Ashwini Bhat What I Touch Touches Me
Ashwini Bhat What I Touch Touches Me May 8th-June 5th, 2021
Lucy Lacoste Gallery 25 Main Street, Concord MA lucylacoste.com info@lucylacoste.com
Ashwini Bhat What I Touch Touches Me May 8th-June 5th, 2021
Lucy Lacoste Gallery 25 Main Street, Concord MA lucylacoste.com info@lucylacoste.com
Ashwini Bhat: Artist Statement What I Touch Touches Me
Although my earlier work was also focused on earthliness and materiality, in the last few years of my career, nature has become not just an influence, but the wellspring. This new body of work explores my trajectory toward a metaphysical understanding of nature, objects, and our relationship with them. In developing this body of work, I take inspiration from the lauded eco-poet Brenda Hillman, one of American poetry’s more innovative writers, whose recent books and whose company on several hikes in Northern California have stimulated my imagination. Hillman talks about the artist’s formal aspiration for both “structure and boundarylessness.” The structure of my new body of work is derived from my immersion in my surroundings in a dramatic, highly various, and fragile Northern California landscape. The sculptures are assembled in four segments: Comfort Objects evolved— during a pandemic in which touch has become unsafe— from my examination of the shapes and forms of seed-pods as symbols of mysterious, life-birthing potentialities. Animated Objects are studies in gesture, movement, and the feelings evoked by my memories of objects that have deep personal associations for me. Intimate Earth Objects reference elements of earth and body. These biomorphic forms enact the co-existence and mutuality of the human and non-human. And they also focus on the sorts of objects that are historically or culturally associated with rituals and sacrality. Assemblage Objects juxtapose colors and consortiums of form that reference particular landscapes in which I’ve spent time. The shadowbox is, clearly, an homage to Joseph Cornell, who lived most of his life in physical isolation, but remained in touch with his contemporary makers. All four segments are linked by allusions to primordial symbols or patterns such as the Mandala, Spiral, Serpent, the Ouroboros, and the Fibonacci sequence. But the meanings of these sculptures are fluid, not rigid. The objects might easily crossover and fit into other groupings. And this boundarylessness allows them to acquire multiple connotations. There is an open interplay of elements and a possibility of infinitely reassembling alliances. My aim is to suggest ways of looking that promote raveled and linked engagements that define the relation between all animate and inanimate matter.
I’m drawn to points of view that reject the privileging of human existence over non-human beings and objects. I’m drawn to rituals rather than religion; to animism rather than monotheism. I feel a kinship with Brenda Hillman when she says she thinks of herself as a mystic in a practical way, and I feel an appreciation for her poetry which flows through matter, spirit, and everything in between: “In the expiation of nature, we are required to experience the dramatic narrative of matter. The rocks under California are reigning in their little world. This was set down in strata so you could know what it felt like to have been earth.” — Ashwini Bhat Petaluma, CA 2021 Comfort Object
Ashwini Bhat: Artist Statement What I Touch Touches Me
Although my earlier work was also focused on earthliness and materiality, in the last few years of my career, nature has become not just an influence, but the wellspring. This new body of work explores my trajectory toward a metaphysical understanding of nature, objects, and our relationship with them. In developing this body of work, I take inspiration from the lauded eco-poet Brenda Hillman, one of American poetry’s more innovative writers, whose recent books and whose company on several hikes in Northern California have stimulated my imagination. Hillman talks about the artist’s formal aspiration for both “structure and boundarylessness.” The structure of my new body of work is derived from my immersion in my surroundings in a dramatic, highly various, and fragile Northern California landscape. The sculptures are assembled in four segments: Comfort Objects evolved— during a pandemic in which touch has become unsafe— from my examination of the shapes and forms of seed-pods as symbols of mysterious, life-birthing potentialities. Animated Objects are studies in gesture, movement, and the feelings evoked by my memories of objects that have deep personal associations for me. Intimate Earth Objects reference elements of earth and body. These biomorphic forms enact the co-existence and mutuality of the human and non-human. And they also focus on the sorts of objects that are historically or culturally associated with rituals and sacrality. Assemblage Objects juxtapose colors and consortiums of form that reference particular landscapes in which I’ve spent time. The shadowbox is, clearly, an homage to Joseph Cornell, who lived most of his life in physical isolation, but remained in touch with his contemporary makers. All four segments are linked by allusions to primordial symbols or patterns such as the Mandala, Spiral, Serpent, the Ouroboros, and the Fibonacci sequence. But the meanings of these sculptures are fluid, not rigid. The objects might easily crossover and fit into other groupings. And this boundarylessness allows them to acquire multiple connotations. There is an open interplay of elements and a possibility of infinitely reassembling alliances. My aim is to suggest ways of looking that promote raveled and linked engagements that define the relation between all animate and inanimate matter.
