HOT POTS
Opening Reception Saturday, September 24, 6-8pm
Exhibition runs from September 24 – November 10, 2016
40 Beech Street, Port Chester, NY 10573 | Ph: 914-937-2047
http://www.clayartcenter.org/category_s/1035.html
Co-curated by Judith Shwartz Ph.D. and Adam Chau
The twenty-first century has now hit a point where craft traditions are influencing pop-culture in a new way – TV shows, editorials in Vogue, designer lines. With so many people getting interested and involved with ceramics, many without traditional training, new ideas are percolating and forcing practitioners to embrace the avant-guard and evaluate the traditional. It’s fascinating to see our heroes that have been making for 20+ years collide with those who never lived without a cellphone.
The vision for Hot Pots was to make connections from a breadth of vessels and inventory them under one roof. In trying to eliminate hierarchy, the collection has unfolded into a catalog of technique, scale, aesthetic, and utility that is as diverse as New York itself. Eclecticism is proving to be at the heart of this province; what a wonderful feeling that an egalitarian way of fostering new ideas is at the core of the Metropolitan area.
Fifty artists were curated into Hot Pots. Utility may be the impetus of creation or tossed into a black hole and never seen again; ultimately the pieces shown share the conceptual underpinnings of being a vessel. What is exciting is how these objects share space, draw connections, contradict each other, and perpetuate the field. For so long artists have flocked to the New York scene and it proves time and time again that it is fertile ground for a range of voices.
-Adam Chau, Program Manager
