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Lacoste: Lily Fein responds to “Mississippi mad potter” ceramics.

Lily Fein: In Response to George Ohr

This past weekend, I was ecstatic to attend my first gallery opening since March, when shelter in place restrictions began. I was equally ecstatic that this was at Lacoste, in Concord; that it featured the work of a 20-something Newton native, female artist; and that. in keeping with the Lacoste tradition of sponsoring diverse and female artists the gallery will be donating 18 per cent of sales to the Black Lives Matter cause. And also: that I learned a lot.

The exhibit.
The exhibit, “In Response to George Ohr,” features the work of Newton, MA ceramicist Lily Fein, who. in January 2020, traveled to Louisiana and Mississippi to to study the work of George Ohr -an American ceramic artist and the self-proclaimed “Mad Potter of Biloxi.” [1] 

George Ohr
George Ohr

Ohr, born in 1857, died largely unknown in 1918. For decades, his pots sat in a garage behind his sons’ gas station in Biloxi.  But “his work is currently viewed as ground-breaking and a harbinger of the abstract sculpture and pottery that developed in the mid-20th century. His pieces are now relatively rare and highly coveted,,” according to Wikipedia.

Fein writes that she “was attracted to how Ohr inverted the metaphor of the vessel–what one would expect to live in the inside of the hollow object manifests itself on the exterior of the pot. In turn, as much as a pot references the human body, Ohr put the insides of human bodies on the outside of his pots. He made the underlying connection between the vessel and the body overt: putting excremement in teacups and making vulva piggy banks. [This is Anita: Ew…sounds gross]. He was not shy, which posthumously gave other clay artists permission to play.”

Fein went South thinking that seeing Ohr’s work in the stacks at the New Orleans Museum of Art and at the Ohr-O’Keefe Museum in Biloxi would bring “revelations and new approaches” to her own work. As she moved through the stacks and and “made work” in the South, she realized that that she needed to claim her relationship to Ohr apart from him and the objects and persona he created–asserting her own narrative through repeated motifs and gestures–“in conversation with Ohr’s signature twists and folds, but continuing to change.”

Fein

Whereas Ohr used a pottery wheel in creating his vessels, Fein’s work begins with coiling the clay, and pinching it. She then alters the pieces and changes their form. Often pushing out from the inside of the vessel, creating rib-like features, she squeezes parts of the exterior to create folds, and sometimes uses a needle to methodically poke holes in the surface and create a new texture. “I am continually reminded of how Ohr claimed his clay gestures in his lifetime while I continue to develop my own, in mine, ” she writes.

Unaware of any of this upon entering the gallery, my friend Chrissie and I did not know quite what to make of Fein’s work–but found it beautiful, intriguing, and sometimes humorous. For example–I probably shouldn’t admit this– one vessel looked to me like someone’s legs sticking upside down out of a wine jug. Chrissy discovered an image of a corresponding Ohr vase on the site of the Museum of Metropolitan Art, below.

Lily Fein interpretation
George Ohr Vase

Lucy Lacoste, the gallery founder and owner, explains that “Ohr’s pots have a flamboyant sensuality often bordering on the erotic. They can have a visceral, direct sexuality, as can be seen in his famous money bank—the front is a vulva and the back, a breast.”

Ohr/sensual?

I couldn’t readily find an image of the money bank online–so will leave that to your imagination. But here’s one of Ohr’s pieces that one might perhaps, consider sensual/sexual:

Fein: Vulva series

Lacoste explains that “Lily Fein’s sensuality is intuitive, organic, implied—naturally reflecting the outer female sex organs.  This is evident in her Vulva series.  The edge is important. The clay reflects the way she touched and pinched the clay—as if it were skin. ” Link to video

Fein: Bruised

In Fein’s show, I found one work especially interesting. It was roughly shaped, with shiny royal blue glaze on the inside–and a flat-finished outer surface that Fein said she had stuck many times with a needle–and was meant to look “bruised.”

