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Collecting 101: A Conversation with Collectors

The Potter's Eye: Art & Tradition in North Carolina Pottery

Available in the Museum Store

The Potter’s Eye: Art & Tradition in North Carolina Pottery
Mark Hewitt & Nancy Sweezy
Hardcover, 296 pages

$42.95

Classic North Carolina stoneware pots--with their rich textures, monochromatic glazes, and minimal decoration--belong to one of America's most revered stoneware pottery traditions. In a lavishly illustrated celebration of that tradition, Mark Hewitt and Nancy Sweezy trace the history of North Carolina pottery from the nineteenth century to the present day. They demonstrate the intriguing historic and aesthetic relationships that link pots produced in North Carolina to pottery traditions in Europe and Asia, in New England, and in the neighboring state of South Carolina.

With hundreds of color photographs highlighting the shapes and surfaces of carefully selected pots, The Potter's Eye honors the keen focus vernacular potters bring to their materials, tools, techniques, and history. It is an evocative guide for anyone interested in the art of North Carolina pottery and the aesthetic majesty of this resilient and long-standing tradition.


“I have great respect for Mark Hewitt and Nancy Sweezy.  I deeply appreciate what they are doing, and that their writing is based on wide personal experience, profound insight, and wisdom.”
–Gerry Williams, Studio Potter Organization




About the Current Exhibitions:

Mark Hewitt: Big-Hearted Pots

A ceramic artist who knows no boundaries, Mark Hewitt has for more than 25 years been producing ceramic pots of gargantuan beauty and size. Born in England to a family with a history in the ceramic industry, Hewitt was drawn to a more naturalistic approach in his art, embracing clean lines and austere decoration, as well as the craft traditions of North Carolina, where he lives and works. About his pots, Hewitt says, " they break new ground while tipping their caps to the great jugs and jars from the potent pottery tradition of the South; and, while delightfully big-assed, they are also profoundly big-hearted." Closes April 10, 2011

Richard Ritter: A Life In Glass

In his 40 years as a craft artist, North Carolina-based Richard Ritter has steadily evolved his complex approach to glass vessels. Most widely lauded for his use of the murrini process, Ritter brings a contemporary sensibility to the ancient technique, created in Egypt and perfected in Italy, of creating glass rods with consistent cross-sections. The current exhibition is a career overview, tracing his trajectory from his early career in the midst of the American studio glass movement, through his career at Penland School of Crafts, to his most recent body of work, the Floral Core Series. Closes in mid-April 2011.

Hear North Carolina-based artists Mark Hewitt (potter) and Richard Ritter (glass) with collector Andrew Hayes  discuss craft in the 21st Century, below. 

CRAFT IN THE 21ST CENTURY with

MARK HEWITT, RICHARD RITTER and ANDREW HAYES

Moderator: Andrew Glasgow,

former executive director of the American Craft Council

and board member of the Ogden Museum of Southern Art

Wednesday, January 12

6PM

TOPICS COVERED:

Why craft is important and distinct in this century

Collecting craft--a lifelong passion

The importance of North Carolina craft to the historical, as well as contemporary, craft world

Question & Answer session

Current Exhibitions

Mark Hewitt: Big-Hearted Pots

A ceramic artist who knows no boundaries, Mark Hewitt has for more than 25 years been producing ceramic pots of gargantuan beauty and size. Born in England to a family with a history in the ceramic industry, Hewitt was drawn to a more naturalistic approach in his art, embracing clean lines and austere decoration, as well as the craft traditions of North Carolina, where he lives and works.  About his pots, Hewitt says, " they break new ground while tipping their caps to the great jugs and jars from the potent pottery tradition of the South; and, while delightfully big-assed, they are also profoundly big-hearted." 

Closes April 10, 2011

Check out Hewitt's website here. 

Richard Ritter: A Life In Glass

In his 40 years as a craft artist, North Carolina-based Richard Ritter has steadily evolved his complex approach to glass vessels. Most widely lauded for his use of the murrini process, Ritter brings a contemporary sensibility to the ancient technique, created in Egypt and perfected in Italy, of creating glass rods with consistent cross-sections. The current exhibition is a career overview, tracing his trajectory from his early career in the midst of the American studio glass movement, through his career at Penland School of Crafts, to his most recent body of work, the Floral Core Series. 

Closes mid-April 2011

Check out Ritter's website here. 

Art of Cup: Functional Comfort

Kathryn Gremley, Penland Gallery Director, and this year’s awards judge for the third annual invitational exhibition, Art of the Cup: Functional Comfort has selected First and Second prize winners as well as Honorable Mentions. 

