PAST EXHIBITION
COMPLEXITIES
From Surface to Form
February 6th - March 27th
Complexities: From Surface to Form is a group exhibition that celebrates North American ceramic artists who are exploring clay through the lens of complex decoration and forms. This exhibition will be on display at the CCC Gallery from February 6th through March 27th and available on CCC's New Online Shop. Participating artists include Mark Arnold, Ashley Bevington, Naomi Clement, Matt Mitros, & Chris Pickett.
Gallery hours are Tues-Sat 10am-5pm.
SHOW STATEMENT
FROM GALLERY MANAGER, MATTHEW EAMES
Our world seems to thrive on decoration. Nearly every holiday throughout the calendar year, culminating with the year-end finale of Christmas, we are encouraged to decorate aspects of our daily lives with the appropriate festive objects. I can recall as a child my household switching a variety of decorative elements nearly every holiday and/or season. Although a seemingly trivial and mundane task, our ability to reinvigorate our everyday surroundings with such decorations is a reflection on the positive presence these events often encompass.
Art is easily another positive influence towards our ability to decorate our personal spaces. Those pieces we choose to decorate our spaces with often instill an emotional response at nearly every viewing opportunity. Furthermore, pottery has another layer of interaction considering its functional intentions. Add another layer of decoration to the surface and it becomes eye candy that seemingly begs the viewer to touch.
Complexities: from surface to form is an attempt to provide a small window into the possibilities of decorative pottery. Knowing many ceramic artists that work through a variety of decorative processes, our selection of the artists for this exhibition was focused on representing as many different aspects of decorative functional objects. You may notice that certain pots focus more on the utility of the object, whereas others focus more on decorative elements, and yet all five artists provide such unique and beautiful insights into their treatment of surface and form. The complexities of each of their pieces is enough to elicit curiosity and wonder to the current final product bestowed upon us in the gallery. Each and every step along the way of creating this exhibit has posed a wonderful set of questions about the ability to decorate and its continuing influence on contemporary pottery.
Please enjoy the show
Matthew Eames
IN THE NEWS
RECENT ARTICLE IN THE SOPRIS SUN
By Raleigh Burleigh Published Feb. 3, 2021
“Complexities: From Surface to Form,” an upcoming exhibit at the Carbondale Clay Center, displays the work of five dispersed artists exploring decorative function, or functional decoration, in art. According to Gallery Manager Matthew Eames, the show provides “a small window into the possibilities of decorative pottery” with the goal of eliciting curiosity. The diversity of style in this show accentuates the varied influences of its contributors, residing throughout the continent.
Gallery Images above by Ian Edquist
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Matt Mitros
ARTIST STATEMENT
My work focuses on the creation of illusory acts of tension between what is seemingly organic in form and what is clearly machined. The Organic, shaped by my hands, is illustrated in the rough surfaces and plant-like forms. These components are inspired by Nature. The Machined, characterized by the clean lines of the slip-cast objects and the plastic or clay 3D printed elements, is one step removed from my hands—formed by molds and modern technology. These parts, however, are not unnatural or inorganic. While these sleek components appear to be the offspring of the digital age, they are simply human manipulations of natural materials and processes.
The real difference between the organic and the machined lies in their inherent goals: one is predicated by a struggle for survival, while the other is predicated by a desire to achieve maximum efficiency.
When the analogue and the digital are juxtaposed, all tension fades away and the push and pull gives way to a merger. The eye beholds a single piece in which the organic and the machined coexist…in their natural states.
BIOGRAPHY
Matt Mitros was born in Philadelphia, PA. After graduating from Penn State University in 2001 with a BFA, Mitros completed a post-baccalaureate from the University of Illinois and holds an MFA from the University of Washington. Mitros has been an Artist-In-Residence at Arrowmont School of Arts & Crafts, the Archie Bray Foundation, and Red Lodge Clay Center.
