Curtis writes: My May, 2009, exhibition at the Sherrie Gallerie in Columbus, Ohio has been selected as one of the Best Exhibitions of 2009 by the Columbus Dispatch.  Other honorees included “Egyptian Treasures from the Brooklyn Museum” at the Columbus Museum of Art,” “Alice Schille” at the Capital University Schumacher Gallery, and “Luc Tuymans” at Ohio State’s Wexner Center for the Arts.  With Columbus, Ohio recently being ranked the #10 best arts destination among U.S. large cities (500,000+) this recognition is all the sweeter.

In an excerpt from his review of the exhibition, Dispatch arts critic, Kaizaad Kotwa, writes; “The porcelain works exude a fragile refinement laced with a modernist exploration of line, form and texture. . . . When light interacts with them, the varying degrees of opacity within the surfaces makes these ceramic marvels seem to glow from within.”

I liked these new community sculptures and thought you would be interested in details:   Teena Gould is a member of our website and an innovative potter/sculptor – she most recently has been involved in a project called Coastal Ceramics – details of which can be found on her profile page.

The commission to design, make and install a series of ceramic sculptures came from Lewisham Council, London.  Frendsbury Gardens is a small, wonderfully planted community garden which has been developed as a collaboration with the local community and Lewisham.  Before moving to Wales, the majority of my public art projects were London based,  transforming inner city spaces as an expression of the space and the aspirations of the people in the area.

Starting with a public meeting, I produced designs, and then worked with a nursery school, gardening group, youth club, and community groups to produce mosaics,and ceramic forms which I then developed in my studio.  Huge sheets of decorated clay were transported back to Wales, and production started.

The sculptures are a series of cylinders which express the transition of the garden and the community  using growth and development of seeds and plants a metaphor.  Over 750 ceramic tiles were produced, together with glass mosaic and mirror.   The sculptures describe a passage through the garden, starting with larger statement ones at the main entrance.  I made plaster moulds, using exotic vegetables as the base for the shapes.  A variety of clays, slips, oxides and glazes gave me the language of dark to light.  Slip painted slabs were cut into strips, and once installed the patterns read wonderfully around the columns.

Enviroworks Lewisham originally built the garden, and they returned to install the concrete columns, and apply the ceramics.  They are a community enterprise team, and some of the long-term unemployed staff live on the estates surrounding Frendsbury Gardens.

more images on website

Hatfield, as always was a ceramics show in England not to be missed.  With 10,000 visitors plus it is recognised as a keynote show in the calendar for many!  With just under 200 exhibitors there is a huge range of choice for both collectors and those with a more casual interest in ceramic art – few would have come away without a purchase of some type from the tempting displays.  The Peers Award was won by John Higgins. Some images of John’s work are shown below:

Anyone looking for a potter’s wheel? Contact Cyril on 0115 942 3447. Details are Alsager/2406/phase 1, Pat number 1223108, serial number 16488, price £150. Please mention Studiopottery.co.uk … Stephen

Amanda at Mission gallery has sent me some images of the ceramicists in their Christmas show: They include: Belinda Berger, Sean Gordon, Sara Moorhouse, Lowri Davies, Chris Keenan, Tony White, Nancy Baldwin, Christine Jones, Sue Binns.

On BBC Radio 4FM is a series of programmes by Roger Law of Spitting Image fame under the above title.  in the 1980’s he went to Stoke to get some Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan satirical Teapots made. He is returning to see what has become of the craftsmen who made them.

Well worth listening to – I am indebted to John Pollex for pointing out this series to me.  See more on  http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8350518.stm

or:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00npfbj

An article by Wali about building and firing a set of fire trees. There is also comment in “Terrart”a Barcelona magazine published by L’Associació de Ceramistes de Catalunya. See front cover above…

This is a copy of the article on Wali’s blog – for more interesting articles visit his blog.

Heloisa Alvima is a potter from Brazil who lives in Monferrier, France. I was very happy to be invited to build and fire a set of Fire Trees which would coincide with the festival of San Jean which is also the same day as the Summer Solstice. The setting was the Culture Centre and I was ably assisted by students from the ceramics school, local potters and enthusiasts. We started off with the usual coiling techniques and found the clay as supplied by SolarGil to be good allowing us to dry out the structure quite rapidly without cracking. Those who participated in the project were also invited to create decorations that reflected the local landscape or at least inspiration was from our surroundings. I did so in order to make people more aware of the environment in which we inhabit not only in the physical sense but also in the social context. It is another aspect of the Fire Trees that go beyond technique and process.
It was great to have the support of the Asociation de Clubs de Loisir (Hope that is how it is spelt!), Daniel who is the president, Gerard who put up with me and his wife Jo—many evenings were spent enjoying their hospitality, Loule, Izabu, Tibo, Caren and a host of others. Their help and kindness also the hospitality knew no bounds. If I have forgotton anybody then I allow myself to be shot for such an omission. Unfortunately we discovered that the clay did not quite meet up to the tremendous stresses during the firing and structural damage was quite severe…despite our attempts to repair the damage I am afraid the trees will have to be re-built and fired again. We got to temperature and the clay fired well…in some cases it actually fused. The firing was quite a spectacle. Looking forward to the next firing.

Also see the U Tube video of the event.

13 Oct 2009

Eddie is having a major exhibition of his work at Rufford next June (starting on the 13th). To make what is already an exciting exhibition even more exceptional, Eddie plans to use the opportunity to celebrate the international bonds and friendship that exist within the ceramic world. He has come up with an original and very special way to demonstrate this friendship. In his own words:

“As a part of my exhibition I want to celebrate the international aspect of ceramics and the camaraderie only shown in the world of ceramics.  I had this idea that if I asked my friends to fire a piece of my work in each of their kilns it would be the ultimate cultural exchange.

After taking a deep breath I asked Shozo Michikawa, Japan; Rizu Takehashi, Japan/France: Pascal Geoffroy, France: Linda de Nil, Belgium; and Uwe Lollman, Germany.

Without hesitation they all agreed and were very enthusiastic.  I am so honoured to have my things in their kilns.  Each of my pieces will essentially be made in the same manner  in my normal, stoneware ‘stretched’ style but only glazed by me (Iron celadon) on the inside.  The Anagamas will do the rest.  I am not aware that this has been done before.  I have given them no instruction other than to make their own decision on how they will be placed in  their kiln.”

This is a great idea and should produce a stunning exhibition.  It is hoped that the exhibition will move to a leading German gallery (Galerie Metzger) near Frankfurt in Autumn 2010.

Curtis Benzle, Huntsville, is featured in the publication; “Masters: Porcelain”, a survey of the premier artists working in porcelain worldwide.  Of the forty international artists included in the survey, only Sunkoo Yuh of Athens, GA, and Mr. Benzle represent the Southeast region of the U.S.

Curator Richard Burkett invited artists from around the glode to contribute to this, the first in a major new series featuring the top artists in varying media from Lark Books.  Burkett’s choices condense these artist’s achievements to a relative handful of remarkable pieces—something of a mini-retrospective in print-yet they masterfully illustrate what is unique and worthy of study with each artist.

Not quite like any other material, porcelain in the right hands is capable of being awesomely delicate as well as expressively forceful.  In the 18th century, porcelain attracted the admiration and greed of alchemists and princes.  Today, for many, that age-old mystique still clings to this unusual and notoriously difficult clay.

Mr. Benzle has maintained his studio in Huntsville, AL since 2002 and recently completed an solo exhibition at the Sherrie Gallerie in Columbus, Ohio.