple means of
production -from physical factories to Wall Street, Academia, and Big
Oil -and thus “those who have access” are as varied in appearance,
though not in number, as those who do not.
The artists represented in
Profit Margin hail from a variety
of geographies, socio-economic backgrounds, genders, and cultures.
Their pieces explore people and places marginalized by modern class
warfare. They work in mediums as diverse as ceramics, printmaking, and
poetry. The array of medium allows the viewer many avenues to approach
the complex processes of class. Whether the piece references the figure,
utilizes color and texture, or uses the familiarity of the human voice
to express experience, the pieces in
Profit Margin allow the viewer a layered perspective into this otherwise cloudy machination.
Participating Artists
Blair Clemo, Tommy
Frank, Edith Garcia, Clayton Keyes, Benjamin Lambert, Sara
Morales-Morgan, Kyungmin Park, Kyle and Kelly Phelps, Gregory Pickett,
Alan Pocaro, Derek Reeverts, and Austin Wieland
Listen to Gregory Pickett’s poem
Class Warfare here.
View the rest of
Profit Margin here.
by Carole Epp | Jan 7, 2016 | Uncategorized
Ceramist
Jenna Stanton has salvaged and saved favourite domestic objects for as
long as she can remember. The forms and functions of these objects and
the nostalgic sentiments around them work their way into her
contemporary practice, into practical, clever and elegant designs for an
array of ceramic household vessels and accessories. The porcelain
desktop water decanters with silkscreened enamel decals and hand-painted
underglazes in her Pour Me series are inspired by vintage thermoses and
historic Medalta whiskey jugs, with patterns humorously referring to
the practice of self-medicating. Other works utilize 3D printing
processes in their design stages, while still others explore the
opportunities suggested by crystalline and fractal geometries translated
into dishware which can iterate and conjoin into infinity.
Stanton holds a BFA in Ceramics from the Alberta College of Art &
Design and a Masters in Ceramic Design from Staffordshire University in
‘the potteries’ of Stoke on Trent, England. She currently works out of
her studio in Medalta’s international artists in residence, exploring
ceramics that combine traditional craft with industrial processes and
new technologies. She is the Curator of Exhibitions and Collections at
the historic Medalta Potteries, and a member of the board of directors
of the Alberta Craft Council. Her designs have been exhibited nationally
and internationally, most notably in FRESH, the 2011 British Ceramics
Biennial’s flagship exhibition of top 40 emerging UK graduates, the
London Design Festival 2015, and with FLUX at Maison Object Paris.
www.esplanade.ca
www.jennastantonceramics.com