Commitment to Diversity
Regarding the gallery’s commitment to diversity, Lacoste writes on her website:”Like many other businesses in the arts, we are searching for ways to fight the injustices that remain prevalent in this country.  

Lucy Lacoste

“Now more than ever, it’s important to go beyond saying we stand with oppressed communities. We must take measurable actions.  We do agree that if we are not part of the solution, we are part of the problem. 

“Out of regard for the important protests occurring across the country, we postponed the Fein opening June 21. To amplify voices less heard, Lily Fein and the Gallery are committing 18% of sales from this exhibition to the Boston chapter of the Black Lives Matters organization. 

“Our statement is brief out of respect for those with lived experiences who are leading the way to human rights for all.”

Earlier, Lacoste presented $2,500 to Emerson Hospital for its  COVID-19 Relief fund. The money was raised by the sale of work by Montana ceramic artists Beth Lo and Adrian Arleo and by Lucy Lacoste Gallery.

Numerous recent Lacoste exhibits have been devoted to the work of women from a multitude of backgrounds.

The current Lacoste show will be on view through June 27, 2020 at 25 Main St., Concord, MA. Link to Website

–Anita M. Harris
Anita M. Harris is a writer, photographer and communications consultant based in Cambridge, MA.

New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, also in Cambridge.




Ani Kasten Ceramics at Lacoste Keane: Beauty From Decay

Once again, the Lacoste Keane gallery in Concord MA presents a stunning new show–in which ceramicist Ani Kasten uses the concept of visual poems to reflect on issues such as environmental collapse, social collapse, and inner and outer strife. 

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In the show, Kasten creates sculptural compositions from fragments and debris. While some vessels are quite large, other, smaller pieces Kasten calls “poems,” are three-dimensional objects which she likens to written verse. A poem, says the one-time literature major, ” shears away everything but the most essential, evoking an emotional response through the sparest communication, constructing concepts and feelings into a hewn verbal form, without engaging narrative or logic.”

Debris poems; Lucy Lacoste

Kasten uses earth materials like clay and rocks as a metaphor to explore ideas of decay, disintegration and renewal. “Working in clay is about the search for balance between the natural tendencies of the materials and the craft that is brought about by contact with the human hand,” according to the gallery writeup. “Faced with monumental forces of nature and entropy, a sadness and feeling of futility is provoked with the notion that human hubris seeks to create lasting structure and survival in the face of decimation by forces outside of our control—earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, tornadoes, violence and war. “

In this work, Kasten “reveals emerging structures and constructs under stress, made by the human hand but fighting against collapsing infrastructure. They show the cracking, warping and erosion that are natural expressions of the material, and explore the beauty and sadness in building from wreckage, such as a little robot made from scavenged shards of something former, with two little ears made from fossilized hornets’ nests.

Kasten says that “In the act of scavenging, building and creating the visual poems, ” she is “searching for beauty and harmony in the act of piecing back together what may seem like meaningless detritus of a collapsing world, reclaiming a tenuous and fragile feeling of meaning and purpose.”

In my view, she is successful in doing so. The pieces look delicate–as if they could fall apart at any second. But with their pastel colors and seemingly -haphazard-yet-powerful shapes reaching out in many directions, they exude tremendous energy–inviting the viewer to enter into Kasten’s exploration and expression of the tenuous-yet-enduring relationships of natural and human forces.

At Lacoste Keane Gallery, 25 Main St Concord MA 01742, through February 8, 2020.

—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, an award-winning public relations and digital marketing agency, also in Cambridge.




Mourning the loss of mentor Jim McConkey

James McConkey at celebration of his 95th birthday in Ithaca, NY.
Cornell Author and Professor Emeritus James McConkey at a celebration of his 95th birthday in Ithaca, New York.

It’s not every freshman writing instructor who stays in touch with a student for more than 50 years, but Cornell University Professor Emeritus James McConkey was one who did…and I was the lucky student.

