LOVE, LUST & DESIRE
January 29 – February 15, 2013
reception February 1, 5-7 PM
snow date February 8, 5-7 PM

A low fat alternative for your sweetheart just in time for Valentine’s Day- with over 60 artists showing works that are 11 x 8 or smaller!

Rachel Montroy

McGowan Fine Art
10 Hills Avenue, Concord, New Hampshire 03301
phone: (603) 225-2515

Click here for more info

Currier Museum of Art, 150 Ash Street, Manchester, New Hampshire 03104

September 7-October 19, 2012. Opening Reception Friday September 14, 5-8pm

Chester F. Sidell Gallery     Lives Transformed: A Celebration of Marvin Sweet and his Students  Immer Cook  Trisha Coates  Andrew Denney  Cristina Covucci  Erin Lee O’Sullivan  Jesse McMaster  Rachel Montroy  Megan Samson        Rachel Montroy     Marvin Sweet was more then just a great teacher, mentor, and dear friend. He was and is the guiding spirit behind the objects we make and the people we continue to aspire to be. His lessons continue to inspire us to make art that nourishes our souls as well as the world around us. This exhibition represents some of his former students who have carried on a spiritual quest of art making that could not have been possible without his prominent influence over our lives. It presents a wide spectrum of personal aesthetics and technical mastery that Marvin taught us inside and out of our studios. Utilizing clay as our means of expression, our work is informed by a combination of clear ideas, developed technical skills, heightened aesthetic sensibilities, and formal art training that Marvin was the catalyst for. The intent of this exhibition is to honor and celebrate the life of Marvin Sweet as we maintain a direct connection to him every time we touch clay.                          -Erin Lee O’Sullivan       Marvin Sweet is a long-time friend, supporter, donor, and occasional instructor at Essex Art Center. The relationship grew from Helen Tory’s and Leslie Costello’s (EAC co-founders) time at Bradford College where Leslie studied ceramics with Marvin. Marvin worked with one of the artists in this exhibition, Andrew Denney, to build the Essex Art Center’s first raku kiln. He is missed by many.   Marvin Sweet (1953-2010) was a ceramist, teacher and writer. He received his Master of Fine Arts degree from Boston University. Since then his work has been featured in several books and magazines, exhibited throughout the United States and abroad and is in both private and public collections. He has received numerous prizes and awards including the Artists Foundation Fellowship Award, the Massachusetts Cultural Council Professional Development Grant, and the Juror’s Award from the Yixing Art Museum.   Mr. Sweet has traveled extensively in China and has authored several articles on artistic influences shared between Eastern and Western cultures. Among his writings are Merging Cultural Diversities, Art, Influence and Culture and The Yixing Effect all for Ceramics Monthly magazine. He wrote the catalogue preface for Yixing artist Zhou Dingfang. And in 2004 he wrote, Lu Pinchang: A Matter of Space, published in Ceramics Art and Perception magazine.   In 2001 he was a featured speaker at the International Ceramic Art Symposium in Yixing, China and the Jingdezhen Ceramic Arts Academy. In 2003 he was visiting professor at the Central Academy of Fine Art in Beijing, in 2006 he spoke on Clay and Globalization: Impacts on Tradition, Cultural Identity and the Individual Artist at the Archie Bray International Ceramic Symposium. Most recently he led a panel discussion on The Yixing Influence on Contemporary American Ceramics at the 42nd annual conference of NCECA in Pittsburgh.   Over the past twenty-five years Marvin Sweet has amassed a collection of Chinese scholar art which includes scholar’s rocks, root art and other objects used on the scholar’s table, as well as nearly 200 Yixing teapots which date from the 18th century to the present. This collection served as the basis for his book, The Yixing Effect: Echoes of the Chinese Scholar.  He then curated the exhibition by that name at the Holter Museum of Art in Helena, Montana. Hu Jintao, President of the People’s Republic of China, on his official visit to the United States in 2006 used Marvin’s book as a cultural exchange gift, presenting it to the Yale University library for its permanent collection.

At the Soo Rye Art Gallery

Sarabeth Graziano. Cory Shea Munro. Jane LaBlanc. David Christopher .Rachel Montroy. Tracy Hayes. Joshua Stringer.

Tuesday 7/24 02:00 PM

Visiting Artist Workshop with Angela Cunningham
July 24, Tuesday, 2:00 – 5:00 pm

at the Harvard Ceramics studio

Ceramic artist Angela Cunningham will discuss her exquisitely detailed and provocative body of work inspired by forms in nature. Demonstrations of her artistic process and a sampling of her construction methods, including hand building and wheel throwing techniques, will be shown. Angela states, “I am inspired by the seductive textures, elegant lines, and fertile energy of flowers. Fruits and vegetables fascinate me with their tantalizing colors, dense seed structure, and grotesque beauty.”

