Welcome to our 50th Annual Pottery Show & Sale! We are thrilled to feature 28 renowned ceramicists from the United States and Central America. If this is your first time participating, we are so glad you are here! If you are returning, welcome back! Individuals like you have made Demarest a favorite destination for the extensive ceramics community. Last year more than 1,000 people attended this three-day event, also known as the “Old Church Pottery Show”.
On behalf of The Art School at Old Church, I want to thank Bruce Dehnert, Chris Gustin, and Aysha Peltz for curating a show that highlights the diverse artists, processes, and forms that keep ceramics at the forefront of contemporary art. I also want to thank our sponsors, staff members, Board of Directors, and many volunteers for collaborating on this unique opportunity to experience and collect pottery.
As Mikhail Zakin and Karen Karnes envisioned half a century ago, the connections we make to art and artists this weekend will resonate for years to come. Make sure to talk with the potters, many of whom traveled long distances to be here. We know you will discover unique pieces to collect, use, and cherish. Thank you for celebrating ceramic artistry with us; and thank you for supporting The Art School at Old Church. Your participation enables us to make extraordinary arts and cultural experiences accessible to individuals of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities.
Dr. Jerry M. James Executive Director
Aboutthe50thAnnualPotteryShowandSale
OurAnnualPotteryShow&Sale(alsoknownastheOldChurch PotteryShow)turns50thisyear.Thethree-daygatheringin Demarest,NewJersey,beganasafundraiserforTheArtSchool atOldChurchin1974whenceramicistKarenKarnesandour foundingDirector,MikhailZakin,combinedeffortstoconnecta growingcommunityofpotterswithourlocalarea.Theshow quicklyevolvedtoincludeasmanyas3,000worksbyupto30 renownedceramicistsannually,inspiringsimilareventsacross thecountry.Asenvisioned,theeventcontinuestobeaunique opportunityforindividualstoengagewithartists,collectone-of-akindworksofart,andsupportourprograms,events,andfinancial assistanceinitiatives.
AboutTheArtSchoolatOldChurch
TheArtSchoolatOldChurch(TASOC)wasestablishedin1974 whenagroupofvisionaryartiststransformeda19th-century churchintoanonprofit,non-sectarian,centerforartandculture. Ourmissionistoprovideartinstructionandculturalexperiences thatenrichthelivesofindividualsinBergenCountyandbeyond. Everyyear,morethan4,000peopleparticipateinclasses, workshops,exhibitions,outreachprograms,andcommunity events.Wewelcomeindividualsofallages,backgrounds,and abilitiestoengageinlifelonglearninginthearts.
WELCOME!
This year The Art School put its final flourishes on five decades of presenting The Pottery Show and Sale. From its inception, this show has afforded the school much needed funding for its programs and has offered artists support for their imaginations and hard work. Importantly, the show provides an opportunity to connect, share knowledge, and form relationships within this esoteric community of which YOU are a part. This was its dream 50 years ago, and since that inaugural event, each year has brought a celebration of the handmade and its power to bring people together.
2024 has been a different pot of tea. Our year of celebrating began with its first, and hugely successful exhibition “The Road to Demarest” at the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts [NCECA] conference in Richmond, Virginia. Our presence demonstrated an amazing level of commitment by a small cadre of members from The Art School’s staff, faculty, and board. The 50th anniversary exhibition was attended by nearly 4,000 people.
That was in March, but in late September, images of a different sort were being shared by our extended ‘family’ of ceramicists living in the path of Hurricane Helene. There, a changing world’s deluge arrived as photographs and video, depicting for us unworldly devastation of homes, studios, and lives. In the blink of an eye, entire towns became submerged under roiling, brown waters.
Because that part of the country is home to a disproportionate number of potters, the news of their horrific situation was startling. Those of us who organize, volunteer, and participate in this remarkable show, feel like parts of our ‘family’ suffered a deep tragedy, and that we, too, have been forever changed. This is precisely how our community of artists are held close by events such as this annual pottery sale.