In 2008 Mitros was an Artist Trust GAP (Grant for Artist Projects) recipient funded by the City of Seattle. Mitros was selected as a 2013 Emerging Artist by Ceramics Monthly. His work has been featured in Art in America, Art LTD, Clay Times, Ceramics Monthly, Maake Magazine, and City Arts Magazine, as well as the book 500 Figures in Clay. Mitros’ work is in the permanent public collections of the National Museum of Slovenia, Bemidji State University, the Spartanburg Art Museum, the de Young Museum, The Hudgens Center for the Arts, the Fine Arts Museum of Florida State University, the Everson Museum of Art, and others.
Naomi Clement
ARTIST STATEMENT
My work is a constant discussion on how things fit together and how they do not. In particular, I am interested in points of transition: the space where orange becomes red, the place where glaze meets bare clay, the edge of a handle and the end of the pot. In my process, I continually seek out and create opportunities for these moments to occur: leaving a seam visible in a hand-built cup, cutting a soft line in the rim of a bowl, or negotiating the space between white slip and raw clay. As a maker, I am interested in how these moments record my decisions and become physical signposts left for a future user. These traces of intent and action say: I was here, please bear witness.
In my current body of work, I use text elements taken from old family correspondence and ephemera to explore my family history and connect past and present. Letters are digitally scanned, enlarged, and then laser cut into newsprint. These newsprint text elements are then used in my decorative process, acting both as a stamp and resist for colour and texture.
Handwriting is such a personal way of connecting, leaving your mark, and telling your story—through this intimate process we connect our thoughts to the physical world. Using the labour of my hands, I unite these traces of my past with functional objects that celebrate the tangible joy of the every day.
The resulting pots ask to be noticed and examined. I want them to convey a sense of a life lived, and a life still to be lived; they are about making connections and wanting to make connections. A snapshot of the journey, each pot is a tether that connects me to me, and me to you: a memory bound in mud-made-stone for years to come.
BIOGRAPHY
Naomi Clement is a Canadian artist and educator who explores ideas of home and belonging through the powerful lens of functional ceramics. She received her MFA from Louisiana State University in 2017, and her B.F.A from the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design University in 2003. Naomi has participated in residencies, given lectures and workshops, and exhibited her work across Canada and the United States. She served as a board member for the National Council on the Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA), and was named a 2017 Emerging Artist by Ceramics Monthly magazine. Most recently, Naomi was a Summer Artist-in-Residence at the renowned Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts.
Chris Pickett
ARTIST STATEMENT
The human desire for comfort is universal. In moments of uncertainty, it insulates us from anxiety and unease. My functional ceramic vessels cater to this hunger for physical and emotional comfort and gratification. Using nostalgia as a point of reference, I utilize form, color and design to evoke a sense of familiarity and solace. I choose visual language that is suggestive of the comforting nature of physical intimacy, community, personal domestic spaces and childhood experiences.
The use of low relief stencils and compound mold systems allow me to articulate vessels with a specific formal language. With the appearance of being freshly constructed, the fullness of form allows these vessels to evoke a sense of play and ease. Generous volumes reference childlike items, such as toys and stuffed animals, and serve as metaphors of our own bodies that allude to the comforts of physical intimacy. Exaggerated pillow forms create a desire to physically interact with the work, and voluptuous curves awaken our preconceptions of volume and what it represents: vitality, sensuality, generosity and abundance. With these vessels I provide the user with a transformative personal experience through use, rather than to address needs of utility, necessity, or convenience.
BIOGRAPHY
Chris received his BFA from the University of Tennessee and his MFA from the University of Florida. Chris served as a long term Resident Fellow at the Archie Bray Foundation from 2012 to 2014, and was the Barbara Rittenberg Fellow at the Clay Art Center in Port Chester, NY from 2015-2016. Chris currently resides in Pocatello, Idaho, and serves as an Assistant Professor at Idaho State University.
