Current Exhibition:

Animalia
April 25 - August 2, 2013
Museum Reception: Thursday, April 25
4:30 – 6:00 p.m.

This exhibition highlights some of the animal representations in the Museum’s permanent collection. These owls, snakes, various birds, elephant, dogs and tapir, to name a few, are each made of ceramics by various artists.

The artists include Alanna DeRocchi, Bruce Gholson, David Weinrib, Linda Cordell, Matthew Metz, Akio Takamori, Peter Morgan, Beth Low, Shoko Teruyama, Kurt Weiser, and Jenny Lind. Some of the animals are freestanding on all fours while others are on just two. Others are in low relief, cleverly growing from a vessel and another’s head becomes the finial of a lid. There are examples of animal images utilizing the sgraffito technique on the sides of vessels from the fourteenth and the twenty-first centuries and others with two-dimensional rendering in slip or glaze. A Peruvian zoomorphic pot made more than one thousand years ago will share the gallery with an object representing the same animal, but produced last year - reminding us again of the long history of clay’s interaction with the life forms sharing our earth.

Alfred University News Release for Animalia

Matthew Metz,
covered jar, 2010
porcelain, thrown, slips,
oil/wood/salt fired
h: 10-3/4” diam: 7-1/4”
Roger D. Corsaw Collection,
S-JIMCA, 2010.28

Alanna DeRocchi
Wading Tapir, 2010
h: 38”
stoneware, handbuilt, paint
MFA Gloryhole Collection,
S-JIMCA, 2010.7

Beth Low
dog salt shaker, 2010
porcelain, glazed
h: 3” w: 2-1/2” d: 2-1/4”
Roger D. Corsaw Collection,
S-JIMCA, 2010.2

Upcoming Exhibition:

Chris Gustin: Masterworks in Clay
September 19 - November 22, 2013
Museum Reception: Thursday, September 19
4:30 – 6:00 pm

This retrospective exhibition of the work of Chris Gustin comes to us from the Fuller Art Museum in Brockton, Massachusetts. It was curated by Sherry Leedy, of Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art, in Kansas City, Missouri for the Fuller.

Chris Gustin has been recognized for his excellence and innovation in ceramics and has received many awards including two National Endowment for the Arts fellowships. His work is in public and private collections worldwide. Examples in the exhibition include pieces from his various series giving a full range from 38 years of work. Known for his biomorphic forms and commitment to the vessel his passionate involvement with the Anagama wood-firing process is apparent.

Chris graduated from the Kansas City Art Institute with a BFA in 1975 and received an MFA from the NYS College of Ceramics at Alfred in 1977. He taught for 23 years at Boston University, the Swain School of Design, and the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth where he is now Professor Emeritus. Since 2000 he has devoted his full energies to his ceramic work.

Chris Gustin
Teapot #9035, 1990,
h: 13” w: 12” d: 6”
stoneware, gas-fired, sandblasted glaze
Collection of Gustin archives,
photo by Dean Powell

Chris Gustin
Vessel with Dimple #0901, 2009,
h: 33” w: 19” d: 18”
stoneware, Anagama wood-fired
Collection of Gustin archives,
photo by Dean Powell

Former Exhibitions: