New Work by Anne Currier, Chris Gustin and Michael Wisner
July 15 – August 11, 2019
About The Exhibition
ANNE CURRIER
Anamorphosis
noun (plural) -ses (-ˌsiːz)
1. (optics)
a. an image or drawing object distorted in such a way that it becomes recognizable only when viewed in a specified manner or through a special device.
b. the process by which such images or drawings objects are produced.
2. the evolution of one type of organism from another by a series of gradual changes. from Greek, from anamorphoun to transform, from morphē form, shape (The Collins English Dictionary – Collinsdictionary.com)
I make ceramic sculptures that are shaped by the interplay of masses and voids. Absence and presence, light and shadow, stasis and motion are subject matter. The dimensional tension and dynamics of human figures found in Greek and Buddhist temple pediments, and most recently, the structural flatness and synthesis of planar shapes in Cubist still life paintings intrigue me.
The rich, tonal subtleties of winter hues that I experience in Allegany County are sources for color: slate grays, deep rusts, and cool tans. The subdued colors and sand-like glazed surfaces direct focus to other associations and create ambiguities about visual and tactile perceptions.
My process for discovery and making has been a layered and organic pursuit. Interior and exterior curves of cylinders and cones in concert with the angles and directions of edges and planes: these elements are infinitely connectable and interchangeable in time and space.
CHRIS GUSTIN
My work explores the vessel form on a human scale, taking simple, historical pottery forms and jumping them up in scale as a vehicle for abstraction. By increasing pottery form to the scale of the human body, I’m altering the expected dialogue between the object and user from that of the hand to one of the body. This ”body” scale speaks on a subliminal level to the entire histories of our experience. By using forms and glazes that evoke generosity, sensuality, fullness and humility, I am asking the viewer to make connections on a deeply personal level. This is what I depend on: the desire in all of us to reach out and touch, and by doing so, to trigger memory that is both felt and connected, memory that quietly waits to come to consciousness. This innate connection is for me the primal language of ceramic vessel form. It has the potential to reflect our universal human story, regardless of politics, culture or history.
MICHAEL WISNER
I look at the creative process as collaboration between the raw materials found in nature and the artist (also from nature as we often forget). Each has a voice in the process. For me it’s helpful to remember art as collaboration with nature and not an isolated event by man. Art is an expression of our connection to the natural world. Beautiful places create a mirror that reflects inside us and helps to draw creativity to the surface. This work addresses the innovation of traditional pottery. Over the past twenty-five years I have studied extensively under Juan Quezada and many matriarchs of the southwest pottery traditions. Initially, I was drawn to ancient ceramics by the harmonious fit between vessel form and decorative pattern. Following that fascination I experimented for years with painting.
Today my work continues investigating form and pattern using texture as the design element. I am fascinated with simple gestural shapes and how pattern evolves as it moves over the pottery surface. I enjoy the collaboration with outdoor Raku and bon-firing as they inject spontaneous elements into the work. The source of my creativity is supported by contact with the natural world. Plants, flowers, clouds, any time spent in nature seems to create an inner ease that reaffirms our connection to everything. That connection resonates inside and moves us to express that beautiful feeling in a visible form. I love the process of being outdoors digging clay and forming these objects by hand.
Exhibition Images
About The Artists
ANNE CURRIER
Anne Currier received her BFA from the School of the Art Institute, Chicago and her MFA from the University of Washington, Seattle. Ms. Currier has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts and the Virginia A. Groot Foundation. She was honored with the American Crafts Council College of Fellows career achievement award.
Her sculptures are in numerous private and public collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC; Renwick Gallery of the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institutions, Washington, D.C; Daum Museum of Contemporary Art, Sedalia, MO; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA; Musee des Arts Decoratifs de Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Grassi Museum, Leipzig, Germany; The Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russia.
Commissions include Arrow International, Reading, PA and Miller Theater, Alfred, NY. Ms. Currier is professor emerita of the New YorK State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. She lives in Scio, NY with her husband, George Hrycun, an artist and avid fly fisherman.
CHRIS GUSTIN
Chris is a studio artist and an Emeritus Professor at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth. Chris received his BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute in 1975, and his MFA from Alfred University in 1977. Chris lives and works in South Dartmouth, Massachusetts.
Chris’ work is published extensively, and is represented in numerous public and private collections, including the Renwick Gallery of the National Museum of American Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the World Ceramic Exposition Foundation in Icheon, Korea, American Museum of Ceramic Art, the Currier Museum of Art, the Yingge Museum in Taipai, and the Daum Museum of Contemporary Art.
With over fifty solo exhibitions, he has exhibited, lectured and taught workshops in the United States, Caribbean, South America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. He has received two National Endowment for the Arts Artist Fellowships, and four Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist Fellowships, the most recent in 2017. He is a member of the International Academy of Ceramics and was elected to the American Craft Council College of Fellows in 2016. He was awarded the Masters of the Medium award from the Renwick Alliance in 2017.
Chris is cofounder of the Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts in Maine, and currently serves as Honorary Trustee on its board.
MICHAEL WISNER
Michael Wisner shows and teaches nationally. After apprenticing with Jaun Quezada in the village of Mata Ortiz, he has taken the traditional forms and ideas and now makes beautiful modern and contemporary work based on the traditions. He writes, “Inspired by ancient Anasazi and Mimbres potsherds, I began making southwestern pottery. I dig local clays, in the mountains outside my studio at the Anderson Ranch in Colorado. The clay is filtered to remove rocks and debris and then hand coiled to form each piece. The pottery is then painted with a human hair brush and fired outdoors in an open bonfire. Each pot is a one-of-a-kind hand crafted work of art.
Over the past 16 years I have studied extensively with Potters of the American Indian Pueblos and Mata Ortiz Mexico. In 1989 I began an apprenticeship with Juan Quezada that continues today. Each year I spend three to four months working in Juan’s village. Juan’s artistic genius has been a constant source of inspiration. As Juan watches my art evolve he encourages me to develop this pottery into a contemporary form.”