I’m drawn to points of view that reject the privileging of human existence over non-human beings and objects. I’m drawn to rituals rather than religion; to animism rather than monotheism. I feel a kinship with Brenda Hillman when she says she thinks of herself as a mystic in a practical way, and I feel an appreciation for her poetry which flows through matter, spirit, and everything in between: “In the expiation of nature, we are required to experience the dramatic narrative of matter. The rocks under California are reigning in their little world. This was set down in strata so you could know what it felt like to have been earth.” — Ashwini Bhat Petaluma, CA 2021 Comfort Object
Getting to Feeling: On Ashwini Bhat’s What I Touch Touches Me Essay by Shannon Rae Stratton, Executive Director Oxbow Residency April 2021 I have certain cups I prefer for certain reasons: a 3-handled mug made by American potter Noah Singer and a small dark blue cup by Japanese potter Hitoshi Kato. I reach for them at different times: my Singer mug for morning tea, its generous scale (like a bowl with handles) gives the start of the day a sense of possibility; my Kato cup for a small amount of wine at the end of the day. Its modest scale, deep blue glaze, and small ridges create a sense of intimacy as I cradle it close in my hands, lost in its rich indigo hue. It is clear to me that both of these objects are comforting – I seek them out for the particular power each of them has to ground me. After contemplating these objects overnight – specifically my Kato cup, which held my wine – I recognized that the comfort found in these things was comfort in their stability. There sureness. I select more delicate objects when I feel whimsical or celebratory (perhaps joy is capable of more risk?), but the Kato and the Singer cups are the foundational ones, and thus the go-to when I am feeling the everyday vulnerability that is both the morning and the end of the long day. I begin with this preamble to feel my way into Ashwini Bhat’s new body of work, What I Touch Touches Me. I cannot, unfortunately hold any of Bhat’s objects; I must imagine them. For me, they exist only as digital images – a common plight for someone writing about an artist’s work for a catalog, not to mention for most who read about it. But this plight reminds me that the digital has become an unexceptional interface for humans and the rest of the world. People, places, events, objects, feelings exist as images and text that we scroll through daily (even hourly), a surface we skip along, paying a fraction of our attention too. Bhat’s new objects emerge from her immersion in an environment – in the material landscape that surrounds her in Northern California. They are a reminder of the realness of the earth we continue to live on, even while the digital realm might drag us elsewhere. Of the four groups of objects: Comfort, Animated, Intimate Earth and Assemblage Objects, her Comfort Objects were the ones I naturally longed to hold and sent me pondering those comfort objects of my own. I had to find my way to Bhat’s objects this way – touching things to understand what touches me (too).
At a distance, I can only speculate on what Bhat’s objects feel like, but they appear to me as things cast from the shapes our bodies might make out of air: her Comfort Objects taken from the space inside her grip – gentle or firm; her Animated Objects from the shape of her energy as it drifts or tears through the air; and her Intimate Earth Objects a record of her interface with nature and the collaborative space between a body, its emotions, and the land out of which clay emerges. Together, Bhat’s objects picture the negotiation of stillness and movement, lightness and pressure, presence and absence. Including in this, her Assemblage Objects – shadow boxes filled with text and swatches of painting and found objects from nature, maps and other dimensional fragments that recall works by Lenore Tawney or Joseph Cornell – I might describe the objects Bhat has made for What I Touch Touches Me, as impressions. Impressions in that they are feelings or senses of the world, of space, of time and of the body. Impressions in that they are, or they bear, the imprint of the body or the earth upon them. Impressions in that they are the artist’s rendition of a moment, a place – specifically her physicality during a global pandemic in the dramatic landscape of Northern California. These objects tell me: “I am here. And here is here. And this was now, then.” Bhat transmits through clay – using it as a kind of transistor for the ineffable, and thus something is lost in translation when clay becomes a backlit digital image. The ineffable needs objects to communicate. It needs our touch to sit with it, free from rhetoric and free from mediation. From what I can see: the folds and creases in Comfort Objects immortalize the gathering together and steadying of self; the ripples of clay in Animated Objects, capture pressure, while release is realized where some clay curls and erupts at the edges of the objects. And while these highly gestural forms might be impressions of a particular year and place and person, Bhat concedes that they are fluid. She generously releases them from the specificity of her authorship, and notes that their boundarylessness allows them to acquire multiple connotations. I have no doubt that some of those connotations will stick to these objects through mediated encounter, but as I long to spend less time in front of a screen, I recognize that what I truly want: is to hold things. And while I cannot hold Bhat’s Comfort Objects, I am grateful for the reminder that I too am touched by the things I touch, and it is through those material encounters that I am better able to feel.