Ashley Bevington
ARTIST STATEMENT
Life can be tough. It is up to each of us to find the courage to continue navigating our personal path. It’s easy to get caught up in the routine of the mundane. it’s important to seek out joy within the little things, as each of the little things add up to what we all desire and strive for in life: happiness. With my ceramic work I aim to embellish the mundane. Whether that be through a relatable mug, an over-the-top cake stand, or an oddly adorable sculpture, I hope to elevate everyday experience.
My work is often describes as “funny” and/or “cute”. I use humor and cuteness as a vehicle to explore the struggles of life and awareness of our own mortality. I often take on the “more is more” approach with clusters of blooming flowers. Personally, they symbolize moments of growth or enlightenment, like those moments where something just clicks in your mind and you step up to the next level of your potential, but to the viewer they’re probably just pretty. The poodle is another symbol that frequents my work. It has become a self-portrait. The well-known breed is often thought of as a spoiled lap dog but was originally bred to be one of the best hunting dogs. I see a parallel with the misconception of the poodle and the misconception of myself. The dichotomy of my midwestern upbringing and current relationship with the art world left me feeling torn between lifestyles, as if I had to choose between the two, when really, I just needed to be myself and find my inner poodle! I felt this same way in art school, like I had to choose between pottery or sculpture, not seeing I was doing both. My anthropomorphic works frequently have two moods in order to illustrate this feeling of ambivalence we so often encounter.
BIOGRAPHY
Ashley Bevington (b. 1990) grew up in rural Ohio. Bevington graduated with her BFA from Columbus College of Art & Design (OH) in 2014, & her MFA from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania (PA) in 2017. She has participated in various national exhibitions in galleries such as The Clay Studio Philadelphia, The Erie Art Museum, The Ohio Craft Museum, the Leedy- Voulkos Art Center, & the Oregon College of Art & Craft. Befington has received numerous awards within her field. She was awarded a full scholarship to attend Penland School of Crafts in the summer of 2013. She was an invited artist and received a scholarship to attend a residency at Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts in the summer of 2015. She was awarded the Mudtools Merit Award in the 2017 NCECA National Student Juried Exhibition, where she had two pieces juried into the show. Bevington most recently received the NCECA International Residency Partnership Program award to attend an 8-week residency at Medalta Potteries in Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada in the summer of 2017. She currently a ceramics professor and artist residing in her home state of Ohio.
Mark Arnold
ARTIST STATEMENT
Before my ceramics practices I rode BMX bikes and this has had a strong influence on my work today. I am currently exploring repetition and patterns from my past bike riding experience and how this relationship can help determine subtle variations of form and surface. The jumps I built in the woods were similar to the organic architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright. The softness of nature interacting with the strong geometric forms is relevant in each piece.
Influences from architecture and abstract expressionism are infused into my utilitarian pottery in a simplified manner. Balance in the surface design of each piece abstracts imagery much like Richard Diebenkorn’s “Ocean Park” series, while leaving subtle hints that leave the viewer interested but not overwhelmed. Wheel thrown and hand built elements create geometric forms, while color is added so that each piece can resemble a 3-dimensional painting. The color palette is simple and muted, mostly white with one color plus the utilization of the red clay body. Terra sigillata brings out the slightly distressed surfaces, reminiscent of brick, wood, and stone, using a black wash to highlight these imperfections. Although individual pieces can stand alone, when they are grouped together they can reference a cityscape or skyline.
BIOGRAPHY
Mark Arnold is a studio potter living and working in Elizabeth City, NC. Mark was born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA and began taking ceramic classes at a community college, shortly after he transferred to Edinboro University where he received his B.F.A in ceramics. In the spring of 2017 Mark received his M.F.A. from Southern Illinois University of Edwardsville. Mark’s work is represented by multiple galleries around the country and was recently named one of Ceramics Monthly’s 2018 Emerging Artists.