Fees: Enrolled in a course, Free. Not enrolled, $50
Please send a completed registration form to panepint@fas.harvard.edu

About the artist:
Angela Cunningham began working in ceramics at the suggestion of her high school counselor during Saturday detention. Fifteen years later, after receiving a B.A. in Philosophy from the College of William and Mary and an MFA in Ceramics from Pennsylvania State University, she works as a full-time studio artist at Mudflat Studios in Somerville, MA. Angela is an up-and-coming ceramic artist, exhibiting nationally and internationally, including at the Korean World Ceramic Bienniale and the Smithsonian Craft Show. She has been recognized with numerous grants and awards, notably from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, Somerville Arts Council, and Niche Magazine.

Friday, April 13 from 7-9 pm (slide show and potluck reception)

Saturday, April 14 from 9 am-4 pm (Demos)

Sunday, April 15 from 10 am-4 pm (Glazing & Firing)

$120 for Observers on Friday & Saturday

$230 for Participants Friday-Sunday

Maximum 20 students

Location: Currier Art Center, Manchester, NH

Raku is a technique that is simple in concept, requires rudimentary firing facilities, and is easy to do. A deeper understanding of the process along with experimentation and higher expectations can yield sophisticated colors, textures and surfaces not necessarily recognized as “raku.”  Steven will show slides of his work, studio, raku history and contemporary raku pottery survey, as well as selections from his wide-ranging personal clay collection. He will demonstrate his throwing and forming techniques including his personal surface treatments, inlaid colored glass technique, narrow neck vase shapes, one-handed throwing and expanding forms from the inside out, glazing and raku firing. Throughout the weekend Steven will talk about his life, career and experiences as a student, potter, teacher, writer and businessman. Bring your questions and don’t forget your cameras and notebooks! No experience with raku is necessary.

To register call 603 669 6144 x 122 or go to the art center online registration

A Chosen Path: The Ceramic Art of Karen Karnes
Organized by Arizona State University Art Museum Ceramics Research Center, Tempe, Arizona
August 27, 2011 – December 3, 2011

The Currier Museum of Art will present A Chosen Path: The Ceramic Art of Karen Karnes, celebrating Karnes’ more than 60-year career at the forefront of the studio pottery movement. From her dramatic salt-glazed pottery of the 1960s and ‘70s, to her most recent complex joined sculptural pieces, Karnes (born 1925), of Morgan, Vermont, is one of the medium’s most influential working potters and is a mentor to several generations of studio potters.  Throughout her career, Karnes has created some of the most iconic pottery of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.  She has worked at some of the most significant cultural settings of her generation including North Carolina’s avant-garde Black Mountain College and Gate Hill Cooperative in Stony Point, NY in the 1950s.

“Karen is one of the originators of the art pottery movement in the United States, and I am thrilled that the Currier was chosen as one of only a handful of venues to host the exhibition,” said Kurt Sundstrom, associate curator, Currier Museum of Art. “Visitors to the exhibition will experience artwork that has a mystic beauty which appeals to the eye and the mind.”

A Chosen Path: The Ceramic Art of Karen Karnes is her first retrospective exhibition, and is accompanied by a book-length monograph. The exhibition is organized by the Arizona State University Art Museum Ceramics Research Center, Tempe, Arizona, and curated by ASU Curator of Ceramics Peter Held.

The exhibition is generously funded by an Artist’s Exhibition Series grant from the Windgate Charitable Foundation, with additional funds provided by the Ceres Trust, the Center for Craft, Creativity and Design and the Friends of Contemporary Ceramics.

^{Image credit:Vase, Karen Karnes, 1969, salt-glazed stoneware, 19 inches. Currier Museum of Art, Museum Purchase: The Henry Melville Fuller Acquisition Fund, 2006.23; Vessel, Karen Karnes, 1984, produced in Morgan, VT, glazed stoneware, wood-fired,14 x 13 x 13 in. Collection of Dr. Martin and Joyce Halpert. Photo credit: Anthony Cuñha; Three Forms, Karen Karnes, 2002, produced in Morgan, VT, stoneware, salt-glazed, (L) 20½ x 4½ in.,(M) 30 ½ x 6¼ in. (R) 23½ x 6¼ in.Private Collection, New York Photo credit: Anthony Cuñha}