M A R R O W HILLARY KANE
Cover artwork: Kardia II
Photography by Hillary Kane & Roan Callahan
Catalogue designed by Ula Grabski
November2-30,2024
Lucy Lacoste Gallery is pleased to announce our new exhibition MARROW, with Hillary Kane, opening November 2, 2024. This is Kane’s second solo show at the gallery. Her first solo, UNEARTHED: Relics of Memory, was a great success and MARROW brings us a beautiful new evolution of Kane’s rich, authentic style. The show consists of a range of wood-fired sculptures, mainly made in Bali, Indonesia, with the exception of some built and fired in Massachusetts. Also included are several paper-clay on canvas, oil paintings. MARROW plays with juxtaposing ideas of objects holding massive weight and heft that can balance on a precarious point, daring the viewer to question where it stands.
Kane’s sculpture is not only about form, but soul. She has traveled the world and immersed herself in many cultures, which informs her work in a unique and personal way. The work of MARROW digs into the essence of Kane’s artistic being. The work teeters on the edge of exploration of form, and thoughts of actual anatomy. The work also literally has the appearance of teetering on balancing points centered to wood bases made from reclaimed wood, that Kane charred herself. Kane begins her process by making small scale forms and uses these as roadmaps to create the final, large-scale sculpture. Along with her paper-clay, oil paintings, the show features functional ware such as chawan (teabowl), tokkuri (sake bottle) and containers.
Extremely fond of the sustainable, rudimentary approach to the wood firing process, Kane effortlessly blends form and surface with thoughtful meaning. The striking look of her sculpture is achieved by hand-orchestrating bold texture before firing, in harmony with the natural result of the wood firing process - a surface built up with layers of ash. Kane embraces the aesthetic draw to atmospheric firing and enjoys thelack of control over the fierce and powerful process.
Kane, originally from Concord, Massachusetts, studied painting and printmaking in undergrad. Her world-travels have deeply informed her artwork, and she was first drawn to clay as a medium during her time as part of the Peace Corp in Cameroon, where she focused on Agroforestry and was physically working with red clay soil. Upon her return to the states and an artist-stay at Penland School of Craft in North Carolina, she was introduced to the wood-firing process and immediately felt her calling to that lifestyle.
In 2010 she co-founded Gaia Ceramic Arts Center in Ubud, Bali and has since been directing and developing there, continuing with making her own art while raising twin daughters. Kane ultimately splits her year between her hometown of Concord and Bali, Indonesia.
Hillary Kane in her Concord, MA Studio
M A R R O W :
a daring look within
These works represent a continual unearthing of emotions bound up in form, a noetic archaeology where a fragment, a pure abstraction, can be transliterated into a mass or a memory, vaguely corporeal. The pieces present visual dualities that ask, Are we looking near or far? Is this anatomy or geology? Talisman or specimen? They ask for discernment in place of answer.
This excavation, ever deeper, revels in the essence of tipping point: the imminent possibility of crumble or of lift off; of return or of departure the axial limen of the unknown. The sculptures evolve from miniature studies into exaggerated expansions of tiny parts of a whole, yet they are each whole: embodiments of the small universe and the great order-- As above, So below.