FIRST PLACE

Frank Martin

Spiral Wave Cup

2010

Vitreous translucent china

Wheel formed and assembled

Martin earned his M.F.A. at Cranbrook Academy of Art and B.F.A. from the Kansas City Art Institute.  Martin is currently an Associate Professor at the University of Tennessee’s School of Art. He’s a recent recipient of an Individual artist Fellowship through a Tennessee Arts Commission Award. Martin's work has been exhibited in; The State of the Art 2008: National Biennial Ceramics Invitational at Parkland Art Gallery Champaign, IL, The Art of Tennessee at the  Frist Center for the Visual Arts in Nashville. His works are in the collections of the Charles A. Wusum Museum of Fine Arts in Racine Wisconsin and the Schein-Joseph International Museum of Ceramic Art, New York. His work is in 500 Vases: Contemporary Explorations of a Timeless Form, 500 Platters & Chargers: Innovative Expressions of Function & Style, Lark Books, Electric Kiln Ceramics: A Guide to Clay and Glazes, The Ceramic Design Book, and Make it in Clay. 

Artist Statement:

“It is with respect to the decision-making and the learning process that my working methodology allows for the act of improvisation.  Intuition plays a central role and quickly guides me toward a visualized form.  I find that by using a responsive medium, such as clay, that the material replies willingly to the forming processes on and off the potter’s wheel.  I am able to rapidly document the activity that takes place between my hand and the material in bringing my visualization into reality.” 

SECOND PLACE

Ronan Peterson

Dotty Purple Cup (2010)

Earthenware, wheel-thrown with contour slip dip, 

Slip trailing, wax resist patterning over red terra sigalatta and alkaline and textured glazes 

Fired in oxidation to cone 03 in electric kiln


Peterson grew up in the mountains of Western North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and later completed the Core Student program at Penland School of Crafts.  In 2005, he was chosen as an Emerging Artist by Ceramics Monthly magazine, and his work has been included in shows at AKAR Gallery in Iowa City, IA, Penland Gallery in Penland, NC, Artisans Gallery in Northampton, MA, The Kiln Gallery in Fairhope, AL, among others.  He has also been invited to the 4th, 5th, and 6th Annual Potters’ Market Invitational at the Mint Museum in Charlotte, NC, and his work is included in the permanent collection of the NC Pottery Center in Seagrove, NC.  Peterson's ceramic vessels are made from a red earthenware clay, fired in an electric kiln, and are drawn from his observations of agents of growth and decay in the natural world.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Mary Barringer

Blue and White Cup (2010)

Stoneware, hand-built, with multiple slips and glaze

Barringer received a BA in Art from Bennington College in 1972, with a concentration in ceramics and drawing. She has been a studio artist since 1973. During that time she has made both functional pottery and sculpture, and has exhibited her work both nationally and internationally. Barringer has taught widely at universities, art schools, and craft centers, including Ohio State University, Penland School of Crafts, Arrowmont, and many others. In addition to her studio work she has lectured and written on the history of ceramics at Ohio University, the Harvard Ceramics Studio, and Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis. In 2004 she was named editor of The Studio Potter, an independent journal of ceramics. Barringer lives in western Massachusetts. All her work is handbuilt and finished with multiple layers of slip and glaze, then fired in an electric kiln.

Joe Bova

White Dog Rhyton (2010)

Stoneware
Hand-built and modeled from slabs, fired to c/6 oxidation

Bova lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  Educated at the University of Houston (BFA) and the University of New Mexico (MA), his work in ceramics using animal imagery was first inspired by the realities of hunting and fishing, and later by their power as symbols, surrogates and totems.

Bova first taught at Nichols State University, Thibodaux, LA. He taught at and contributed significantly to the programs of Louisiana State University 1971-1990, and Ohio University beginning in 1990. His later work continues an underlying eroticism inspired by Moche pottery in addition to an increased sense of socio-political content.

Bova's work is in the collections of the Arizona State University Art Museum; Greenville Museum of Art, SC; International Ceramics Studio, Kecskemet, Hungary; Los Angeles County Museum, CA; Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, NC; and the San Angelo Museum of Art, TX.

Awards include the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art Fellowship, SAF/NEA Fellowship, and a fellowship to the International Ceramics Studio in Kecskemet, Hungary.  The International Academy of Ceramics, Geneva, elected him a member in 2005. Bova is a Fulbright Scholar for 2011 at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin, Ireland. He is represented by Taylor Bercier Gallery in New Orleans.

Bede Clark

Untitled #1 (2010)

Clay with slips and glazes

Wood-fired

“My goal in making this work has been to create quiet, simple pots, which like a good meal, leave a healthy, full feeling.  Pots like these have been my constant companions for over forty years.  They are forms and surfaces which I never grow tired of.  They are rooted in ceramic history; yet, I hope they reflect a personal and individual quality of feeling.  Above all, these pots are intended to be good to live with and interact with on a daily basis.  They are made with others in mind.

           

This work has been fired in a catenary arch wood-fired kiln at my studio.  It is a relatively short firing, so, I can fire it solo. Much of my work is wheel-thrown and then altered from stoneware or porcelain clay.  Slips and glazes have been applied and then altered through the action of the wood-firing.

