http://www.lacostegallery.com/
At the opening of a solo show of work by clay sculptor Jeff Shapiro, Lucy Lacoste and LaiSun Keane announced that they have joined forces to form a new gallery, LACOSTE / KEANE, which will focus on contemporary ceramic art.
The gallery, formerly “Lacoste,” will remain based at 25 Main St. in Concord, MA, but plans to develop a global presence through a new e-commerce enabled website and social media, according to Lucy Lacoste, who founded and ran the original gallery.
Lacoste and Keane, who have worked together for three years, plan “strong, fresh contemporary art exhibitions while maintaining a studio pottery presence.”
At the opening, Jeff Shapiro described his latest approaches.. After nine years in Japan, where he focused on wood-firing techniques and the “character of clay,” he moved to New York’s Hudson Valley, where for 30 years, he has created sculpture that may have “a sensibility to certain qualities of the Japanese aesthetic,. yet is a departure from both traditional Japanese pots.” He thinks of his latest work as fine art: that is, sculpture using clay as his medium. One new series includes a solid-vertical form in black with a rough textured surface. In some cases, he treats the material like stone, waiting until the clay hardens so that he can carve and chisel it to expose its “inner quality.” 
Other new series include tall narrow vertical pieces–monolithic large blocks; a “cup” series, in which work is broken and reassembled as
deconstructed vessels; 
structural “cuboids; ” and highly textured slabs which are fired in an electric kiln.
structural “cuboids; ” and highly textured slabs which are fired in an electric kiln.
This is Shapiro’s fourth solo show at the Lacoste. It runs through May 26.–Anita M. Harris
Anita Harris is a writer and communications consultant based in Cambridge, MA.
New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, also based in Cambridge.
New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, also based in Cambridge.
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