Born of fire, they are bodies and bone, they are skin, they are the accumulated layer upon layer of our sentient existence with every dusting and fluxing of wood ash, with every sheaf of wax or color or oxide powder embedded there within. From the crucible of their creation, they ask of us what it means to hold and behold, to contain and to carry, to scratch and dig and claw to the marrow, to balance and even to levitate—in spite of, in the face of everything we know. - Hillary Kane
Migration: the world in a vessel
Anagama-fired stoneware
12h x 10w x 10d in
Anagama-fired stoneware
17.50h x 10w x 9d in
Kardia I, 2024
Kardia II, 2024
Anagama-fired stoneware 16h x 12w x 11d in
Anagama-fired stoneware
18h x 11w x 12d in
Kardia III, 2024
Kardia V, 2024
Anagama-fired stoneware 17h x 12w x 11d in
Anagama-fired stoneware
9h x 9w x 11d in
Shear, 2024
Volition, 2024
Anagama-fired stoneware
13h x 18w x 12d in
Passage, weightless, 2024 Anagama-fired stoneware 10h x 31w x 13d in
Threshold, 2024
Anagama-fired stoneware
11h x 27w x 30d in
Kairos, 2024
Anagama-fired Stoneware
28.50h x 11w x 10d in
Four Chawans, 2024
Anagama-fired stoneware
Anagama-fired stoneware
11h x 6w x 5d in
Sacral IV, 2024
Containers, 2024
Anagama-fired stoneware; bloodwood 24k gold leaf & copper wire
4h x 5w x 4d in
Night, chawan, 2024
Anagama-fired black porcelain
3.50h x 4.50w x 4.50d in
Weft, 2024
Paperclay, cold wax, dry pigment and oil paint on canvas
14h x 14w in
Tender, 2024
Paperclay, cold wax, dry pigmentand oil paint on canvas
14h x 14w in
Touch, 2024
Paperclay, cold wax, dry pigment and oil paint on canvas
14h x 14w in
Paperclay paintings with cold wax, dry pigment and oil paint on canvas, 14h x 14w in
Marrow
Deluge, 2024
Paperclay, cold wax, dry pigment & oil paint on canvas
48h x 48w in
Limen, 2024
Paperclay, cold wax, dry pigment & oil paint on canvas
48h x 48w in
Paperclay, cold wax, dry pigment & oil paint on canvas
48h x 48w in
Whisper, 2024
HILLARY KANE BIOGRAPHY
For Hillary Kane, place is of essence. Over the years, the map coordinates of home has shifted across countries and continents and delivered a richness in languages and cultures, inspiration and challenges that permeate her creative practice. Originally having studied painting and printmaking (in the States and in France), it was her work with local farmers in a remote village in west Cameroon that triggered her gut-pull to the medium of clay. An immersion at Penland School of Crafts solidified this interest and subsequent experiences from New England to New Mexico initiated and strengthened her passion for wood-firing in particular.
Many moons and adventures later, the tidal pull of the world led her ultimately to settle in Bali, Indonesia where she now continues to focus her creativity in both clay and paint, enjoying the dynamic of two very different mediums and their possible confluence. Wood-fire ceramics has dominated her practice and led her to numerous residencies and conferences globally, as well as to pioneer several wood-firing kilns in Bali.
In12 Ceramic Arts Center (Ubud, Bali) and has since been directing its growth: developing an international workshop program and artist residency, hosting as well as instructing, and ever continuing with the making process. Included in that creativity has been the life-changing journey of raising twin daughters. At very present, she lives a bi-hemispheric lifestyle, splitting time between the lush and heady tropical backdrop of her island life and the cyclical seasons of her New England upbringing-- embracing the duality of home in two disparate worlds; searching with her artwork for a fluency between them.
Sanctum, 2024
Anagama-fired stoneware
9.50h x 6.50w x 6d in
Hillary Kane | Artistic Resume
Selected Exhibitions
2024 Marrow, Lucy Lacoste Gallery, Concord, MA
2023 A Conversation with Fire, LA Meridiana, Tuscany, Italy
2022 UNEARTHED solo exhibition, Lacoste Gallery, Concord, MA
2022 Uncommon Ground , Western Wyoming Community College, Rock Springs, WY
2021 Tea Reflection (invitational group show) the Craft Alliance, St. Louis, MO
2020 Atmosphere... (group exhibition) Umbrella Art Center Gallery, Concord, MA USA
2017-present Gaya Ceramic Art Space Gallery (solo exhibition and continuing exhibition)
2019-present John Hardy Jewelry, Seminyak, Bali, INDONESIA
2012-present Gaya Ceramic Showroom (continuing exhibition of works)
2017 Exhibiting Artist, Cooroy Syrinx Anagama
2016 Gulgong Ceramic Conference, Gulgong, AUSTRALIA
2010 Relics of a Dreaming (solo exhibition), Gaya Fusion Art Space, Bali, INDONESIA
2009-13 Indivie Gallery, Seminyak, Bali, INDONESIA 2010-present Métis Gallery, Seminyak, Bali, INDONESIA
2009 Kanayama Resident Artist Exhibition, Kanayama Pottery, Aomori, JAPAN
2009 Sanctum Shifting (solo exhibition), Gaya Fusion Art Space, Bali, INDONESIA
2008 Loka Café-Gallery, (solo exhibition), Taos, NM
2008 Ojo Caliente Mineral Springs Spa, (featured artist), Ojo Caliente, NM
2007-8 Contemporary Clay Fair, NM Potters and Clay Artists, Santa Fe, NM
2007 J. Bradford Pottery, (two-woman show), Arroyo Seco, NM
2007 Centre Ceramique de la Borne, “La Borne S’Enflamme,” FRANCE
2007 The State of Clay (juried exhibition), De Cordova Museum, Lexington, MA
2005-8 J. Bradford Pottery, Arroyo Seco, NM
2007 Parks II Gallery, Taos, NM
2006 Visiting Artist Lecture and Solo Exhibition, Miss Porter's School, Farmington, CT
2006 Taos Fall Arts Festival, Taos, NM 2006/7 Lacoste Gallery, (Emerging Artist Group Show), Concord, MA
2006 Asian Arts Festival, Harwood Museum of Art, Taos, NM
2004 Creamery Gallery Potter’s Market, Canton Clayworks, Canton, CT
1998 Faculty Artist Solo Show, Gallery at Miss Porter’s School, Farmington, CT
1997 Open Galleries, Burren College of Art, Ball Vaughan, IRELAND
1997 Senior Scholar Thesis Exhibit, Colby College Art Museum, Waterville ME
1996 Master-Apprentice Retrospective, Dickinson College in Toulouse, FRANCE
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE CO-FOUNDER/CREATIVE DIRECTOR
2009-present Gaya Ceramic Arts Center, Bali, INDONESIA Directing development of international workshops, artist in residence program, and community education. Hosting as well as leading 2-week workshops. Instructing professional courses in throwing, hand-building, firing techniques.