McConkey was my freshman writing instructor in 1967–I used to go out to his farm to exercise his horses–and he helped me through the student takeover of Willard Straight Hall, from which 130 black protestors emerged–several of whom brandished rifles.

(Jim told me recently that he sat with Dan Berrigan during the Barton Hall Takeover; also counselled University President Perkins–and tried to be a voice of reason throughout all of that). We stayed in touch for some 50 years; he and I held a joint book-signing in the Cornell Store during my 45th college reunion.

I am glad I got to seem him just before he passed away. 

In early October, Jim, his son Larry and daughter-in-law Diane McConkey were on their way back from visiting another of Jim’s former students on Northern Maine ( some 9 hours from Ithaca) and invited me to dinner at the Publick House, near Cambridge, , where I live, and where they were spending the night.

At 98, he told a few funny stories about his mother, who lived to 100 at least…and I  joked that his social life was better than mine. He was still driving–and told us that he would be driving the ten miles from his farm to lunch with friends several times the next week. He seemed frail–but sounded fine when I called to thank him a few days after our dinner.

Anyway, I’ve posted an obit Larry wrote at http://ithacadiaries.com. The Cornell obit is at https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2019/10/writer-emeritus-professor-james-mcconkey-dies-98 . And here’s a link to tributes from Diane Ackerman, Brad Edmonson and Robert Wilson that appeared in the American Scholar .  https://theamericanscholar.org/remembering-james-mcconkey/#.XdMM61dKg2w   .  —

–Anita M. Harris
Anita Harris is a writer and communications consultant based in Cambridge, MA. Her books include Ithaca Diaries, a memoir and social history of her undergraduate years at Cornell; and Broken Patterns, Professional Women and the Quest for a New Feminine Identity. She is currently working on a creative nonfiction book tentatively titled “Harrisburg,” which is about her experiences founding an alternative newspaper in Pennsylvania, during the trial of the Harrisburg 8.




“Vessel Re-Imagined” at Lacoste Keane, Concord, MA.

It’s not often that I walk through a gallery with a smile on my face, but that’s exactly what happened on Saturday, at the opening of Lacoste Keane’s “Vessel Re-imagined,” a ceramics exhibit in Concord, MA, curated by Brooks Oliver, of Dallas, Texas.

The show includes pieces by five artists, each contributing new insight to the vessel. As pointed out on the gallery website, a vessel is “a hollow container, especially one used to hold liquid, such as a bowl or cask–and a fundamental and important form connected to human civilization.” The first known clay pot, found in China, is 20,000 years old.

The first installation to catch my eye (immediately above) looked, from a distance, like a quilt but it was, in fact, a set of 12 plates made by Margaret Kinkeade of Kansas City– exhibiting the interplay of art and function. According to Kinkeade’s Web site, her work often focuses on American folk art and traditional craft…and on “the domestic object as souvenir, the collection as identity and community connection through shared work–especially that of women.

The idea of community connection through shared work came through clearly in Kinkeade’s second installation, (below). At the opening, attendees were encouraged to eat bread and butter off of small clay salad plates, and then hang the used plates on the wall to form a grid. The inclusion of visitors in both using and hanging the objects both exemplified and questioned the utilitarian aspect of vessels–because when hung on the wall, the plates were transformed into objects of art and decoration.

Cutator Brooks Oliver

I was quite taken by the work of Lily Fein,  a Massachusetts based young art graduate, who approaches the vessel through the pinching and coiling method. According to a Lacoste writeup, “her works are painstaking and time consuming to make as each vessel is coiled and pinched to form. Using the challenging medium of porcelain, she creates each vessel from the base and builds the work up by pushing the walls from inside and outside. The abstract qualities are revealed by each fingerprint and mark making. The stippling on her works is meditative as the continuous application of dots on the surface involves complete focus and involvement from the artist. Each work holds special memory of the artist and her energy.”  The work below is called “Twisted Figures.”

