Strange Clay: Ceramics Contemporary Art @ Hayward Gallery, London

Strange Clay: Ceramics in Contemporary Art 

Hayward Gallery, London

26 October 2022 - 8 January 2023

Beate Kuhn 

Glasbaum, 2001 

Stoneware, porcelain, thrown, assembled 

24 x 40 x 37 cm 

Courtesy the Estate of the Artist. 

Photo: Tony Izaaks

Lubna Chowdhury 

Sign 7, 2021

Glazed ceramic, wooden board

132 x 242 x 4 cm

© Lubna Chowdhary. Courtesy the artist. 

Photo: Andrew Judd

The Hayward Gallery presents Strange Clay: Ceramics in Contemporary Art, the first large-scale group exhibition in the UK to explore how contemporary artists have used the medium of clay in inventive ways. Given the recent surge of interest in ceramics by artists around the world, as well as countless people who enjoy sculpting clay as a pastime, Strange Clay offers a timely reflection on this vital and popular medium. Featuring 23 international and multi-generational artists, from ceramic legends Betty Woodman, Beate Kuhn, Ron Nagle and Ken Price, to a new generation of artists pushing the boundaries of ceramics today, the exhibition explores the expansive potential of clay through a variety of playful as well as socially-engaged artworks.

Strange Clay features works by Aaron Angell, Salvatore Arancio, Leilah Babirye, Jonathan Baldock, Lubna Chowdhary, Edmund de Waal, Emma Hart, Liu Jianhua, Rachel Kneebone, Serena Korda, Klara Kristalova, Beate Kuhn, Takuro Kuwata, Lindsey Mendick, Ron Nagle, Magdalene Odundo, Woody De Othello, Grayson Perry, Shahpour Pouyan, Ken Price, Brie Ruais, Betty Woodman and David Zink Yi.

Curated by Dr Cliff Lauson, Strange Clay features eccentric abstract sculptures, large immersive installations, fantastical otherworldly figures and uncanny evocations of everyday objects. The artworks vary in scale, finish and technique, and address topics that range from architecture to social justice, the body, the domestic, the political and the organic. Regardless of background or route into the material, all of the artists in the exhibition celebrate the sheer possibility and versatility of clay.

Ron Nagle  

Schmear Campaign, 2012

Ceramic, Glaze, Epoxy resin, China Paint

17.7 x 7.6 x 9.5 cm

© Ron Nagle 

Courtesy the artist and Matthew Marks Gallery / Modern Art  

Photo: Don Tuttle

Ron Nagle  

Ms. Artismal, 2018

Ceramic, catalyzed polyurethane, epoxy resin, acrylic

17 x 10 x 10 cm

© Ron Nagle. 

Courtesy the artist and Matthew Marks Gallery / Modern Art 

Photo: Don Tuttle

Among the highlights of the exhibition is the work of Ron Nagle. Born in 1939 in San Francisco where is live and work, this talented artist is know for its colourful abstract expressionist ceramics. For more information on this artist, you can read the posts on two exhibitions (among others) that Matthew Marks Gallery (New York), which represents him, devoted to Ron Nagle : Ron Nagle: Necessary Obstacles (2021) and Ron Nagle: Getting to No (2019).

In a brand new commission for the exhibition, titled Till Death Do Us Part (2022), Lindsey Mendick explores the domestic realm as a site of conflicts and negotiations. A reflection on the ambivalence of domestic settings and relationships, the home is represented as a battleground where vermin infiltrate every corner of the house.

David Zink Yi

Untitled (Architeuthis), 2010

Burnt and glazed clay

29 x 575 x 115 cm / 11 3/8 x 226 3/8 x 45 1/4 inches

© David Zink Yi. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth 

Photo: Stefan Altenburger Photography Zürich

David Zink Yi’s giant ceramic squid, Untitled (Architeuthis) (2010) sprawls across the floor of the gallery, spanning more than 4.8 metres and lying in what appears to be a pool of its own ink. Fascinated by the extreme biological differences between humans and squids, he explores the relationship between myth-making and the construction of identity.