Getting to Feeling: On Ashwini Bhat’s What I Touch Touches Me Essay by Shannon Rae Stratton, Executive Director Oxbow Residency April 2021 I have certain cups I prefer for certain reasons: a 3-handled mug made by American potter Noah Singer and a small dark blue cup by Japanese potter Hitoshi Kato. I reach for them at different times: my Singer mug for morning tea, its generous scale (like a bowl with handles) gives the start of the day a sense of possibility; my Kato cup for a small amount of wine at the end of the day. Its modest scale, deep blue glaze, and small ridges create a sense of intimacy as I cradle it close in my hands, lost in its rich indigo hue. It is clear to me that both of these objects are comforting – I seek them out for the particular power each of them has to ground me. After contemplating these objects overnight – specifically my Kato cup, which held my wine – I recognized that the comfort found in these things was comfort in their stability. There sureness. I select more delicate objects when I feel whimsical or celebratory (perhaps joy is capable of more risk?), but the Kato and the Singer cups are the foundational ones, and thus the go-to when I am feeling the everyday vulnerability that is both the morning and the end of the long day. I begin with this preamble to feel my way into Ashwini Bhat’s new body of work, What I Touch Touches Me. I cannot, unfortunately hold any of Bhat’s objects; I must imagine them. For me, they exist only as digital images – a common plight for someone writing about an artist’s work for a catalog, not to mention for most who read about it. But this plight reminds me that the digital has become an unexceptional interface for humans and the rest of the world. People, places, events, objects, feelings exist as images and text that we scroll through daily (even hourly), a surface we skip along, paying a fraction of our attention too. Bhat’s new objects emerge from her immersion in an environment – in the material landscape that surrounds her in Northern California. They are a reminder of the realness of the earth we continue to live on, even while the digital realm might drag us elsewhere. Of the four groups of objects: Comfort, Animated, Intimate Earth and Assemblage Objects, her Comfort Objects were the ones I naturally longed to hold and sent me pondering those comfort objects of my own. I had to find my way to Bhat’s objects this way – touching things to understand what touches me (too).
At a distance, I can only speculate on what Bhat’s objects feel like, but they appear to me as things cast from the shapes our bodies might make out of air: her Comfort Objects taken from the space inside her grip – gentle or firm; her Animated Objects from the shape of her energy as it drifts or tears through the air; and her Intimate Earth Objects a record of her interface with nature and the collaborative space between a body, its emotions, and the land out of which clay emerges. Together, Bhat’s objects picture the negotiation of stillness and movement, lightness and pressure, presence and absence. Including in this, her Assemblage Objects – shadow boxes filled with text and swatches of painting and found objects from nature, maps and other dimensional fragments that recall works by Lenore Tawney or Joseph Cornell – I might describe the objects Bhat has made for What I Touch Touches Me, as impressions. Impressions in that they are feelings or senses of the world, of space, of time and of the body. Impressions in that they are, or they bear, the imprint of the body or the earth upon them. Impressions in that they are the artist’s rendition of a moment, a place – specifically her physicality during a global pandemic in the dramatic landscape of Northern California. These objects tell me: “I am here. And here is here. And this was now, then.” Bhat transmits through clay – using it as a kind of transistor for the ineffable, and thus something is lost in translation when clay becomes a backlit digital image. The ineffable needs objects to communicate. It needs our touch to sit with it, free from rhetoric and free from mediation. From what I can see: the folds and creases in Comfort Objects immortalize the gathering together and steadying of self; the ripples of clay in Animated Objects, capture pressure, while release is realized where some clay curls and erupts at the edges of the objects. And while these highly gestural forms might be impressions of a particular year and place and person, Bhat concedes that they are fluid. She generously releases them from the specificity of her authorship, and notes that their boundarylessness allows them to acquire multiple connotations. I have no doubt that some of those connotations will stick to these objects through mediated encounter, but as I long to spend less time in front of a screen, I recognize that what I truly want: is to hold things. And while I cannot hold Bhat’s Comfort Objects, I am grateful for the reminder that I too am touched by the things I touch, and it is through those material encounters that I am better able to feel.