Heesoo Lee‘s ethereal vessels (below) are inspired by nature and landscape and “combine the painterly with the sculptural. Her poetic imagery is created by using layers of underglaze and china paint on scenes built up and sculpted on clay. These works are reminiscent of Louis Comfort Tiffany and Newcomb Pottery. I found the detail amazing.

I found wonderful surprise in the work of Zak Helenske, (below) who is interested in the development of form and the exploration of pattern.  He looks to industrial and architectural examples as points of reference using the language of geometry as his path of communication.  According to Lacoste, “One sees in his work a connection to architecture and geometry in which the haptic—the sense of touch is important.” I especially liked his combination of architecture and “pots,” and was intrigued by how his seemingly “puzzle-like” pieces were put together.

Finally, curator Brooks Oliver, who  obtained his MFA from Penn State and is a ceramics educator at the University of North Texas, endeavors to “reimagine and reinterpret the familiar functional vessel”. In doing so, according to the gallery Web site, “he challenges the viewers to examine the grey areas in art and craft, form and function and mass production versus handmade. On the surface his works are sleek and industrial, but closer examination reveals the maker’s marks such as seams that have not been sanded smoothly or glaze applied by hand.  All leaving slight unevenness on the object’s surface. Oliver’s minimalist work never ceases to question the public’s perception of the vessel. One can treat them as beautiful works of art, yet the void within the object renders them functional in some instances. “

The show will be at Lacoste Keane Gallery, 25 Main St. Concord, MA, until September 28, 2019.

Photos–except for the first one, in chartreuse, c. Anita M. Harris

–Anita Harris
Anita M. Harris is a writer and communications consultant based in Cambridge, MA.

New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, also in Cambridge.




Concord’s Lacoste/Keane to Feature Rafa Perez August 3-24, 2019

On Chance and Materiality: sculptor Rafa Pérez’s first East Coast exhibition

I’m looking forward to East Coast solo exhibit of the Spanish sculptor Rafa Perez–to be held from 3-5 pm at the Lacoste/Keane Gallery, 25 Main Street, Concord, MA, on August 3, 2019.

Born in 1957 in Haro, La Rioja, Spain, Perez studied ceramics at the Massana School of Art and Design in Barcelona. According to a gallery press release, he has been making abstract sculptures for over 30 years.

Though prolific and well exhibited in Europe, Pérez has been largely under represented in the United States –his only previous US solo show was at Minnesota State University in 2018.

Perez’s work is the result of two important factors – his masterful handling of the clay body while letting the unpredictability of the firing be an active participant in the process. This is achieved by mixing his own clay body and experimenting with firing temperatures. It is the element of surprise that motivates him to continuously tests materials until he is satisfied, he wrote, “I try to keep a balanced relation with the fire. I mean the fire has to work by its own as I do, but finally we are a team.” In the work Untitled #8, 2014 (pictured), Perez applied his own special formula of glaze on wire mesh which crawls during firing, giving the piece a dramatic affect.
Lucy Lacoste, the founder of our gallery surmises, “I have been watching Rafa Pérez’s career for some time and to me, he is exciting because of his handling of the materials which is innovative and unorthodox much like Jackson Pollock or Jasper Johns.”

Born in 1957 in Haro, La Rioja, Spain Perez studied ceramics at the Although prolific and well exhibited in Europe, says Lacoste/Keane founder and co-owner Lucy Lacoste. “He has been largely under represented in the United States –his only previous US solo show was at the Minnesota State University in 2018.”

Lacoste describes Pérez’s work as the result of two important factors: “… his masterful handling of the clay body and the unpredictability of the firing, which becomes an active participant in the process. This is achieved by mixing his own clay body and experimenting with firing temperatures. It is the element of surprise that motivates him to continuously tests materials until he is satisfied. “

Perez writes “I try to keep a balanced relation with the fire. I mean the fire has to work by its own as I do, but finally we are a team.”

