“Head of the Family”,
Surface Tension is a show that explores the feelings and concerns that move us but are often kept below the surface. I like to use clay as a canvas where our interior lives — our yearnings and connections to one another and to the world — are painted or engraved on the clay surface.
Head of the Family, for example, expresses some of the hopes, dreams, and dramas in family connections. The texture of the clay surface suggests a turbulence and liveliness that I like. At times the affairs of the world can be so overwhelming I feel like a puppet with strings being pulled in different directions as in Marionette. The Hurdler looks frantic. Can he ever jump high enough or often enough to get to his goal? We can’t solve our most crucial problems and some of these pieces seem to reflect that.
Concerns about the future of the planet are of paramount importance. The Mermaid is alarmed by our lack of stewardship in her sea shown in the en gravings on her scales and she wants out. The painting Should We Stay or Should We Go focuses on the unsettling changes happening in California. I went out to the shoreline to paint the beautiful landscape and then added our effects on the environment looking grim but with rays of hope.
I’ve added paintings and clayboards to this show where the themes are simi lar to the ceramics. I’ve been painting in watercolors since I was a child. My parents were painters and I learned how to paint by watching them, espe cially my mother. I use acrylic paint on the ceramic pieces the same way I use watercolors on paper — in watery layers.
I’m inspired by the beauty of the world, its extraordinary diversity, and I like to use humor. The best ideas come as a complete surprise. They don’t come out of a logical process but out of a form of daydreaming — after I put a subject in my mind that feels important to me. I think of myself as a sur realist artist using real images in a way not seen in real life. I use an abbrevi ated form of realism but spend time getting the proportions of the figure, the gestures of the fingers and hands, and the facial expressions more or less plausible. I like the intensity of The Hurdler’s face and the more quizzi cal look in Baby Teapot. I enjoy seeing how pushing the clay here and there affects expression — working with clay is full of surprises.
Artist Statement
“Marionette,
Top:
Top: “Sea Change”, 2019, (2 parts), clay, Masonite, acrylics, 16” x 10”
Bottom: “Skin Diver”, 2022, Watercolor painting, 23” x
Top: “Too Hot Teapot, 2021, ceram ics, acrylics, 12” x 10” x 5”
Middle: “Crowded Teapot”, 2018” ceramics, acrylics, 8” x 9” x 8”
Bottom: “Baby Teapot”, 2018, acrylic, acrylics, 12” x 11” x 7”
Beverly Mayeri
Beverly Mayeri is a studio artist living in the San Francisco Bay Area. She earned her BA from the University of California, Berkeley, and her MA in sculpture at San Francisco State University. She has had solo shows in San Francisco, New York City, Chicago, and St. Louis. She was awarded two Na tional endowment for the Arts Visual Artist Individual Fellowships, a Virginia A. Groot Foundation Grant, 2 Marin Arts Council Fine Arts Individual Artist Grants, and a residency at the DeYoung Museum in San Francisco.
Her work is in the permanent collections of Scripps College, Claremont, CA, Detroit MOCA, Fuller Museum of Art, L.A. County Museum of Art, Honolulu Museum of Art, Canton Museum of Art, High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Racine Museum of Art, and others as well as many collections.
Education
1976 MA, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA 1967 BA, University of California, Berkeley, CA
Selected Exhibitions
2022 Duane Reed Gallery, St. Louis, MO
2021 American Museum of Ceramic Arts, Pomona, CA
2017 SOFA Chicago, Duane Reed Gallery
Racine Art Museum, Racine, WI
2016 SOFA Chicago, Duane Reed Gallery
2015 De Young Museum, San Francisco, CA
2014 Duane Reed Gallery, St. Louis, MO
2013 Racine Art Museum, Racine, WI
2011 SOFA NY, Duane Reed Gallery Perimeter Gallery, Chicago, IL
2009 Four Fired, Duane Reed Gallery, St. Louis, MO
2008 Perimeter Gallery, Chicago, IL
2005 Art of Craft in America, Chautauqua Center for Visual Arts, Chautauqua, NY
2004 Perimeter Gallery, Chicago, IL
Selected Public Collections
Canton Art Institute, Canton, OH Contemporary Museum of Modern Art, Honolulu, HI
Detroit Museum of Contemporary Art Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, MA
High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA Long Beach Parks and Recreation, Long Beach, CA
Los Angeles Arts Commission, Los Angeles, CA Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA National Museum of History Taipei,Taiwan Oregon College of Art and Craft, Portland, OR
Racine Art Museum, Racine, WI Scripps College, Pomona, CA
Back “The Mermaid”, 30” 9” Craig Kolb