Intimate Earth Objects Ashwini Bhat Intimate Earth Object #1 9.50h x 6.50w x 6.50d in
Intimate Earth Objects Ashwini Bhat Intimate Earth Object #1 9.50h x 6.50w x 6.50d in
Ashwini Bhat Intimate Earth Object #4 Glazed Ceramic 13h x 7w x 7d in
Ashwini Bhat Intimate Earth Object #4 Glazed Ceramic 13h x 7w x 7d in
Ashwini Bhat Intimate Earth Object #2 Ceramic 10h x 4w x 7d in
Ashwini Bhat Intimate Earth Object #2 Ceramic 10h x 4w x 7d in
Ashwini Bhat Intimate Earth Object #5 Glazed Ceramic and Paint 5h x 10w x 11d in
Ashwini Bhat Intimate Earth Object #5 Glazed Ceramic and Paint 5h x 10w x 11d in
Ashwini Bhat Intimate Earth Object #3 Glazed Ceramic 6h x 10w x 6d in
Ashwini Bhat Intimate Earth Object #3 Glazed Ceramic 6h x 10w x 6d in
Ashwini Bhat Intimate Earth Object #6 Glazed Ceramic and Paint 5h x 10w x 11d in
Ashwini Bhat Intimate Earth Object #6 Glazed Ceramic and Paint 5h x 10w x 11d in
Animated Objects Ashwini Bhat Animated Object #1 Glazed Ceramic and Paint 7.50h x 8w x 3d in
Animated Objects Ashwini Bhat Animated Object #1 Glazed Ceramic and Paint 7.50h x 8w x 3d in
Ashwini Bhat Animated Object #2 Glazed Ceramic and Paint 5h x 6w x 2d in
Ashwini Bhat Animated Object #4 Glazed Ceramic and Paint 4.50h x 9w x 3d in
Ashwini Bhat Animated Object #2 Glazed Ceramic and Paint 5h x 6w x 2d in
Ashwini Bhat Animated Object #4 Glazed Ceramic and Paint 4.50h x 9w x 3d in
Ashwini Bhat Animated Object #3 Glazed Ceramic and Paint 6.50h x 7.50w x 3.50d in
Ashwini Bhat Animated Object #5 Glazed Ceramic and Paint 5.50h x 8w x 3d in
Ashwini Bhat Animated Object #3 Glazed Ceramic and Paint 6.50h x 7.50w x 3.50d in
Ashwini Bhat Animated Object #5 Glazed Ceramic and Paint 5.50h x 8w x 3d in
Comfort Objects
Comfort Objects
1.) Comfort Object #2 2.)Comfort Object #52 3.) Comfort Object #1 4.) Comfort Object #22 5.) Comfort Object #8 6.) Comfort Object #32 7.) Comfort Object #29 8.) Comfort Object #43 9.) Comfort Object #15
All Comfort Objects Glazed Ceramic and Paint 3h x 3w x 3d in
1.) Comfort Object #2 2.)Comfort Object #52 3.) Comfort Object #1 4.) Comfort Object #22 5.) Comfort Object #8 6.) Comfort Object #32 7.) Comfort Object #29 8.) Comfort Object #43 9.) Comfort Object #15
All Comfort Objects Glazed Ceramic and Paint 3h x 3w x 3d in
10.) Comfort Object #6 11.) Comfort Object #53 12.) Comfort Object #39 13.) Comfort Object #26 14.) Comfort Object #46 15.) Comfort Object #41 16.) Comfort Object #18 17.) Comfort Object #36 18.) Comfort Object #24
All Comfort Objects Glazed Ceramic and Paint 3h x 3w x 3d in
10.) Comfort Object #6 11.) Comfort Object #53 12.) Comfort Object #39 13.) Comfort Object #26 14.) Comfort Object #46 15.) Comfort Object #41 16.) Comfort Object #18 17.) Comfort Object #36 18.) Comfort Object #24
All Comfort Objects Glazed Ceramic and Paint 3h x 3w x 3d in
19.) Comfort Object #25 20.) Comfort Object #14 21.) Comfort Object #11 22.) Comfort Object #16 23.) Comfort Object#49 24.) Comfort Object #10 25.) Comfort Object#30 26.) Comfort Object #28 27.) Comfort Object #48 All Comfort Objects Glazed Ceramic and Paint 3h x 3w x 3d in
19.) Comfort Object #25 20.) Comfort Object #14 21.) Comfort Object #11 22.) Comfort Object #16 23.) Comfort Object#49 24.) Comfort Object #10 25.) Comfort Object#30 26.) Comfort Object #28 27.) Comfort Object #48 All Comfort Objects Glazed Ceramic and Paint 3h x 3w x 3d in
28.) Comfort Object #13 29.) Comfort Object#44 30.) Comfort Object #55 31.) Comfort Object #34 32.) Comfort Object #5 33.) Comfort Object#3
All Comfort Objects Glazed Ceramic and Paint 3h x 3w x 3d in
28.) Comfort Object #13 29.) Comfort Object#44 30.) Comfort Object #55 31.) Comfort Object #34 32.) Comfort Object #5 33.) Comfort Object#3
All Comfort Objects Glazed Ceramic and Paint 3h x 3w x 3d in
The Comfort Objects evolved during a pandemic in which touch became unsafe, from my examination of the shapes and forms of seed-pods as symbols of mysterious, life-birthing potentialities. These intimate objects also make a reference to Rudraksha (the prayer beads from India) and are meant to be touched and held. -Ashwini Bhat
The Comfort Objects evolved during a pandemic in which touch became unsafe, from my examination of the shapes and forms of seed-pods as symbols of mysterious, life-birthing potentialities. These intimate objects also make a reference to Rudraksha (the prayer beads from India) and are meant to be touched and held. -Ashwini Bhat