In the work Untitled #8, 2014 (pictured), Perez applied his own special formula of glaze on wire mesh which crawls during firing, giving the piece a dramatic affect.

Lacoste says, “I have been watching Rafa Pérez’s career for some time and to me, he is exciting because of his handling of the materials which is innovative and unorthodox– much like Jackson Pollock or Jasper Johns.”

An opening reception with Rafa Pérez will be held on Saturday August 3, 3:00 – 5:00 pm, with an artist talk on Sunday August 4, 2:00-4:00 pm. For details call 978-369-0278 or email info@lacostekeane.com.




Ceramics-painting dialogue makes Lacoste/Keane Gallery an artwork in itself


The new show at Lacoste/Keane Gallery in Concord, MA features both painting and ceramics—a new approach for the gallery in that it combines both the fine art of painting with (what is sometimes considered) the “lowly” craft of ceramics–and establishes a dialogue between the forms.

The show, entitled “Tim Rowan: Presence: Unifying Presence of Sculpture and Painting” features sculptures by Rowan, a leading ceramic artist in the Northeast, and abstract paintings by internationally-known Bernd Haussman,  whose works were  selected to compliment Rowan’s’ work.

The exhibit, at 25 Main Street in Concord, MA, runs through Dec. 1.

Tim Rowan
According to a gallery press release, “The ceramics elements of the show take visitors into the experience of an object’s presence and show how, by contemplating the materials and processes, the artist becomes ‘present’ with the work.

“Also, this significant new body of work by Rowan uses darker clay body with a darker firing— reflecting on how he sees our turbulent time.

“Among the upright vessels and boxes, a group of the intriguing elliptic forms (see Untitled Vessel VIII, below, left) resemble a capsule, missile or rocket mimicking a futuristic machine.

 

“The sense of irony is not lost to the artist as he examines the notion of man-made versus technology made works,” the writeup continues.  “What has been a study of technological forms like cogs and turbine in Rowan’s early works has evolved into abstract concepts.

“In Untitled Vessel X with Silver Tips (pictured below, right) a sleek dark grey hollow egg form with silver luster glaze conveys this and the artist’s energy.”

 

Shown in the gallery since 2000, Rowans work has taken a new direction, according to Gallery co-owner LaiSun Keane.

“In the past, it was the glorification of machine and this show is the critique of it – how one finds meaning in everyday life through man-made works and finding the energy of these objects as they are given in the making process.”

 

 

Bernd Haussman

Haussman’s paintings, chosen specifically by Keane and her co-owner Lucy Lacoste to compliment Rowan’s ceramic pieces, are, by and large,  two dimensional.

 

But, like ceramics, some are highly textured , with clay-like or even “fired” surfaces. Their colors and shapes coordinate with those of nearby ceramic pieces—and establish a dialogue with them.

Also like the ceramic pieces, the paintings show the artist’s process–and express the energy that goes into creating them.

As Haussman explained at the show’s opening on Saturday, November 10, many of his paintings express relationships–establishing dialogues– of colors, shapes and ideas– within themselves.

As artist-in residence at the Board Institute of Harvard and MIT from 2012-2015, Haussmann engaged scientists in a non-verbal dialogue through artistic work called “Dialogues.” He also participates in transatlantic exhibitions such as “KunstTraject langs de Leie”, Belgium, and “Art in Embassies.

Born in Tuebingen, Germany, Haussman has lived in the USA since 1994.

 

In my own view, the provocative ceramic works and beautifully crafted paintings amount to more than the sum of their parts. The novel combination—or dialogue– of objects and paintings makes a statement on the relationship of fine art to crafts–and to artistic creativity. And it turns the Lacoste Keane exhibition space into a work of art in itself.

 

At Lacoste/Keane Gallery 25 Main Street • Concord, MA 01742 978.369.0278 • www.lacostekeane.com* through December 1, 2018.

–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 of Cambridge. 