For me, good pots spring from compassion.  My working method amounts to simply wishing the work well at each stage of creation.  Like raising my son; I just put my hands on the work silently encouraging it to "be good, be good."  Always, I return to the clay trying to bring as much sincerity as I can muster to bear on the work.”

Jeff Brown

Cup 2 (2010)

Wheel-thrown and altered porcelain
Soda vapor fired, semi-matte copper glaze, flashing slip and underglaze brushwork

Brown is currently Associate Professor of Art at Nicholls State University in Thibodaux, LA. He has been part of the Nicholls family since 2003. He teaches all levels of Ceramics, Beginning Design, and Art Appreciation. Brown received his M.F.A. from Ohio University and his B.F.A. from University of Florida. Prior to graduate school Brown was an Artist‐In‐Residence at the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, TN.

Brown works primarily with clay exploring both functional pottery and sculptural forms. Jeff also builds contemporary furniture and sculpture. His work has been exhibited in regional, national, and international exhibitions.

The exhibition will continue until January 2, 2011. The show includes functional cups from over 50 artists. Each invited artist has a Southern connection, based on where they choose to live, work or teach. The work in this exhibition is offered for sale. 

The Art of Giving

    Creative holiday shopping made easy at “The Art of Giving”

An Ogden Museum members-only shopping event, Friday Dec. 3rd

Open to the general public Weds. Dec. 4th  – Mon. Dec. 6th

The Ogden Museum of Southern Art’s Center for Southern Craft and Design will expand its boundaries for “The Art of Giving”: a museum members-only deluxe shopping evening event on Fri. Dec. 3. This special holiday art and craft showcase will be open to the general public Weds. Dec. 4 – Mon. Dec. 6. In addition to the museum’s first-floor retail space, the atrium and third floor will be filled with one-of-a kind pieces by more than 80 Southern artists.

• Gifts! Give a present with a sense of Southern style and place! Original art (photographs, prints), art glass, jewelry, ceramics, wood, metal, textiles, as well as books (fiction, nonfiction—even cookbooks) and CDs by Southern musicians will be available. Special items from Scriptura and Nadine Blake.

• Booksignings: Bryan Batt, She Ain’t Heavy, She’s My Mother; Scott Barretta, Mississippi – State of Blues; Debra Shriver, Stealing Magnolias: Tales from a New Orleans Courtyard.

• Special Appearances! Rachel Therese DePauw (ceramic), Mark Derby (ceramic), Niki Fisk (jewelry), John Humphries (jewelry), and Tina Stanley (jewelry).  

• Additional Savings! Because the Ogden is in a special cultural district, there is no sales tax on purchases of original art.

The Ogden Museum Furniture Collection

Greg Arceneaux: Louisiana Colonial, Acadian and Creole Collection

The Center for Southern Craft & Design opened Arceneaux's exhibition last night during  Ogden After Hours. The exhibition is located on the 5th floor of the museum. Visit the Museum and see Arceneaux's show for FREE until November 19th (limited to 25). Just say the secret password, Dumesnil.  Period pieces from Dumesnil House, St. Mary Parish, Louisiana served as bases for the designs of both the Ursuline Table with Drawer and Rolling Pin Bed.

 

 

 

Dining Table

Cypress

Design based on a period table from Smithville Plantation, near Palmetto, Louisiana

60” x 36” x 30” (3’x5’)

3’ x 5’         $3300.00

3’ x 6’         $3500.00

42” x 7’       $3800.00
42” x 8’       $4300.00 

Cane River Bench 

Ash, (from the Natchitoches region)

48” x 11 ½” x 18”

$850.00 

 

Ursuline Table

Design based on a period table from Dumesnil House, St. Mary Parish, Louisiana

30” x 26” x 30”

$1400.00

Bautac Chair

Mahogany and leather

Design based on a period chair from Patout Cottage, New Orleans, Louisiana

21 ½” x 30” x 40”

$2700.00

Creole Arm Chair

Walnut and rush

Design based on a period chair from Chene Vert Plantation, Washington, Louisiana

22” x 18” x 40”

$1450.00, $1300.00 (side chair)
  
Single Door Armoire

Cypress

Design based on a Creole style cupboard used in Louisiana Colonial homes in the early 19^th

century

25” x 13” x 69”

$3500.00

Goldleaf Cocktail Table

Maple

Design based on Creole style with hand carved bead on apron and legs, thirteen step finish process including hand-applied gold leaf

34” x 34” x 18”

$1695.00

La Louisiane Child’s Chair

Pecan and rush

Design based on traditional Canadian and Louisiana examples

24” x 42”

$685.00

Rolling Pin Bed

Cherry

Design based on High Post early 19^th century piece from Dumesnil House, St. Mary Parish, Louisiana

82” x 62” x 84”

King            $7200.00

Queen        $6900.00

Double        $6600.00

Twin            $6200.00

 For more about Arceneaux, go to www.gregarceneaux.com.