MIKE ROCHE CIRCUS & PLAY
MIKE ROCHE CIRCUS & PLAY January 8 - 31, 2022
Cover- Box Car, 2021, Stoneware and Brass Photography - Mike Roche Catalogue Design - Sophia Marsh
Lucy Lacoste Gallery 25 Main Street, Concord MA lucylacoste.com | info@lucylacoste.com| 978.369.0278
Lucy Lacoste Gallery presents with pleasure its current exhibition: Mike Roche: Circus & Play, January 8 - 31, 2022, in which the artist explores the heyday of the traveling Circus (1920’s1930’s) intertwined with the introduction and spread of Jazz through his quixotically whimsical wood-fired sculpture.
Circus & Play Show Statement As the Barnum and Bailey circus was winding down and beginning it’s farewell tour I became invested in exploring this new body of work entitled Circus & Play. Although its impacts had diminished in the later years, for over a century the circus was a thriving force that would travel the world and test one's sense of reality. They brought the new, the groundbreaking, the unusual and the magnificent to all reaches of culture and society. Before television and the internet the circus was one of the only mechanisms Americans had to challenge ideas and expand what was known to be possible. I was posed with a question of “What is the circus today?” Is there a field or entity that has filled the void or are we experiencing a constant circus through media, internet and social networking? If this is our circus, is anybody curating or are we looking through a lens without filters?
It is unusual to see sculpture with so much narrative content fired with wood. When asked about this, Roche said that in wood-fire the surface is built up over time from fallen ash that melts to form the glaze. It is not a one-day process. The depth and history of his works are reflected in the depth and variation of the wood-fired surfaces. Mike Roche is a ceramics artist from Dorchester, Massachusetts. He studied oil painting with the accomplished landscape artist Peter Roux, while taking classes in high school in advertising, art, and design. Roche enrolled in Massachusetts College of Art and Design to continue his painting studies. He took his first course in ceramic hand-building during his freshman year and fell deeply in love with the medium's endless possibilities. During his last year at Mass Art, from which he graduated with the highest honors, Roche had the good fortune to meet the world-renowned ceramic artist Jun Kaneko, who after seeing Roche’s thesis show, invited him to work as his assistant in his Omaha Nebraska studio. Over the next four years, Roche worked closely with Kaneko taking part in every operation necessary to run the expansive and prolific studio. Roche received his MFA from the University of Delaware in 2012. During his time in Delaware, Roche continued to explore the scale of his sculptures and evolved the complexity of his surface treatments on the forms. After obtaining his graduate degree, Roche moved back to Massachusetts to reconnect with his roots and become involved with the local clay community that had so greatly influenced and inspired his current journey as a contemporary ceramic artist. “It is a pleasure to represent Mike Roche as he advances as a ceramic artist. When we first met, he had just become the manager of the ceramic studio at the Umbrella Arts Center in Concord MA. I sensed immediately that he would bring positive changes to the Clay Department there. I was impressed that he had worked for Jun Kaneko, thus understanding ceramics in the broader sense. I found out he did wood-fire and made functional pottery. It was only later that I realized he was also a sculptor making work of such depth.” - Lucy Lacoste
As the series progressed and the research went deeper the history of the circus became more and more critical. It became important to not only acknowledge the positive impacts but also recognize the darker ramifications that these systems and organizations can produce. In the early days, Jazz was one of the greatest forms of expression that was part of the circus. Music from African American communities spread throughout the country with these traveling shows and forced many to recognize the undeniable creativity and brilliance. Although the musicians were almost never given the respect they deserved and were often treated very poorly, their work changed our world as we know it and became one of the cornerstones of American Art and Culture. In this series Jazz became a critical element of discussion. I looked at the soulful complexity that was developed within the music and admired the confidence and boldness of improvisation. I admired the serious pursuit of play and spontaneity and the courage it takes to bring seemingly different elements together to form beauty and harmony. Circus & Play explores both the challenges and successes of the avant-garde. This series celebrates the brilliance and splendor of artists and musicians who have paved the road before us while also realizing the constraints and impediments that got in their way.
Mike Roche
Artist Statement
My work is best described through a confluence of ideas, interwoven and at times contradictory. I make ceramic objects and environments as a way to explore utopian and dystopian concepts and movements. I’m interested in the different ways in which the objects and environments that surround us impact our lives and am inspired by possibilities for progression and improvement. I believe the forms, surfaces and presentations of objects in our physical world can have a direct impact on our mental space and am drawn to explore the potentials of how formal qualities within our surroundings can alter both the physical and psychological spaces we occupy.
As a creator I work out my ideas through process. The act of making provides a forum for me to think and reflect. Ideas function as a starting point; the time spent building forms, creating textures and establishing a context within their surroundings is where the body of the work comes to life. The play between the physical world and the ideas I’m representing allow me to specifically investigate how different qualities in form and material can challenge and alter psychological interpretations. My works contain an underlying utopian and surrealist perspective meant to mirror and reflect life and society. The generation of my art allows the contrast between utopian visions and reality to be emphasized and illuminated while offering new perspectives and ideas about our past and future.