Lacoste Gallery was founded 28 years ago by Lucy Lacoste with a focus on ceramics. In May, 2018, Lacoste joined forces with LaiSun Keane to form Lacoste/Keane Gallery– marking a new chapter in this gallery’s life. This gallery remains deeply committed to clay as an art medium focusing on showing contemporary, post WWII ceramic artists both established and emerging. In conjunction with its main ceramic shows, the gallery will present a 2-D art focus several times a year to broaden the dialogue between its ceramic works and audience. the gallery also offers for sale functional ceramic works by many well-known potters.

 




“Creature Comforts” at Cambridge Art Assn a “must-see”

For anyone who loves animals, mythology, feminism, fishing and/or nature, the current exhibit at the Cambridge Art Association is a must-see. Curated by sculptor  Gin Stone,  the show, called “Creature Comforts,”  features the work of  Christine Kyle, Gail Samuelson, Gin Stone, & Daniel Zeese.

As  described by a CAA press release, the show, at the Kathryn Schultz gallery, 21 Lowell Street,  “invites the viewer to enter another environment: a landscape of contrasts, with creatures and beings spotlighted in their native realms. Some are adapted to wetlands, others to an environment unrecognizable to humans.”

On entering the gallery, I was immediately “wowed” by the fantastical, life-sized large animal shapes formed of hard foam covered by various sorts of fishing gear –many of which their creator, Gin explained,  represent mythical gods, showing both beauty and pain. The creatures–with seemingly real fur, teeth, tongues and such– are set in dioramas meant to mimic those of traditional natural history museums.

 

Gin says: “I am an ardent environmentalist and multimedia artist. I create humane taxidermy (anti-hunting trophies) with recycled material. I use hand dyed reclaimed longline fishing gear as a medium. The material itself is part of the work’s narrative. The local fishing culture is deeply ingrained in the environment I lives in, my studio is on Cape Cod.

Mother’s Milk

“Some of my more experimental work, as personified by the piece “Mother’s Milk – Spilled, “creates chimera and allegorical/mythological creatures. With these pieces, I incorporate a current social commentary by adding spent bullet casings, axes and other found objects to address issues such as toxic patriarchy, violence against women and children and hate crimes.”

Working in a Cape Cod studio, she writes, she is well aware of the traditional fishing community–and that “more recently the science community has come into the arena to help recover retain the health of oceans. There is frequently a clashing between these two groups. By bringing the recovery and recycling of the fishing gear to the artistic arena, I can help put a spotlight on collaboration and creativity, and perhaps a hopeful outlook on the future from everyone involved.”

Christine Kyle’s simple, organic ceramic forms  stand in for “the messiness of life.” A geometric face or window slices through each piece, keeping its attention on the search for certainty.

Their surfaces, made primarily of wax, damar resin and pigment, give each piece its own character. The statures of her creatures range within intimate dimensions. The wall portals are complementary pieces to the creatures. They add the challenge of dimensionality and the view through their portals is inward.

 

Gail Samuelson’s photos, shot with a large format film camera , display beauty of nature. As she writes,  for example, “old leafless trees reaching towards the sky as new plants begin to grow in the rich decaying matter of upturned stumps. It is perfectly quiet except for the sound of cracking dead wood as I make my way further into the swamp. The predawn fog rises up from the ground, briefly casting its spell. Then in a moment, the sun peaks out over the trees, lighting each leaf and cobweb. Birds begin to sing.”

 

 

Daniel Zeese is an artist, designer and educator practicing in Somerville and Boston Massachusetts. His latest work explores populations, belonging, and identity within an urban environment. Inspired by a history of textiles and the domestic objects that we bring into our home to create refuge, Daniel reveals a way to let our minds return to nature while our bodies inhabit the city.