Takuro Kuwata

Untitled, 2016

Porcelain, glaze, pigment, steel, gold, lacquer

288 x 135 x 130 cm

Courtesy: Alison Jacques, London 

© Takuro Kuwata; photo: Robert Glowacki

In his ceramics sculptures, Takuro Kuwata radically reinterprets the shape of a traditional Japanese tea bowl or chawan – a vessel used to prepare and make tea for traditional ceremonies. Greatly varying in scale, the artist’s sculptures are glazed with elaborate colours and textures that evoke organic forms, pushing traditional techniques to create something entirely unique and surprising.

Klara Kristalova

Installation view of Klara Kristalova: Camouflage, 

Perrotin, Paris, September 7 – October 7, 2017

Courtesy Perrotin. Photo: Claire Dorn

Klara Kristalova

Wooden girl, 2021

Stoneware, 62 x 25 x 31 cm

© Klara Kristalova and Perrotin. 

Courtesy Perrotin. Photo: Tanguy Beurdeley

Fantastical creatures are displayed in a botanical installation from Klara Kristalova, featuring plants and ceramic sculptures. Roots, moss, grass and branches evoke the forest surrounding the artist’s studio in the Swedish wilderness and the woodland setting of fairy tales.

Woody De Othello 

Won’t Tell, 2018

Ceramic, glaze, acrylic paint, resin, 135.9 x 48.3 x 48.3 cm

© Woody De Othello. Courtesy of the artist; 

Jessica Silverman, San Francisco; and Klarna, New York, NY 

Photo: John Wilson White

Woody De Othello

on and ON, 2020

Ceramic, underglaze, glaze, 43.2 x 43.2 cm

© Woody De Othello. Courtesy of the artist; 

Jessica Silverman, San Francisco; and Klarna, New York, NY 

Photo: John Wilson White

Woody De Othello’s surreal clay sculptures modify the shapes of traditional household objects into over-sized, twisted and sometimes anthropomorphic forms. With his distinct approach to ceramics, Woody Othello reimagines the mundane with a humorous twist while offering a serious reflection on society and race.

Dr Cliff Lauson, Curator of Strange Clay: Ceramics in Contemporary Art, says: “Strange Clay brings together some of the most exciting artists working in ceramics in recent years. Using innovative methods and techniques, they push the medium to its physical and conceptual limits, producing imaginative artworks that surprise and provoke in equal measure.”

Ralph Rugoff, Director of the Hayward Gallery, says: “Vibrant, playful and provocative, Strange Clay brings together a diverse range of artists - from across the world as well as the UK - whose work is inventively redefining the place of ceramics in contemporary art. Their work celebrates the medium’s special characteristics in order to explore an array of timely concerns.”

The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue with essays by Dr Cliff Lauson and Amy Sherlock, texts by Allie Biswas, Jareh Das, Hettie Judah and Jenni Lomax, and a roundtable discussion with four of the artists in the exhibition chaired by Elinor Morgan, co-published by Hayward Publishing and Hatje Cantz.

Strange Clay: Ceramics in Contemporary Art is curated by Dr Cliff Lauson with Assistant Curator Marie-Charlotte Carrier and Curatorial Assistant Suzanna Petot.

HAYWARD GALLERY

Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London

www.southbankcentre.co.uk

Les Flammes. L'Âge de la céramique @ Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris

Les Flammes. L'Âge de la céramique 

Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris 

15 octobre 2021 - 6 février 2022 

Ron Nagle 

Captive Morgan, 2012

© Ron Nagle, Courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery

L’exposition Les Flammes. L'Âge de la céramique propose une immersion dans le médium de la céramique et associe plus de 350 pièces allant du néolithique jusqu’à nos jours, créant un dialogue inédit et fécond entre des typologies d’objets issus d’époques et de contextes variés, cherchant à déceler les influences autant que les coïncidences.

Source constante d’inspiration et d’expression pour artisans, artistes ou designers, la céramique – de keramos signifiant « argile » en grec - est l’une des plus anciennes manifestations culturelles de l’humanité, utilisée dès la préhistoire pour la confection d’idoles, d’architecture, et de contenants culinaires.