Thank you for your support of this important show and the communities it helps to sustain. In your annual giving, please also consider donating to CERFPLUS, a charitable organization for craftspeople.
Bruce, Chris and Aysha Pottery Show & Sale Co-Curators
For more than 40 years, Karen Karnes curated the Old Church Pottery Show. On July 12, 2016, Karen died peacefully in her home in Vermont at the age of 90. Karen was an innovator, progressive thinker, mentor, and a dear friend. The Pottery Show lives on in her memory in honor of everything we loved about her - her forthright manner, indelible wit, her devotion to ceramics, and her legacy.
MARY BARRINGER
Shelburne Falls, MA
For 50-plus years, what has interested me and pulled me onward is making: my hands on the clay, investigating things for which I have no name. A rich vein, whose possibilities I feel privileged to mine
RICHARD AERNI
Rochester, NY
Unabashedly functional. Aiming for a harmonious blend of pleasing form and visually interesting surface Recently converted to energy-saving cone 5 electric firing.
MATIAS BRAUN
Montezuma, CR
Life is fleeting and memories are vague but pots seem to endure I try to use life and the vagueness of memories as inspiration to create abstract, drawn and painted ceramics in the most sustainable way possible I hope to look back at a legacy, not of my pots, but of a better world.
PAUL BRIGGS
Alfred, NY
“Nature makes no aesthetic mistake” This quote from John Ruskin is a guiding principle in m pinch-formed vessels
REBECCA CHAPPELL PA
I seek to create imagined objects and spaces that serve as moments to catch a wandering eye and allow the viewer the opportunity to pause; arranged moments of curiosity and wonder
BRUCE DEHNERT
Maplecrest, NY
Increasingly I'm interested in making work that inhabits a space between experimental and resolved. I am drawn to that realizing ‘yeah, there's something there’ and subsequently building on it I think it's classic problem solving
STUART GAIR
Athens, OH
My work is influenced by geology, architecture, history, function, and process The amalgamation of these things offers individualized pieces that may be used or displayed. The use of local materials and a soda firing process creates deeper meaning and personal connection to the work
CHRIS GUSTIN
Dartmouth, MA
Most of my work is of a much larger scale, yet the desire to make things that function in our daily lives still resonates deeply within me It is a way for me to connect with the basics of functional ceramics and to touch the roots of utilitarian clay Pots are small objects, but they have the potential to be a universe in and of itself
NICHOLAS JOERLING
Bakersville, NC
I like pots that make good use of the constraints of utility, and I like pots that push against those boundaries In my own work I hope for pots that have qualities of sensuality, empathy, humor and risk
KYLE JOHNS
Chelmsford, MA
Using the traditionally rigid process of mold making that is at the core of industrial production; I deconstruct and reassemble plaster mold positives to create a multitude of unique forms, responding to the outcomes and limitations of the process and materials
SUZE LINDSAY
Bakersville, NC
I want to make pots that are expressive, communicative I feel like I am always looking for something to express a quality in my work where the character of my pots is conveyed by being open, warm, generous, rotund, sensuous, loose and even jolly
ROBBIE LOBELL
Whidbey Island, WA
Borrowing from centuries of tradition and adding modern design elements, I make pots to elevate the pleasures of cooking and dining
DAVID MACDONALD
Syracuse, NY
The vessel is an important human artifact that transcends generations and culture. I have chosen the vessel as my primary vehicle of expression because of its universality The inspiration for my work is the celebration of my combined Western and African heritages.
LORNA MEADEN
Durango, CO
Everything Lorna makes is meant to be used. Her work is soda fired porcelain with repetitive patterns drawn on the surface It begins with the consideration of function, and the goal is for the form and surface of the pots to be integrated. Making her work starts with a three-dimensional division of space, continues with drawing on the surface, and finishes with the addition of color.
MATTHEW METZ
Alfred Station, NY
I believe unapologetically in craft and skill Through work and time, with attention, your own personal voice emerges.
