EMERGED
AFTER THE RESIDENCY
© 2014 Lillstreet Art Center 4401 N Ravenswood Ave Chicago, IL 60640 Artwork © the artists. Essay © Bill Griffith Photographs by the Joe Tighe. Designed by Jess Mott Wickstrom. Edited by Tracey Morrison. Exhibition: March 14 - April 20, 2014. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form, or by any electronic or mechanical means, without permission in writing from Lillstreet Art Center. Cover image: Peter Christian Johnson, Blue Arc, 2014
HP BLOOMER CHANDRA DEBUSE MAT THEW DERCOLE VIRGINIA JENKINS PETER CHRISTIAN JOHNSON MEGAN MITCHELL LINDSAY PICHASKE and JESS RIVA COOPER KATE ROBERTS KENSUKE YAMADA LILLY ZUCKERMAN
FROM THE CURATOR
R
esidency programs provide a unique
Emerged: After the Residency is especially
transformative experience, usually
personal and important to me having
outside of an academic setting, often at
experienced the “emergence” of over 100
pivotal times in an artist’s career. At their
early-career artists through my work as
best, these programs support artists with
Residency Program Director at Arrowmont
the gift of time and an atmosphere that
School of Arts and Crafts since 1992. In
encourages experimentation, professional
order to be considered for this exhibition,
and personal growth, lots of questions
ceramic artists must have completed a
and sometimes only a few answers.
residency program within the past 3 years. I
Residencies also play an important role
reviewed the artwork of many artists, some
in providing a community of peers for a
of the work I saw in person and some of the
period of time while continuing to expand
work through only images in websites or
the circle of artists, educators, mentors,
publications. In making my final selections
and collectors outside of that community.
for Emerged, I chose artists whose work
In the end, residencies are as much about
engaged me aesthetically, awed me
discovering who we are as artists and
technically and maintained my curiosity
people as they are about what we make.
without having to read the titles or artist’s statements.
The impressive nature of all of the
exhibited here showcase the outcomes
work that I reviewed is a testament to
of the time and support that residency
the residency experience. As Caitlin
programs provide.
Strokosch, Executive Director of the Alliance of Artists Communities, wrote:
Thanks to Lillstreet Art Center and
“There are 500 artists’ residencies in the
Jess Mott Wickstrom, Gallery Director
US today and more than 1000 worldwide,
for inviting me to curate an exhibition
and the organizations are as different from
involving such talented and diverse,
each other as you can imagine. And yet
emerged, early-career ceramic artists.
each one holds steadfast to a belief in the messy, unpredictable creative process.”
Bill Griffith
I believe the impacts “after the residency” often last several years or even a lifetime, well beyond the experience itself. Artists experiment and discover new directions which ignite fresh work resulting in a personal voice and style. The works
Bill Griffith is a ceramic artist and Program Director at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.
HP BLOOMER Carbondale Clay Center (2011-2013)
HP Bloomer IV was raised in central Texas in a household which embraced art and artistic expression. After finishing his BFA in 2007, he was awarded the Masters and Doctoral Fellowship to work on his MFA at the University of North Texas. Upon completing his MFA in 2011, he moved to Colorado for a residency at the Carbondale Clay Center. During these two years he served as a studio technician at CCC while maintaining positions at Colorado Mountain College, the Aspen Art Museum, and the Harvey/Meadows Artstream Gallery.
The primary intent of my work is to create thoughtful, personal compositions and relatable everyday objects. My forms are rooted in an aesthetic developed through a childhood spent in my father’s architectural firm and mother’s studio. The understated designs developed by mid-century architects and designers I saw as a child have stayed with me through the years. Elements of my work are related to designs of the Bauhaus School, the Eames, and the International Style.
My glazing and patterning technique has become a starting point for determining the design of the form, allowing a conversation between form and surface. These forms, patterns, and glazes may at times seem busy. Their intent is to parallel the eventful and vibrant world in which we live by reflecting ways we often segment, structure and compartmentalize our lives, while playfully providing handmade objects for everyday use.
Pitcher, 2013 Porcelain 9 x 7 inches
HP Bloomer Cap Lid Jar, 2013 Soda-fired porcelain 2.5 x 3.5 x 3.5 inches
HP Bloomer Stupa Jar, 2013 Soda-fired porcelain 7 x 5 x 5 inches
HP Bloomer Drinks for Nine, 2013 Porcelain Cups 4.25 x 2.25; Bottle 10 x 4 x 4; Tray 3 x 11 x 11 inches
HP Bloomer Teapot, 2013 Porcelain 5 x 5 x 9 inches
HP Bloomer Vase, 2013 Soda-fired Porcelain 10 x 5 x 5 inches
CHANDRA DEBUSE Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts (2011-12)
Chandra DeBuse is a full-time studio potter and educator in Kansas City, MO. Originally from a small town in Nebraska, Chandra earned a degree in psychology before discovering her love for making pottery during a community class. After completing her MFA from the University of Florida in 2010, Chandra completed year-long residencies at the Armory Art Center, and Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts. She was an Emerging Artist through NCECA in 2012 and was named an emerging artist in the May 2012 issue of Ceramics Monthly magazine.