2-Week Workshops topics: “Anagama Firing” (6x) “Micro to Macro”
“1000 Surfaces”
“Textures & Textiles” “Culinary Clay” (4x)
“Finding Center: Yoga & Clay”
“Birthing Big Pots: yoga & clay” “The Clay of Tea”
“A Long Slow Walk through Fire”
“No Mud/No Lotus”
Shorter courses:
“Soda Firing 101”
“Fundamentals in Hand-building” “Techniques in Fast Coil-building” “Advanced Throwing: Teapots and Lidded Vessels”
“Advanced Throwing: Dinnerware” “Fundamentals in Throwing”
2021/22 WORKSHOP INSTRUCTOR, Alison Palmer Studio, Kent, CT, USA
2019 INSTRUCTOR, Umbrella Center for the Arts, Concord, MA, USA
Semester-long courses in throwing and hand-building.
2017 LECTURER, “Smoke on the Water” Wood-fire conference, Cooroy, AUSTRALIA
Invited firer on the “Syrinx” anagama.
2011 LECTURER, Woodfire Tas, tri-annual wood fire conference, Tasmania, AUSTRALIA
2011 WORKSHOP LEADER, Canberra Potters Society, Brookvale TAFE Syndey, AUS
Two-day workshops in either location entitled “1000 Surfaces condensed” and “Pandora Revealed”
2010 GUEST LECTURER, Golden Earth 2010, Ceramics Conference, New Delhi, INDIA
2009 RESIDENT ARTIST, Kanayama Pottery, Aomori, JAPAN
2008-9 RESIDENT ARTIST, Gaya Ceramic and Design, BALI, INDONESIA
Developing and instructing international two-week workshop programs, demonstrating throwing and hand-building techniques.
2008 VISUAL ART SPECIALIST, Green School, BALI, INDONESIA Developed and taught art curriculum K-8 in stunningly atypical outdoor school setting.
2007 WORKSHOP LEADER, University of New Mexico, Farmington Two-day workshop for adult ceramicists focusing on wheel-thrown and hand-built forms, slip work, and brush-making.
INVITED ARTIST, Young International Woodfiring Association, La Borne,
FRANCE
2007 Participant artist at kiln building, firing symposium involving 25 wood kilns, an International gathering of clay artists, and a final exhibition.
2005-8 WORKSHOP LEADER, Taos Clay, Taos, NM
2006 Instructor for workshops and courses including wheel-throwing, Chinese brushmaking, slips for woodfire, and hand-building techniques.
2006 VISITING ARTIST, Miss Porter's School, Farmington, CT
Three-day visit including slide lecture, exhibition of work, and classroom participation. WORKSHOP LEADER, Palmer Studio, Kent, CT Two-day workshop focusing on wheel-throwing, hand-building, slips and techniques
EDUCATION and TRAINING
1997 B.A. Studio Art and Art History, Colby College, Waterville, ME
Graduated Summa cum Laude with distinction in major.
2002 School of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA 2004 Penland School of Crafts, Penland, NC
1997 Burren College of Art, Ballyvaughan, County Clare, IRELAND
1996 Dickinson College à Toulouse, FRANCE
1996 École des Beaux-Arts, Toulouse, FRANCE
4h x 3w x 3d in