Assemblage Objects Ashwini Bhat, Assemblage Mixed media, 11h x 11w x 2d in
Assemblage Objects Ashwini Bhat, Assemblage Mixed media, 11h x 11w x 2d in
Ashwini Bhat Corollary #1 Water Color, Indian Khadi Paper 8h x 10w x 2d in
Ashwini Bhat Corollary #2 Water Color, Indian Khadi Paper 8h x 10w x 2d in
Ashwini Bhat Corollary #1 Water Color, Indian Khadi Paper 8h x 10w x 2d in
Ashwini Bhat Corollary #2 Water Color, Indian Khadi Paper 8h x 10w x 2d in
Ashwini Bhat: CV
Awards: 2020-21 McKnight Artist Residency Fellowship, Northern Clay Center, MN, USA 2013-14 Howard Foundation Fellowship for Sculpture, Howard Foundation, RI, USA 2013-14 Shortlist, Emerging Artist Award, ICMEA, Fuping, China Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Fellowship for research (declined by the artist due to visa technicalities) Curatorial: 2022 Guest curator for the 77th Scripps College Ceramic Annual, Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery, Claremont, CA, USA Solo Exhibitions: 2022 American Museum of Ceramic Art (AMOCA), Pomona, CA, USA 2021 Lucy Lacoste Gallery, Concord, MA, USA 2019 Lucy Lacoste Gallery, Concord, MA, USA 2017 Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park, Japan 2016 Arch Contemporary Ceramics, RI, USA 2015 Newport Art Museum, Newport, RI, USA 2012 Clayspace Gallery, Asheville, NC, USA 2008 1 Shantiroad, Bangalore, India Two-person Exhibitions: 2022 A collaboration with Forrest Gander, The Vanderhoef Studio Theatre at the Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts UC Davis, CA, USA 2019 Interior Landscape a collaboration with Forrest Gander, Cohen Gallery, Brown University, Providence, USA. Second edition at Arion Press, Presidio, San Fransisco, CA, USA. 2015 Terra Firma, with Sharbani Das Gupta cosponsored by Brown India Initiative, AS220, Providence, RI, USA Selected Group Exhibitions: 2022 Clay as Soft Power: Shigaraki ware in Postwar America and Japan, University of Michigan Museum of Art 2021 Objects: USA 2020, R & Company, New York, NY, USA 2021 After the Fire, Round Weather Gallery, Oakland, CA, USA 2021 Forest and the Sea, Five Car Garage, Los Angeles, CA, USA 2021 Passages from India, Northern Clay Centre, Minneapolis, MN, USA 2020 Forms Fired, Shoshana Wayne Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, USA 2020 Empowering Voices, Lucy Lacoste Gallery, Concord, MA, USA 2020 Cavin-Morris Gallery, New York, NY, USA 2018 Indian Ceramic Triennal, Jawahar Kala Kendra, Jaipur, India
2016 Latvia International Ceramics Biennale, Daugavpils Mark Rothko Centre, Latvia 2016 Western Colorado Centre for Arts, CO, USA 2016 Standing Wave, Studio P/ The Studios Inc, Kansas City, MO, USA 2016 American Jazz Museum, Kansas City, MO, USA 2014 Stainless Gallery, New Delhi, India 2013 Survey of Contemporary Ceramics, Artworks, MA, USA 2013 Crimson Laurel Gallery, NC, USA 2013 United Art Fair, New Delhi, India 2012 Gallery Square Circle, Auroville, India 2011 Artifact Gallery, Deloraine, Tasmania, Australia 2011 India Art Summit, New Delhi, India Residencies and Teaching Workshops: 2022 Spring semester co-teaching with Forrest Gander, UC Davis, CA, USA 2021 Guest Artist for the FireFest, Star Works NC, USA 2020 Guest Artist lecture, Berkley Art Practice, USA 2020 Guest Artist lecture, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, USA 2020 Guest Artist lecture, Collage for Creative Studies, Detroit, USA 2019 Teaching workshop, Ox-Bow School of Arts, MI, USA 2019 Visiting lecture series, Harvard Ceramics, Boston, MA, USA 2019 Teaching workshop, Umbrella Centre for the Arts, Concord, MA, USA 2019 Teaching and visiting speaker, Ohio Northern University, OH, USA 2018 Teaching workshop, Peters Valley School of Craft, NJ, USA 2017 Guest Artist, The Ceramic Cultural Park Shigaraki, Shiga, Japan 2017 Guest Artist/Panelist/Speaker, International Woodfire Conference, NC, USA 2016 Artist-invite-Artist Residency, Red Lodge Clay Centre, MT, USA 2016 Installation Artist Residency, Arch Contemporary, Tiverton, RI, USA 2016 Panelist, International Woodfire Conference, Sugar Grove, IL, USA 2016 Teaching and visiting speaker, Queens University, Charlotte, NC, USA 2016 Guest Artist, Cub Creek Foundation, Appomattox, VA, USA 2015 Artist in Residence, UMASS Dartmouth, New Bedford, MA, USA 2014 Visiting Speaker, ATREE foundation, Bangalore, India 2014 Artist in Residence, Gustin Ceramics, South Dartmouth, MA, USA 2013 Visiting speaker, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, MA, USA 2013 Invitational Residency, FuLe International Ceramic Art Museums) Fuping, China
