Reconstitute: Ceramics and Mixed Media
January 20th- March 3rd, 2019
OPENING RECEPTION and Gallery Talk: January 25th, 4-6pm
GROUP EXHIBIT OF WORKS BY: Gratia Brown, Wendy Thoreson, and Lauren Tucci
Exhibit Info
In the last decade, the ceramic arts have been a rapidly increasing presence, adjusting with and against convention in the eyes of contemporary audiences. Reconstitute gathers work from a group of Midwest artists primarily using clay as a medium. The works displayed here navigate a separation from allegiance to any particular tradition, deciding instead to use whatever methods or materials that are best suited to the artists’ ideas. Due to the reusable nature of clay, a common task in studio practice is to “reclaim” or reconstitute materials that have been dried/cut/abandoned in an effort to create anew. This exhibition aims to embody this notion by repurposing fundamental elements and techniques across three distinct avenues within the medium through present-day visual language.
Visuals in the exhibit examine the artists’ unique approach. Gratia Brown’s abstract sculptures explore thought lines and celebrate the collection of harmonious debris, while challenging clay to become kin to various items. This creates an unsuspecting marriage of materials by pulverizing, bonding and unifying the fragments in to a larger construct. While the forefront of ceramics is ultimately associated with utilitarian objects, Wendy Thoreson’s wares and ornaments break the mold by treating the surface of clay much like distressed paint or embellished wrought iron. These objects combine simple forms and exaggerated neo-gothic designs to create sincere works of charm and function. Lauren Tucci’s narrative scenes invite visual tension within delicate and callous imagery stemming from the deeper subconscious roots in the dream state. Segmented objects are suspended or emerge for the viewer, forcing heavy material against gravity and into stasis as a moment in time.
With ties to Iowa, the featured artists connected at the Iowa Ceramics Center and Glass Studio where they each held long-term residencies. Apart from this shared experience, each have been recipients of numerous awards and distinctions through exhibitions on national and international stages. Brown is currently an Assistant Professor of Art at Northern State University in South Dakota and has recently shown work at the Archie Bray Foundation. Thoreson, a former instructor at the clay studio at the American Museum of Ceramic Art (AMOCA), is presently pursuing a post-baccalaureate certificate at Concordia University in Minnesota. Tucci resides in Cedar Rapids, Iowa where she is the Gallery Assistant and Inventory Manager at Gilded Pear Gallery and the Chair of the Gallery Committee at the Iowa Ceramics Center and Glass Studio; her studio is at the Cherry Building in the New Bohemia District.
Selected works from Reconstitute will be displayed in a successive sister exhibition, Part & Parcel, featured as part of NCECA’s (National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts) concurrent exhibitions during their 53rd annual conference: Claytopia. P & P continues the discussion by adding a self-taught artist, to illuminate how knowledge and experience gained by the maker informs the material and that they may coexist in the same milieu.
Visuals in the exhibit examine the artists’ unique approach. Gratia Brown’s abstract sculptures explore thought lines and celebrate the collection of harmonious debris, while challenging clay to become kin to various items. This creates an unsuspecting marriage of materials by pulverizing, bonding and unifying the fragments in to a larger construct. While the forefront of ceramics is ultimately associated with utilitarian objects, Wendy Thoreson’s wares and ornaments break the mold by treating the surface of clay much like distressed paint or embellished wrought iron. These objects combine simple forms and exaggerated neo-gothic designs to create sincere works of charm and function. Lauren Tucci’s narrative scenes invite visual tension within delicate and callous imagery stemming from the deeper subconscious roots in the dream state. Segmented objects are suspended or emerge for the viewer, forcing heavy material against gravity and into stasis as a moment in time.
With ties to Iowa, the featured artists connected at the Iowa Ceramics Center and Glass Studio where they each held long-term residencies. Apart from this shared experience, each have been recipients of numerous awards and distinctions through exhibitions on national and international stages. Brown is currently an Assistant Professor of Art at Northern State University in South Dakota and has recently shown work at the Archie Bray Foundation. Thoreson, a former instructor at the clay studio at the American Museum of Ceramic Art (AMOCA), is presently pursuing a post-baccalaureate certificate at Concordia University in Minnesota. Tucci resides in Cedar Rapids, Iowa where she is the Gallery Assistant and Inventory Manager at Gilded Pear Gallery and the Chair of the Gallery Committee at the Iowa Ceramics Center and Glass Studio; her studio is at the Cherry Building in the New Bohemia District.
Selected works from Reconstitute will be displayed in a successive sister exhibition, Part & Parcel, featured as part of NCECA’s (National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts) concurrent exhibitions during their 53rd annual conference: Claytopia. P & P continues the discussion by adding a self-taught artist, to illuminate how knowledge and experience gained by the maker informs the material and that they may coexist in the same milieu.