Earth & Alchemy @ Stephen D. Paine Gallery

 

Earth & Alchemy
September 24 – December 24, 2012
Stephen D. Paine Gallery
Reception: Monday, September 24, 6:00-8:00PM

Panel Discussion: Wednesday, November 14, 6:00PM

With artists Syd Carpenter, Annabeth Rosen, Paul Swenbeck, and MFA curator Emily Zilber

621 Huntington Avenue Boston, MA 

Participating artists: Yo Akiyama, Syd Carpenter, Sam Chung, Mark Cooper, Laurent Craste, Bean Finneran, Klara Kristalova, Kate MacDowell, Warren Mather, Naoko Matsumoto, Megumi Naitoh, J.J. McCracken, Valéria Nascimento, Kamio Ogata, Elizabeth Orleans, Annabeth Rosen, Takayuki Sakiyama, Linda Swanson, Paul Swenbeck, Akio Takamori, Xavier Toubes, Eugene Von Bruenchenhein, Jason Walker

Earth & Alchemy celebrates contemporary ceramic sculpture and showcases a cross-generational selection of nearly two dozen influential artists. Exploring a range of ideas encompassing conceptualism, social activism, materiality, and humor, this exhibition presents a survey of approaches to ceramics that often push the boundaries of one of the world’s oldest media. Whether through expansive sculptures, extraterrestrial installations, or fantastical vessels, the artists included in the exhibition have developed novel techniques—such as using oven-baked backyard clay covered with house paints, layering slip over glaze to create richly textured and encrusted surfaces, or silk-screening digital imagery onto porcelain. Earth & Alchemyexamines the depth and range of ceramic practice today—a macrocosm of clay.