Visions In Clay 2022

Exhibition Juror

Juror's Statement

Since the 1940s, California has played a central role in shaping ceramics as a major art form through influential teachers: Antonio Prieto at Mills College in Oakland; Ruth Rippon and Robert Brady at California State University, Sacramento; Viola Frey at the California College of the Arts, Oakland; Robert Arneson, at University of California, Davis; and Peter Voulkos at the University of California, Berkeley.

They skillfully showed how clay’s plasticity lends itself to different techniques: wheel-thrown or hand-sculpted, earthenware or porcelain, and more importantly they demonstrated diverse conceptual approaches —from the functional, abstract, figurative, whimsical, expressive, and poetic to biting social commentary.

Visions In Clay, one of the largest gallery exhibitions of contemporary ceramics in Northern California, carries on this trajectory of the region being a fertile ground for clay—to borrow from the theme of NCECA 2022, held last March in Sacramento. As this exhibition reveals, participating artists located from all over the United States continue to explore these ideas foregrounded by their predecessors. Arguably, ceramic pedagogy is more open than recent past whether you choose to make a functional temmoku chawan (tea bowl) or a satirical ceramic figurine, no one school of thought dominates the field, underscoring the open and less dogmatic method of ceramic theory and practice, teaching, and mentoring.

Art jurying is never easy and making decisions about three-dimensional objects based on two-dimensional photography makes it even more challenging. From the 191 works submitted by 66 artists, I chose pieces that captured a variety of directions to illustrate the dynamism of contemporary practice. Specifically, I considered the artist’s intention and quality of execution in my selections. Congratulations to award recipients, Ahrong Kim (1st), Lorraine Bonner (2nd), Taylor Robenalt (3rd), and Melodie Sidhu (SJ Potters Guild), and to all the exhibiting artists.

Ahrong Kim, originally from South Korea and who received her MFA at Rhode Island School of Design, conveys wit and emotion in her work. Serving as self-portraits, these beautiful porcelain dolls elevated on pedestal tables transformed into a potted plant or burdened with oversized headgear, critique the objectification of Asian women. The message is clear, do not demean and restrict Kim or any woman to decorative china vessels. African American artist Lorraine Bonner based in Oakland, came late to clay as a means of art therapy to unearth the personal trauma she experienced in her childhood. Today she sculpts powerful figures that speak to privilege, hunger, and slavery. Taylor Robenalt, like Ahrong Kim, fashions clay into what initially appears to be decorative sculptures but her seemingly friendly bears and rabbits are anthropomorphized and comment on societal and environmental issues. Finally, a shout out to Melodie Sidhu, a recent graduate of San Joaquin Delta College, who works very well in the familiar genre of the disrupted vessel. Her “screwed” pots pay homage to the custom of mending broken ceramics by imitating riveting and Kintsugi.

As in all award shows, there are never enough prizes to go around, and for this reason, I would like to make a special mention to some exhibitors who offered fine examples of their practice. Notably, Stuart Asprey’s illustrative black-and-white tableware featuring superheroes and other popular culture imagery is clever and well executed, while Jeff Downing’s narrative ceramic reliquaries that honor our endangered rivers and lakes are convincing and poignant. Lastly, I admire Ianna Frisby’s astounding synthesis of clay, mixed media, and found objects resulting in wondrous neo-Victorian punk assemblages that conjure memories and traces of the past.

Visions of Clay 2022 demonstrates that the medium of ceramics be it sculptural, figurative, or functional is alive and well. Once again, congratulations to all the exhibitors on submitting such remarkable ceramic artwork.

— Rachel Gotlieb