My functional pottery incorporates narrative imagery, pattern and form to amuse and delight the user, imparting a sense of play. My work, in practice and product, reflects my approach to make-believe, which I identify through worlds of imagination with determined characters and landscapes of leisure. I incorporate bouncing lines, candy colors, low relief and hand-drawn elements into my ceramic serviceware, encouraging a sense of discovery and exploration. Illustrations of anthropomorphized animals and stylized humans employ exaggeration, humor, and metaphor to facilitate the viewer’s ability to capture the narrative and apply it to his or her own life. Patterns found within nature, such as tree bark, water waves, or flower petals are abstracted and simplified, ricocheting across forms. My salt and pepper landscapes, treat servers, jars, plates, cups, and bowls become playscapes where pattern and character frolic, inviting human fingers to also roam the topography, seeking out their own morsels of delight.
Tree Jar, 2014 White Stoneware 13 x 7 x 7 inches
Chandra DeBuse Floral Mug, 2014 White Stoneware 4 x 5 x 3.5 inches
Chandra DeBuse Floral Mug, 2014 White Stoneware 4 x 5 x 3.5 inches
Farmscape Salt and Pepper (detail), 2014
Chandra DeBuse Farmscape Salt and Pepper, 2014 White Stoneware 6.5 x 7 x 7 inches
Chandra DeBuse Treat Server, 2013 White Stoneware 12.5 x 10.5 x 8 inches
MATTHEW DERCOLE Lillstreet Art Center (2011-2012)
Matthew Dercole currently teaches Ceramics at Chicago State University and works for Theaster Gates Studios in south Chicago. He has completed long-term residencies at the LUX Center for the Arts in Lincoln, NE and Lillstreet Art Center in Chicago, IL. His work has been included in exhibitions across the US, and is in the collections of the Kerameikon Collection of Contemporary World Ceramics, Varazdin, Croatia, and the Museu de Ceràmica de L’Alcora, L’Alcora, Spain.
The exploration of the self, the understanding of others, and the dynamics they create are underlying themes throughout my work. Drawing from a fascination of biology, I create forms based on principles of nature coupled with the experience of thought and feeling. The works become combinations of the natural progression of life, such as growth and decomposition, and the human aspects of reason and ability. I am reacting to the way people think and feel about their identities, how the act of learning and the responsibility of knowledge affect our everyday lives.
forced perspective (you are still new at this), 2012 Porcelain, underglaze, felted wool 40 x 21 x 8.5 inches
Matthew Dercole cut, cuddle, consume, 2014 Porcelain, underglaze, glaze 11 x 12 x 4 inches
Matthew Dercole proper pruning and good hygiene, 2014 Porcelain, underglaze, raw fleece 32 x 19 x 3 inches
Heejin Hwang Dropping I, 2011 Crocheted steel wire. 44 x 7 x 7 inches
Matthew Dercole hunger is our shared disease (amputate), 2014 Terra cotta, porcelain, underglaze, raw fleece 22 x 27 x 8 inches
Matthew Dercole the purveyor of heavy petting, 2013 Porcelain, underglaze, felted wool 25 x 13 x 10 inches
VIRGINIA JENKINS Pottery Northwest (2012)
Virginia Jenkins received her BFA from East Tennessee State University and her MFA from Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. In addition to her academic experiences, she has undertaken five artist residencies, several of which have allowed her to live along some of the world’s most beautiful coastlines. She has produced commissioned projects for Monsanto Corporation and the William Kerr Foundation and has received a GAP grant from Artist Trust for the development of her artwork. Virginia maintains a studio at Inscape Arts and Cultural Center in Seattle, WA.
My sculpture represents an esoteric reality based on the potential of the undiscovered. Coastal and deep-sea environments predominantly inspire me where scientists believe 500,000 to 5,000,000 species have yet to be discovered. Additionally, I utilize the architectural landscape and cultural diversity the city of Seattle has to offer. The city provides a broad palette from which to draw iconographies. My work has a semblance to the biological and unique spirituality, thus, provoking the experience of an independent, symbolic world. By creating indeterminate forms, I hope to empower them with new, unpredictable functions and relationships.
Bovid, 2013 Red Earthenware 13 x 9 x 6.5 inches
Virginia Jenkins Muck Diver, 2013 Red Earthenware 6 x 9.5 x 4 inches
Virginia Jenkins Aqueous Modification (right, details above), 2013 Red Earthenware 15 x 9 x 6 inches
Virginia Jenkins Shoot #1, 2013 Red Earthenware 6 x 5 x 2.5 inches
PETER CHRISTIAN JOHNSON Archie Bray Foundation (2011-2013)
Peter Christian Johnson is an Associate Professor of Art at Eastern Oregon University. He earned his MFA from Penn State University and a BS in Environmental Science at Wheaton College. Peter has been a resident artist and Visiting lecturer at the Alberta College of Art and Design, Australian National University, The Archie Bray Foundation, the LH Project and the Odyssey Center for Ceramic Arts. His work has been exhibited in Canada, Australia, and throughout the United States.
This body of work is a formal exploration of structure and material. The porcelain grid systems become a framework on which to stretch a fluid skin. They expose the relationship between soft and hard, the fluidity of a membrane, and the moment of intersection between these contrasting elements. They strive to pair labored construction with a more unpredictable surface and reveal both the rigid and malleable aspects of ceramic material.
Yellow Cube, 2014 Ceramic 8 x 12 x 12 inches
Red Cross (detail), 2014
Peter Christian Johnson Red Cross, 2014 Ceramic 6 x 16 x 16 inches
Peter Christian Johnson Blue Arc, 2014 Ceramic 12 x 20 x 6inches
MEGAN MITCHELL Red Lodge Clay Center (2012-2013)
Originally from New Hampshire, Megan Mitchell has also lived in Alaska, Minnesota, Montana, California and Utah. Megan holds a BA in Studio Art from Carleton College in Northfield, MN, with an emphasis in painting and printmaking. She was a studio assistant at Whitefish Pottery, in Whitefish, MT, and the Hoyman Browe Studio in Ukiah, CA. In May 2012, she earned an MFA in ceramics from Utah State University, and was named USU’s Graduate Researcher of the Year. Her work has been exhibited in numerous national exhibitions, and was featured in Ceramics Monthly in December, 2011. In July 2013, Megan completed a year-long residency at the Red Lodge Clay Center. She was the Mellon Fellow in Ceramics at Marlboro College in the fall of 2013, and is currently the Rosenquist Resident Artist at North Dakota State.
My work is an examination of human relationship with place and a meditation on intrinsic, contradictory yearnings for belonging and freedom. Through the overlay of pattern, structure and space, I intend to create work that conveys intimacy as well as a sense of great distance. My forms are inspired by architecture and furniture, and are altered to imply movement and instability. I use a repeating vocabulary of patterns in my work across two and three dimensions. In the movement between these dimensions, it is my desire to generate an exchange between illusory and actual space.
Vase, 2013 Porcelain, vitreous engobe, underglaze, decal 8 x 5 x 3 inches
Stacey Megan LeeMitchell Webber The Place Screw Between, Chain, 2013 Stoneware, Brass silkscreen, screws, 10ky stencil, goldslip plating. inlay 30 x 84 17 x 31 inches
The Place Between (detail), 2013
Megan Mitchell Mountain Road Diptych, 2013 Porcelain, slip inlay, lithography 12 x 9 x 1 inches (each)
LINDSAY PICHASKE
and
JESS RIVA COOPER
Archie Bray Foundation (2011-2012)
Lindsay Pichaske received her MFA in Ceramics from the University of Colorado at Boulder and her BFA in Sculpture from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is currently based in Washington, DC, where she is a resident artist at Red Dirt Studio. She moved to the DC area from Helena, MT, where she was the 2011-2012 Taunt Fellow at the Archie Bray Foundation for Ceramics. She has also been a resident artist at ART342 and Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts. She is the recipient of the 2013 NCECA Emerging Artist Award.
In these collaborative pieces with Jess Riva Cooper, I was interested in translating my intricate textured surfaces onto the human form. Furthermore, while I use the animal as an avatar for the human, working with Jess’ figures allowed me to use the human form to explore the complex boundaries between seemingly disparate states of existence.
Jess Riva Cooper is a ceramic artist and educator currently based in Toronto, Ontario. Cooper received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and a Master of Fine Arts in ceramics from the Rhode Island School of Design. Cooper has shown work and participated in artist residencies throughout Canada and the United States, such as Brandeis University, Lillstreet Art Center, Medalta, and The Archie Bray Foundation.