Box Car, 2021 Stoneware, Brass 10.50h x 8w x 13d in
Record Keeper, 2021 Porcelain, Brass, Copper 13h x 7w x 12d in
Speed of Sound, 2021 Stoneware, Brass, Copper 16h x 9w x 18d in
Mill Town Circus, 2021 Stoneware, Brass 20h x 11w x 14d in
Social Circus, 2021 Porcelain, Gold 17h x 10w x 10d in
Exclamation Tent, 2021 Stoneware 20h x 11w x 11d in
Questionnaire, 2021 Stoneware 20h x 11w x 11d in
Circus House, 2021 Porcelain 14h x 5w x 9d in
Jass Archway 002, 2021, Porcelain, 5.50h x 4w x 5d in
Jass Archway 001, 2021, Porcelain, 8h x 6w x 6d in
The Blues, 2021 Stoneware and Barium Glaze (wood fired) 8.5h x 5.5w x 3d in
Doorway Chunk, 2021 Porcelain 5h x 4.75w x 2d in
Circus Top, 2021, Stoneware, 13h x 11w x 11d in
Circus Top, View II
State of Play 002, 2021 Porcelain, Stoneware, Brass, Poplar 15.50h x 4w x 23d in
State of Play 001, 2021 Porcelain, Stoneware, Brass, Poplar 26h x 4w x 15d in
Resume University of Delaware, Newark, DE Master of Fine Arts in Ceramics 2004-2008
Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, MA BFA graduate with Honors and Distinction, Fine Arts 3D/Ceramics
2006-2007
2015 “Graphic Clay” Baltimore Clay Works, Baltimore,MD 2015 “Chroma” Gallery 263, Cambridge, MA 2014 “Art 100” Piano Craft Gallery, Boston, MA
Education 2012-2014
Exhibitions cont.
Diablo Glass and Metals, Roxbury, MA Lampworking
2014 “Platinum” Kathryn Schultz Gallery, Cambridge, MA 2014 “Annual Cup Show” Random Tea House, Philadelphia, PA 2014 “Art in the Garden” Newark Botanical Garden, Newark, DE 2014 “You Deserve to Be Happy” Little Berlin, Philadelphia, PA 2014 “Place of Insight” Pocket Utopia, New York, NY 2013 “Art in the Garden” Newark Botanical Garden, Newark, DE 2012 “New Blood Show” Crane Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Solo Exhibitions
2011 “2011 Annual Auction” Bemis Center, Omaha, NE
2022 "Circus & Play" Lucy Lacoste Gallery, Concord, MA
2011 “River to River” The Ceramics Center, Cedar Rapids, IA
2016 “Solo Exhibition” Mudflat Pottery School, Somerville, MA
2011 “Everything and Nothing at Once” Bemis Center, Omaha, NE
2015 “Solo Exhibition” Feet of Clay, Brookline, MA
2011 “Science Fair” Damen/Powell production, Omaha, NE 2010 “Opening Show” Retro Gallery, Omaha,NE
Exhibitions
2010 “2010 Annual Auction” Bemis Center, Omaha,NE
2020 “ A Change in Atmosphere” Umbrella Arts Center, Concord, MA
2009 “In Common” Mosaic Gallery, Omaha,NE
2019 “Passages” Umbrella Arts Center, Concord, MA
2008 “2008 Annual Auction” Mass. College of Art, Boston, MA
2019 “AIR Red Lodge Exhibit” Mudflat Pottery School, Somerville, MA
2007 “Rupture” Tower Gallery, Boston, MA
2018 “State of Clay 2018”, Lexington Arts & Crafts Society, Lexington, MA
2006 “Ashes to Ashes” Student Life Gallery, Boston, MA
2018 “Off the Wall 2017” Umbrella Community Arts Center, Concord, MA
2006 “Memories of Symmetry” Brandt Gallery, Boston, MA
2017 “START” Arts and Culture Festival, Worcester, MA 2016 “Division of Mound Exploration” Vicki, Newburgh, NY 2016 “State of Clay 2016” , Lexington Arts & Crafts Society, Lexington, MA 2016 “All Fired Up” Piano Craft Gallery, Boston, MA 2015 “Art in the Orchard” Park Hill Orchard, Easthampton, MA 2015 “Small Works” Elusie Gallery, Easthampton, MA 2015 “Discover Quincy” The Gallery, Quincy, MA 2015 “Eclectic Traditions” Attleboro Arts Museum, Attleboro, MA
Awards, Residencies and Publications 2018 AIA Artist Residency, Red Lodge Clay Center, Red Lodge, MT 2016 Performance in Publication, Emergency Index Volume 6, 2016 2016 Artwork in Publication, Clay Times Magazine, Volume 22, Issue 101 2015 Artist Residency, Mudflat Pottery Studio, Somerville, MA 2014 Artist Residency, Feet of Clay Studio, Brookline, MA 2008 North East Pottery Award, Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, MA 2007 Foundation Award, Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, MA