L'exposition Les Flammes présente ainsi des céramiques réalisées par des artistes ou des céramistes modernes et contemporains (de Jean Carriès, Georg Ohr, Paul Gauguin, Shoji Hamada, Bernard Leach, Marcel Duchamp, Meret Oppenheim, Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, Raoul Dufy, Lucio Fontana, Beatrice Wood, Ken Price, Ron Nagle, Cindy Sherman, Judy Chicago, Miquel Barceló , Jean Girel, Simone Leigh, Daniel Dewar & Grégory Gicquel, Theaster Gates, Mai Thu Perret, Clare Twomey, Takuro Kuwata, Natsuko Uchino…), des productions historiques signées (de Bernard Palissy, Marie Talbot, Dave the Potter, ou des Manufactures nationales), ou anonymes (vénus préhistoriques, vases grecs antiques, poterie vernaculaire), ou encore non européennes (poterie Nok, jarres Mochica, figures Tang, réticulés iraniens, rakus japonais).

Trans-historique, cette exposition porte sur la céramique dans ses rapports intrinsèques à l’art et plus largement à l’humain. Longtemps minoré dans l’échelle des arts, ce médium peut être à la fois fonctionnel et sculptural et oblige à repenser les catégories existantes et les hiérarchies traditionnelles. Entre l’art, le design et l’artisanat, l’exposition explore ses rapports au décoratif, au culinaire, à la performance, mais aussi la multitude de ses applications dans les champs du médical, de l’aéronautique ou de l’écologie.

Les Flammes aborde ainsi la céramique selon trois thématiques : les techniques (terres et cuissons, formes, décors), les usages (utilitaires, artistiques, rituels) et les messages (trompe-l’œil, anticlassiques, politiques). Elle révèle également des pièces qui dérogent aux règles, réinventent les codes et bousculent les approches et ce, même si les recettes, proches de l’alchimie, n’ont quasiment pas évolué au cours de l’histoire.

Telle le Phénix qui renait constamment de ses cendres, la céramique exerce une fascination, croissante bien que cyclique, liée à l’imprédictibilité technique de la cuisson et du four qui ne se laisse jamais complètement apprivoiser. Sa tactilité, mais aussi sa rudesse, ont toujours inspiré des artisans, et ne cessent d’attirer les artistes depuis la fin du XIXe, ainsi qu’un large public d’amateurs en général.

Le feu, qui a inspiré le titre de l’exposition, est à la fois une donnée technique, d’où découlent des propriétés et des fonctions bien précises mais aussi des contre-esthétiques spécifiques, ainsi qu’un imaginaire riche pouvant toucher à l’utopie radicale. Par bien des aspects, la céramique est un art de la résistance. La reconnaissance d’un « âge » de la céramique qui, étrangement, n’avait jamais encore été consacré, semble, aujourd’hui, plus que jamais, s’imposer.

Les Flammes s’inscrit, telle un troisième volet, dans la lignée des expositions Decorum (sur la tapisserie) et Medusa (sur les bijoux) organisées au Musée d’Art Moderne en 2013 et 2017 cherchant à repenser les définitions de l’art. Elle repose sur des prêts de nombreuses institutions et collections de renom, tant muséales (Sèvres - Manufacture et Musée nationaux, le Mucem, le Louvre, Arizona State University Museum, etc.) que privées, et sur une collaboration avec des universitaires et théoriciens français et internationaux, dont les trois experts invités Frédéric Bodet, Thomas Golsenne et Stéphanie Le Follic-Hadida.

Un catalogue, avec des textes de plusieurs spécialistes et artistes, un colloque international autour du thème « céramique et politique », co-organisé avec la Société des Amis et le musée national de Sèvres ainsi que le Musée des Arts Décoratifs à l’Institut national d'histoire de l'art en janvier 2022, un espace de collecte, un programme d’ateliers et de démonstrations ainsi qu’un projet d’exposition en valise, à destination du public empêché, accompagnent l’exposition.

Enfin, le mobilier de la scénographie réalisée avec l’agence Cros/Patras, et la collaboration de Natsuko Uchino est à plus de 50% recyclé et recyclable, en signe de respect pour la Terre, médium premier de cette exposition.

Une sélection d’œuvres en céramique, issue de la collection du musée, est aussi présentée au sein du parcours permanent, en écho à l’exposition.