Ashwini Bhat: CV
Awards: 2020-21 McKnight Artist Residency Fellowship, Northern Clay Center, MN, USA 2013-14 Howard Foundation Fellowship for Sculpture, Howard Foundation, RI, USA 2013-14 Shortlist, Emerging Artist Award, ICMEA, Fuping, China Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Fellowship for research (declined by the artist due to visa technicalities) Curatorial: 2022 Guest curator for the 77th Scripps College Ceramic Annual, Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery, Claremont, CA, USA Solo Exhibitions: 2022 American Museum of Ceramic Art (AMOCA), Pomona, CA, USA 2021 Lucy Lacoste Gallery, Concord, MA, USA 2019 Lucy Lacoste Gallery, Concord, MA, USA 2017 Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park, Japan 2016 Arch Contemporary Ceramics, RI, USA 2015 Newport Art Museum, Newport, RI, USA 2012 Clayspace Gallery, Asheville, NC, USA 2008 1 Shantiroad, Bangalore, India Two-person Exhibitions: 2022 A collaboration with Forrest Gander, The Vanderhoef Studio Theatre at the Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts UC Davis, CA, USA 2019 Interior Landscape a collaboration with Forrest Gander, Cohen Gallery, Brown University, Providence, USA. Second edition at Arion Press, Presidio, San Fransisco, CA, USA. 2015 Terra Firma, with Sharbani Das Gupta cosponsored by Brown India Initiative, AS220, Providence, RI, USA Selected Group Exhibitions: 2022 Clay as Soft Power: Shigaraki ware in Postwar America and Japan, University of Michigan Museum of Art 2021 Objects: USA 2020, R & Company, New York, NY, USA 2021 After the Fire, Round Weather Gallery, Oakland, CA, USA 2021 Forest and the Sea, Five Car Garage, Los Angeles, CA, USA 2021 Passages from India, Northern Clay Centre, Minneapolis, MN, USA 2020 Forms Fired, Shoshana Wayne Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, USA 2020 Empowering Voices, Lucy Lacoste Gallery, Concord, MA, USA 2020 Cavin-Morris Gallery, New York, NY, USA 2018 Indian Ceramic Triennal, Jawahar Kala Kendra, Jaipur, India
2016 Latvia International Ceramics Biennale, Daugavpils Mark Rothko Centre, Latvia 2016 Western Colorado Centre for Arts, CO, USA 2016 Standing Wave, Studio P/ The Studios Inc, Kansas City, MO, USA 2016 American Jazz Museum, Kansas City, MO, USA 2014 Stainless Gallery, New Delhi, India 2013 Survey of Contemporary Ceramics, Artworks, MA, USA 2013 Crimson Laurel Gallery, NC, USA 2013 United Art Fair, New Delhi, India 2012 Gallery Square Circle, Auroville, India 2011 Artifact Gallery, Deloraine, Tasmania, Australia 2011 India Art Summit, New Delhi, India Residencies and Teaching Workshops: 2022 Spring semester co-teaching with Forrest Gander, UC Davis, CA, USA 2021 Guest Artist for the FireFest, Star Works NC, USA 2020 Guest Artist lecture, Berkley Art Practice, USA 2020 Guest Artist lecture, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, USA 2020 Guest Artist lecture, Collage for Creative Studies, Detroit, USA 2019 Teaching workshop, Ox-Bow School of Arts, MI, USA 2019 Visiting lecture series, Harvard Ceramics, Boston, MA, USA 2019 Teaching workshop, Umbrella Centre for the Arts, Concord, MA, USA 2019 Teaching and visiting speaker, Ohio Northern University, OH, USA 2018 Teaching workshop, Peters Valley School of Craft, NJ, USA 2017 Guest Artist, The Ceramic Cultural Park Shigaraki, Shiga, Japan 2017 Guest Artist/Panelist/Speaker, International Woodfire Conference, NC, USA 2016 Artist-invite-Artist Residency, Red Lodge Clay Centre, MT, USA 2016 Installation Artist Residency, Arch Contemporary, Tiverton, RI, USA 2016 Panelist, International Woodfire Conference, Sugar Grove, IL, USA 2016 Teaching and visiting speaker, Queens University, Charlotte, NC, USA 2016 Guest Artist, Cub Creek Foundation, Appomattox, VA, USA 2015 Artist in Residence, UMASS Dartmouth, New Bedford, MA, USA 2014 Visiting Speaker, ATREE foundation, Bangalore, India 2014 Artist in Residence, Gustin Ceramics, South Dartmouth, MA, USA 2013 Visiting speaker, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, MA, USA 2013 Invitational Residency, FuLe International Ceramic Art Museums) Fuping, China