His work investigates what it means to be within civilization while on the edge of the wilderness. Outnumbered, on the fringe of what is accepted in the city, celebrated from a distance, and threatened to exile by the powers of the majority. Daniel reacts to the continuing history of violence within cities against people who, while defining the cultural identity of a place, are often misunderstood, attacked and objectified. Later we experience the outcome, the resulting martyrdom, through the master cultural narrative. This body of work explores, in many mediums, whom it is we choose to mourn and celebrate.

You can learn more about the artists at cambridgeart.org/creature-comforts and at an artists’ talk on  Thursday, October 25, 6:30-8pm

On view at the Kathryn Schultz Gallery • 25 Lowell Street, Cambridge MA 02138
Hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 11am-5pm

 

–Anita M. Harris

Anita Harris is a writer, photographer and communications consultant based in Cambridge, MA.

New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, also in Cambridge.

 




LaCoste-Keane Features 3 women, 3 generations, in sculpture–thru Sept 1, 2018

It’s not too late to see the work of three influential women i from three generations of ceramicists–Karen Karnes (1925-2016) , Nina Hole (1941-2016), and Ani Kasten (1976…) –at Concord’s Lacoste-Keane Gallery. But hurry, because the show closes September 1.

Karen Karnes, was an American pioneer in ceramics from the generation that came of age after WWII. Part of two legendary art communities: Black Mountain College and the Gatehill Community in New York with Merce Cunningham, John Cage and Robert Rauschenberg among others, Ms. Karnes was a modernist at heart- her inspiration came from Bauhaus. Her work has always been sculptural–even in her functional work. In the 1980’s and 90’s Karnes created her legendary winged vessels and slit forms. In the 2000’s when strength was an issue she turned to her sculptures of combined forms which can be seen as landscape, figurative or still life. Her work is sought after and collected by individuals and museums. Karen Karnes long illustrious career touched and influenced many within her field.

Nina Hole was a Danish ceramic artist well known for her large exterior “Fire Sculptures”. She traveled extensively around the world making her outdoor fire sculptures in situ with a team of assistants and volunteers. One can find her 25 large scale sculptures in countries like Australia, Japan, Denmark, Germany, Mexico, Turkey, Brazil and America. Architecture was a huge inspiration and in addition to making her fire sculptures; she made smaller scale sculptures inspired by houses, churches and buildings. Many who knew her intimately opined on how she really loved the firing processes as they allowed her to work with others. More than just an artist, she was also a huge champion of ceramics through her initiatives Clay Today, The International Ceramic Research Center Guldagergaard and CLAY–Museum of Ceramic Art.

 

Ani Kasten is an independent ceramic artist whose knowledge came outside the norms of ceramics. She had never touched clay before apprenticing to Rupert Spira in the UK. From England she went to Nepal where she spent four years as head of a project for developing a stoneware ceramic production facility for artisan potters.

Coming back to the US she rehabbed two houses and a studio living complex over the next 10 years all the while making her distinctive ceramics combining stoneware and porcelain with unorthodox and repurposed materials. Similar to Karnes, Kasten’s ceramic foray started in studio pottery which evolved and grew to expressive sculptures for which she is known today. Often Kasten responds to current social and political climate by reflecting them in her works.

This show brings together these influential artists from three distinct generations through their interpretation of ceramic sculpture. Each offers ways of seeing the world through their innovative and artistic expression. All are highly individualistic and mold breaking in their own rights.

“We are thrilled to represent these three legendary ceramic artists and bring their work to the public.” , said  Lucy Lacoste, the gallery’s founder.

Lacoste /Keane Gallery have been appointed the sole representative of Nina Hole’s estate in the USA.
The gallery is wheelchair accessible and free to the public.

Note: Lacoste Gallery is now Lacoste / Keane Gallery with Lucy Lacoste and LaiSun Keane as owners/directors.

The show runs through September 1, 2018.

The gallery is located at 25 MAIN STREET CONCORD, MASSACHUSETTS 01742 T: 978-369-0278 F: 978-369-3375 E: INFO@LACOSTEGALLERY.COM

–Anita M. Harris