Commissaire de l'exposition : Anne Dressen assistée de Margot Nguyen

MUSÉE D’ART MODERNE DE PARIS

11 Avenue du Président Wilson, 75116 Paris

www.mam.paris.fr

Ron Nagle @ Matthew Marks Gallery, NYC - Necessary Obstacles

Ron Nagle: Necessary Obstacles

Matthew Marks Gallery, New York

September 11 – October 23, 2021

The exhibition Ron Nagle: Necessary Obstacles at Matthew Marks Gallery in New York features eighteen new sculptures and six related drawings. Each sculpture is meticulously crafted by hand in the artist’s San Francisco studio in a variety of materials including clay, catalyzed polyurethane, epoxy resin, and wood. Despite their intimate scale, Ron Nagle’s works have an outsized visual presence. Evoking otherworldly landscapes or surreal architectural arrangements, Ron Nagle’s diminutive sculptures are “invested with the grandeur of the Taj Mahal” as the critic Dave Hickey has written. With their unexpected combinations and forms, Ron Nagle’s inventive works elicit a vast range of associations. “The thing you want people to feel,” Ron Nagle has said, “is something they haven’t felt before.”

RON NAGLE (b. 1939) began working with ceramics in the 1950s, while still in high school. His first oneperson exhibition took place in 1968, and since then his work has been shown at numerous museums around the world, including most recently “Ron Nagle: Handsome Drifter” at the Berkeley Art Museum, as well as one-person exhibitions at the Vienna Secession, the Fridericianum in Kassel, and the Perimeter in London.

MATTHEW MARKS GALLERY

523 West 24th Street, New York, NY 10011

matthewmarks.com

_________________

Ron Nagle @ Matthew Marks Gallery, NYC - Getting to No

Ron Nagle: Getting to No

Matthew Marks Gallery, New York

May 2 – June 15, 2019

The exhibition Ron Nagle: Getting to No at Matthew Marks Gallery in New York features twenty-six new sculptures and fifteen related drawings. Most are no larger than six inches in any dimension, but at this scale, Ron Nagle says, an object “can allude to a much bigger place, because it’s so small your imagination has to fill in all that space that’s not there.” Ron Nagle makes his exquisitely crafted, jewel-like sculptures by hand, and although he works in traditional mediums like ceramic and porcelain, he combines them with other materials, including epoxy resin and catalyzed polyurethane, to create forms that cannot be achieved in clay alone. This merging of incongruous elements also extends to his titles, which are loaded with puns and wordplay: Egregious Philbin (2017), for example, or Quartersan (2018). “I’m trying to create a hybrid,” he explains. “You can’t quite put your finger on it.”

Inspiration for Ron Nagle’s work often comes from unusual sources, like the roadside tombstones of Hawaii, the custom paint jobs of 1960s hot-rod cars, or the stucco houses of the San Francisco neighborhood where he grew up. Even a deformed tree or a stain on the sidewalk can spark an idea. But his work is also grounded in tradition. He frequently cites the influence of shibui, an aesthetic of contrast and balance that is highly prized in Japan. When Ron Nagle makes a sculpture, the proportion of each color is essential; the most vibrant hue might be confined to a thin stripe along its base. “That’s the zinger,” he says. “In music they’d call it a hook. Your eye will go there in reference to the other colors.”

RON NAGLE (b. 1939) lives and works in San Francisco and began working with ceramics in the 1950s, while still in high school. He apprenticed to Peter Voulkos in 1961 and later exhibited alongside Voulkos, Ken Price, and other innovative West Coast artists working in clay. His first one-person exhibition took place in 1968, and since then his work has been shown at numerous museums, including one-person exhibitions at the Saint Louis Art Museum, the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, the San Diego Museum of Art, and the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam. Later this year the Fridericianum in Kassel, Germany, and the Secession in Vienna will open exhibitions of Ron Nagle’s work. Early next year the Berkeley Art Museum will present a survey of his work.

RON NAGLE Getting to No

Exhibition catalogue, Matthew Marks Gallery, 2019

With an interview by Vincent Fecteau

Clothbound with jacket, 64 pages, 27 images, 11 × 10½ inches; 28 × 27 cm

MATTHEW MARKS GALLERY

522 West 22nd Street, New York, NY 10011

matthewmarks.com