2011 Artist in Residence, Tin Shed Pottery, Deloraine, Tasmania, Australia 2010 Long-term Artist-in-Residence, Golden Bridge Pottery, Pondicherry, India Selected Bibliography: 2020 Glenn Adamson, “Objects: USA 2020,” The Monacelli Press, USA 2020 Ceramics Monthly, “Harmony and Contrast,” USA 2019 Emily Wilson, “Vital Forms-Ashwini Bhat’s Art in Clay,” Lana Turner: a Journal of Poetry & Opinion. Issue 11, USA 2019 Ceramics Monthly, “Studio Visit,” USA 2018 Romain Maitra, “Indian Ceramics Triennale,” Brooklyn Rail, USA 2018 Interview with Priya Sundaravalli, Indulge Magazine, India 2018 Interview with Ira Sharma, “Seeking Movement in Clay,” IndiPool, Issue 90, India 2017 Stephen Bush, “Entries into the Circular Self,” Riot Material, USA 2015 Anthony Merino, “Ashwini Bhat: Profile,” Ceramic Art and Perception: Issue 100, USA 2015 Sujatha Shankar Kumar, “Clay People of the Coromandel Coast,” Art India, India 2015 Ceramic Monthly, “Into the Mouths of Volcanoes,” USA 2014 Sharbani Das Gupta, “Shape of the Wind,” Ceramic Ireland, Issue 34, Ireland 2014 Anthony Merino, “Bodies and Clay,” Ceramic Art and Perception, Issue 98, USA 2014 Mark Jacobs, “Neolithic Chunk Maker,” New Ceramics, Issue 6, Germany 2014 Sharbani Das Gupta, “Cross Pollination,” New Ceramics, Issue 4/2014, Germany 2014 Anjani Khanna , “The China Feeling,” Marg Publications, Issue 65, India 2014 Larry Smith, “One Over Two Two Over One,” Caliban Online, Issue 14, USA 2012 Forrest Gander, “Sculpting the Primordial,” Crafts Arts International: #87, Australia 2013 Sharbani Das Gupta and Madhvi Subramanian, “Traditions Evolving: Golden Bridge Pottery and Contemporary Ceramics in India,” Ceramic Ireland, Issue 31, Ireland 2013 2013 Tony Merino, “Traditions Evolving,” Infoceramica, Spain 2013 2011 Janet Mansfield, “Continental Drift,” New CeramicS, Issue 6 Germany 2011 Writing and Collaborations: 2021 “Facing It, a collaboration,” Los Angeles Review of Books, No. 29, USA 2021 “John Roloff,” Lana Turner: a Journal of Poetry & Opinion. Issue 13, USA 2020 “Not Without, a collaboration,” Alta journal, November , USA 2020 “Duplicating Daniel: an interview with Kari Marboe,” The Studio Potter, USA 2019 “The Flesh of the World,” Ceramics Ireland, Issue 44, Ireland 2017 “On Collaborations,” The Studio Potter, Women in Ceramics, Vol 45 No 1, USA 2011 “Journey in Clay,” Logbook: Issue 48. Ireland Permanent Collections (public): 2017 Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park, Japan 2017 Fredrick Douglas National Park, New Bedford Historical Society, MA 2015 Newport Art Museum, Newport, RI, USA
2015 Watson Institute for International Studies, Providence, RI, USA 2013 FuLe International Ceramic Museum, Fuping, China 2010 Sculpture Garden, Grand Hyatt, Chennai, India Permanent Collections (private): USA India Japan Australia Canada Seattle, Virginia, Ohio, Montana, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, New Mexico, New York, and California Chennai, Bengaluru, Bombay, and New Delhi Shigaraki and Mino Tasmania Vancouver Memberships: 2021 Advisory Council, Arion Press, San Fransisco 2020 Board member, The Studio Potter 2019 IAC, International Academy of Ceramics 2017 Artaxis, an evolving independent network of artists 2013 NCECA, National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts Education and Background: 2008-2012 Apprenticeship with Ray Meeker, Golden Bridge Pottery, India 2007-2012 Editorial Assistant, Almost Island 2005-2007 2005-2007 2004-2005 2001-2003 1989-2003 Touring with Padmini Chettur Contemporary Dance Company: Gothenburg (Sweden); Paris, Lille, Nîmes (France); Bologna (Italy); Seoul (Korea); Brussels (Belgium); Utrecht (Holland); Salzburg (Austria); New Delhi (India) Translator, Tulika Publishers, Chennai, India Theatre production, Indo-Swedish Project Masters in Literature and Translation Studies, Bangalore University, India Training in Bharatanatyam (southern Indian classical dance)