Lindsay and I created collaborative works for this exhibition. We mailed each other clay forms we had created, and allowed the other free reign to attend to the surface of these sculptures. In our separate studio practices Lindsay traditionally works with the animal while I focus on human figure. This collaboration has brought a sense of freshness and freedom to our art-making, one we will continue to foster. Fray, 2014 Porcelain, low-fire clay, paint, glaze 22 x 13 x 10 inches
Jack Rabbit (detail), 2014
Lindsay Pichaske and Jess Riva Cooper Jack Rabbit (detail), 2014 Clay, acrylic, ink, mixed media 12 x 10 x 7 inches
Lindsay Pichaske and Jess Riva Cooper Flay (right, detail above), 2014 Porcelain, glaze, string, paint 15 x 12 x 8 inches
KATE ROBERTS Anderson Ranch (2011)
Kate Roberts is native of Greenville, South Carolina and a 2010 BFA graduate of Alfred University with a major in Ceramics and minors in Art Education and Art History. She has traveled extensively and completed residencies and internships at art centers around the world, including Anderson Ranch Arts Center in CO, La Meridiana in Italy, Cite International des Arts in Paris, Project Art in MA and Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill. Her work has been exhibited in museums such as the Tampa Art Museum and Everson Museum in Syracuse, NY and included in major exhibitions such as Scripps Ceramic Annual and Ceramic Top 40. Currently, she is a 2015 MFA candidate at Alfred University.
The Win and The Chase question the physical and mental properties of a relationship, specifically of a relationship based on love. Through the use of bird imagery and changing of seasons, the piece conveys the emotions felt and the body language revealed during this relationship, and shows its temperance.
The Chase, 2012 Porcelain 18 x 18 x 6 inches
Kate Robert The Chase (detail), 2012 Porcelain 18 x 18 x 6 inches
Kate Robert The Win (right, detail above), 2012 Porcelain 18 x 18 x 6 inches
KENSUKE YAMADA The Clay Studio (2012-13)
Kensuke Yamada was born in Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan. He received his MFA from the University of Montana in 2010 and has a BA from The Evergreen State College, in Olympia, WA. Kensuke has participated in artist residency programs at The Archie Bray Foundation, Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, Oregon College of Art and Craft, and was an invited guest to make a sculpture at Chihuly Inc. His sculptures have been exhibited throughout the USA at SOFA Chicago, Holter Museum of Art, Seattle Center, and more. Kensuke is currently a visiting artist and professor at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR.
In my sculpture, I seek figurative extensions of shared experiences. Clay has become another primary source of communication for me. The vocabulary consists of gestures, patterns, textures, colors and rhythms. In conversation, these qualities bring the figure to life.
Figure and Kong, 2014 Stoneware Figure 37 x 18 x 9 inches; Kong 22.5 x 13 inches
Kensuke Yamada Figure (detail), 2013 Stoneware. 37 x 18 x 9 inches
Kensuke Yamada Kong (detail), 2013 Stoneware. 22.5 x 13 inches
LILLY ZUCKERMAN Clay Studio of Missoula (2012 - present)
Lilly Zuckerman is originally from Pittsburgh and grew up in rural Greensburg, PA on a farm with horses, geese, chickens, dogs, cats, and magical woods. The ground there is sticky orange clay and so her richly colored clay not only bears the vast and complex history of earthenware ceramics, but also her memories of home. Zuckerman received her BFA in Ceramics with a minor in Art History from Penn State University in 2010. While there she was funded to conduct research in Morocco on contemporary ceramics. Morocco’s architecture of adobe houses, diverse geology from the Sahara Desert to the Atlas Mountains, and unglazed earthenware cooking vessels continue to influence her work. Zuckerman’s work has been made possible by residencies at The Archie Bray Foundation, The Anderson Ranch Arts Center, The Clay Studio of Missoula, and The Clay Studio in Philadelphia.
Clay has the ability to be both tactile and intelligent. I work to create and invite contemplative moments, where experiences of the physical hand and intellectual mind can coexist. Pinched clay is a remarkably clear and straightforward trace of touch from maker to user. My moment of touch can be experienced by others tomorrow or in thousands of years. Starting with a solid block of clay, I slowly and methodically pinch the form. No clay is added and very little clay is trimmed away; encompassing many changes of state. This process teaches me to embrace unexpected moments.
Untitled (detail), 2013 Earthenware. 13 x 6 x 3 inches
Lilly Zuckerman Untitled, 2013 Earthenware. 11 x 9 x 3 inches
Lilly Zuckerman Untitled, 2013 Earthenware. 11 x 9 x 2.5 inches
Lilly Zuckerman Untitled, 2013 Earthenware. 10.5 x 7 x 3 inches
M ITC H EL L
P IC H AS K E + CO O PE R
Z U C KE R M AN
ROB ERTS
D EB U SE
YAM A DA
D ERCO L E
J O HN SO N
JEN K I N S
BLOOM ER