The Scripps College Ceramic Annual – the best-known and longest running ceramic exhibition in the United States – opens Saturday, January 26, 2002, at the Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery on the Scripps campus and continues until April 7. The opening reception will take place on Saturday, January 26th from 7-9 p.m. and will include live music and refreshments. Admission is free and open to the public.
The 58th Ceramic Annual presents the work of twelve contemporary artists whose work explores the concept of sculptural abstraction including: Bean Finneran, Larkspur, CA; Dennis Gallagher, Oakland, CA; Yoonchung Kim, Escondido, CA; Yih-Wen Kuo, DeKalb, IL; Brad Miller, Venice, CA; Kevin Nierman, Berkeley, CA; Kathleen Royster, Salt Lake City, UT; the late Robert Sperry, Seattle, WA; Andrée Thompson, Berkeley, CA; Angela Verdon, Derby, England; Jamie Walker, Seattle, Washington; and Susan York, Sante Fe, New Mexico. Since 1992, guest curators have selected the pieces for the exhibition.
This year’s guest curator is Nancy Selvin, an independent studio artist and formerly a visiting ceramics professor at Pitzer College. Ms. Selvin is president of the Board of Trustees of the Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts. She also worked as the executive director of Pro Arts and, for the past twenty years, has been active in public service. Ms. Selvin is currently creating stone/text sidewalk inserts commissioned by the city of Berkeley for their downtown public arts program. For more than twenty years, she has given ceramic lectures and workshops throughout the United States, Great Britain and more recently, Mexico. Her work is included in numerous private and museum collections around the world.
Ms. Selvin selected “Fundamentally Clay” as the theme for the 58th Ceramic Annual because the works she includes continue to develop the abstract tradition that gave impetus to contemporary ceramics. Instead of focusing on function or the figure, these works create compelling non-literal sculpture.
The Ceramic Annual 2002 is supported in part by Francine and Bill Baker, MaryLou and George Boone, Gloria and Sonny Kamm, the Pasadena Art Alliance, and Skutt Ceramics, Inc. For more information on the Scripps Ceramic Annual and events surrounding the exhibition please call (909) 607-3397.