2011 Artist in Residence, Tin Shed Pottery, Deloraine, Tasmania, Australia 2010 Long-term Artist-in-Residence, Golden Bridge Pottery, Pondicherry, India Selected Bibliography: 2020 Glenn Adamson, “Objects: USA 2020,” The Monacelli Press, USA 2020 Ceramics Monthly, “Harmony and Contrast,” USA 2019 Emily Wilson, “Vital Forms-Ashwini Bhat’s Art in Clay,” Lana Turner: a Journal of Poetry & Opinion. Issue 11, USA 2019 Ceramics Monthly, “Studio Visit,” USA 2018 Romain Maitra, “Indian Ceramics Triennale,” Brooklyn Rail, USA 2018 Interview with Priya Sundaravalli, Indulge Magazine, India 2018 Interview with Ira Sharma, “Seeking Movement in Clay,” IndiPool, Issue 90, India 2017 Stephen Bush, “Entries into the Circular Self,” Riot Material, USA 2015 Anthony Merino, “Ashwini Bhat: Profile,” Ceramic Art and Perception: Issue 100, USA 2015 Sujatha Shankar Kumar, “Clay People of the Coromandel Coast,” Art India, India 2015 Ceramic Monthly, “Into the Mouths of Volcanoes,” USA 2014 Sharbani Das Gupta, “Shape of the Wind,” Ceramic Ireland, Issue 34, Ireland 2014 Anthony Merino, “Bodies and Clay,” Ceramic Art and Perception, Issue 98, USA 2014 Mark Jacobs, “Neolithic Chunk Maker,” New Ceramics, Issue 6, Germany 2014 Sharbani Das Gupta, “Cross Pollination,” New Ceramics, Issue 4/2014, Germany 2014 Anjani Khanna , “The China Feeling,” Marg Publications, Issue 65, India 2014 Larry Smith, “One Over Two Two Over One,” Caliban Online, Issue 14, USA 2012 Forrest Gander, “Sculpting the Primordial,” Crafts Arts International: #87, Australia 2013 Sharbani Das Gupta and Madhvi Subramanian, “Traditions Evolving: Golden Bridge Pottery and Contemporary Ceramics in India,” Ceramic Ireland, Issue 31, Ireland 2013 2013 Tony Merino, “Traditions Evolving,” Infoceramica, Spain 2013 2011 Janet Mansfield, “Continental Drift,” New CeramicS, Issue 6 Germany 2011 Writing and Collaborations: 2021 “Facing It, a collaboration,” Los Angeles Review of Books, No. 29, USA 2021 “John Roloff,” Lana Turner: a Journal of Poetry & Opinion. Issue 13, USA 2020 “Not Without, a collaboration,” Alta journal, November , USA 2020 “Duplicating Daniel: an interview with Kari Marboe,” The Studio Potter, USA 2019 “The Flesh of the World,” Ceramics Ireland, Issue 44, Ireland 2017 “On Collaborations,” The Studio Potter, Women in Ceramics, Vol 45 No 1, USA 2011 “Journey in Clay,” Logbook: Issue 48. Ireland Permanent Collections (public): 2017 Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park, Japan 2017 Fredrick Douglas National Park, New Bedford Historical Society, MA 2015 Newport Art Museum, Newport, RI, USA
2015 Watson Institute for International Studies, Providence, RI, USA 2013 FuLe International Ceramic Museum, Fuping, China 2010 Sculpture Garden, Grand Hyatt, Chennai, India Permanent Collections (private): USA India Japan Australia Canada Seattle, Virginia, Ohio, Montana, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, New Mexico, New York, and California Chennai, Bengaluru, Bombay, and New Delhi Shigaraki and Mino Tasmania Vancouver Memberships: 2021 Advisory Council, Arion Press, San Fransisco 2020 Board member, The Studio Potter 2019 IAC, International Academy of Ceramics 2017 Artaxis, an evolving independent network of artists 2013 NCECA, National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts Education and Background: 2008-2012 Apprenticeship with Ray Meeker, Golden Bridge Pottery, India 2007-2012 Editorial Assistant, Almost Island 2005-2007 2005-2007 2004-2005 2001-2003 1989-2003 Touring with Padmini Chettur Contemporary Dance Company: Gothenburg (Sweden); Paris, Lille, Nîmes (France); Bologna (Italy); Seoul (Korea); Brussels (Belgium); Utrecht (Holland); Salzburg (Austria); New Delhi (India) Translator, Tulika Publishers, Chennai, India Theatre production, Indo-Swedish Project Masters in Literature and Translation Studies, Bangalore University, India Training in Bharatanatyam (southern Indian classical dance)
Photography: Ashwini Bhat, George Bouret, Forrest Gander
25 Main St Concord MA 01742 | 978 369 0278 | info@lucylacoste.com | lucylacoste.com
Photography: Ashwini Bhat, George Bouret, Forrest Gander
25 Main St Concord MA 01742 | 978 369 0278 | info@lucylacoste.com | lucylacoste.com
Ashwini Bhat What I Touch Touches Me