The Scripps College Ceramic Annual – the longest running exhibition of contemporary ceramics in the United States – opens Saturday, January 22, 2005 at the Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery on the Scripps campus. In conjunction with the exhibition, artist and writer James Melchert will give a special lecture at the Scripps Humanities Auditorium on Saturday, January 22, from 4:00 to 5:00 p.m., and from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. an opening reception will be held in the Bixby Courtyard next to the Williamson Gallery. The reception will include light refreshments and live music by the trio “Balcony” and guests. Admission is free and open to the public. The exhibition continues through April 3, 2005.
Since its inception, the Annual has been an “artist choice” exhibition. This year the guest curator is Tony Marsh, Professor of Ceramics at California State University at Long Beach. Tony has built a dynamic ceramics program at CSU Long Beach, and his teaching has fostered an atmosphere in which experimentation is encouraged and clay is a medium for monumental sculpture. For the 61st Ceramic Annual, he has chosen a diverse group of six artists, several of whom made works for the Annual this summer at CSU Long Beach.
David Hicks creates mysterious objects evoking gourds, bodies, and tools that look both familiar and unfamiliar. Nina Jun projects a Zen text on clay shards, fracturing the image and conveying a sense of both violence and serenity. For her, broken clay becomes both method and metaphor. Hwa Jin Lee’s works seem almost to have a gravitational pull of their own, with human bodies and natural forms, squeezed by the compression of their own weight into inseparable solids. Kristen Morgin produces via her usual approach of mixing clay, cement and glue over a framework of wood and wire, a life-size vintage hearse. Vince Palacio’s massive mural of decals collaged onto tiles, is a confounding blur of spirituality and science, technology and nature, ugliness and beauty. Finally, Sun-Koo Yuh’s sculptures are elaborate tangles of humanity, culture, history, and myth. Piled high and slathered with vibrant glazes, his cobbled totems are both inspiring and troubling.
This exhibition is accompanied by an illustrated catalogue that includes an essay by Christopher Miles, Assistant Professor of Art Theory and Criticism, also at CSULB. The full color catalogue, produced by Perpetua Press, is supported in part by a grant from the Pasadena Art Alliance. Additional support comes from Skutt Ceramic Products, Inc., Francine and William Baker, Sonny and Gloria Kamm, Victor and Barbara Klein and Diane and Igal Silber.