Einstein, Ephemera & Crank

Explorations in Surface, Glazes and Installation in Contemporary Ceramics

EINSTEIN, EPHEMERA& CRANK, Fearless Explorers in Alternative Surfaces, Glazes and Ceramic Installation
New York, NY, Opening Reception: Saturday July 31, 2010 – 4:00 -8:00 pm.
Closing Reception: Friday September 10, 6:00-9:00 pm.

Casa Frela Gallery’s Director Lawrence Rodriguez and guest curator Ellen Hackl Fagan present EINSTEIN, EPHEMERA & CRANK, Fearless Explorers in Alternative Surfaces, Glazes and Ceramic Installation, with an opening reception Saturday July 31, 2010 from 4:00 to 8:00 pm at Casa Frela Gallery. This exhibition highlights the ceramic installations of four sculptors, Liz Surbeck Biddle, Jackie Welsh, Tomoko Amaki Abe and Ellen Hackl Fagan. The exhibition will run through Sunday September 12, 2010.

Curated by Ellen Hackl Fagan, an East Harlem-based painter and sculptor, Einstein, Ephemera & Crank is an exhibition that focuses on installation and alternative surface applications using clay and glazes. There’s a creative brew that occurs when these four artists work together, how they support one anothers’ investigations while using painted slips, photographic processes, printmaking, transfers, decals and drawing, continuing to search for a perfect expression in ceramic installation.

Having worked with each of these artists over the last three years, Ellen Hackl Fagan was awed by the beauty, humor, pathos and endless creative potential that she experienced while working alongside Liz, Tomoko and Jackie. She wanted to support their budding installation practices by pulling them together in an exhibition. They, in turn, insisted that she join them in this exhibition. This type of encouragement is typical of these four artists’ working style. Pushing one another to the next level to see what the limits of clay and surface techniques might be expands their conversation with ceramics and its multi-media applications.

In 2007, Ellen met these artists in Liz Biddle’s Alternative Surfaces class at the Clay Art Center in Port Chester, Westchester County, New York. “I quietly took my place in a room full of focused sculptors in hot pursuit of their next idea or technique. It was controlled chaos, loosely led by Liz, whose breadth of knowledge of surface techniques in clay is encyclopedic. I jumped in and continued my ongoing project of hand held ceramic paintings, hoping to learn more about glazes. Our mutual aesthetic, working side by side, was that the end results would only be worth knowing if you gave up all logical concerns and dove headlong into experimentation. We have always shared our ideas, recipes and techniques to advance our knowledge of what clay can do.”

There will be a series of four hands on demonstrations from 12:00 -2:00 pm highlighting each artist's working methods and/or concepts beginning with Liz Biddle on Sunday August 1, Ellen Fagan on Saturday August 7, Jackie Welsh on Saturday August 28 and Tomoko Abe on Saturday September 11. The artists will share some of their technical processes in their workshops so participants can learn more about alternative surface treatments in clay.

This exhibition of contemporary ceramic artists' experimentation in glazes and surface techniques present a full spectrum of concepts using color, printmaking and photography, collage and mixed media in their sculptural installations.

Einstein, Ephemera & Crank will run through Sunday September 12 following a closing reception Friday September10 from 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm.

Ellen Hackl Fagan

Tomoko Amaki Abe

Liz Surbeck Biddle

Jackie Welsh

Liz Surbeck Biddle would eventually call the artists together during class to demonstrate a new alternative technique each class, providing us with a limitless palette of possible seductive treatments to try on our clay surfaces. Her demo samples often find their way into her sculptures, and become the jumping off points for original compositions. Liz works in collage and line, and incorporates images from existing printed matter like old science illustrations and newspaper photos. With each sculpture Liz continues to generate surprises for the viewer, from a sensuous glaze or interesting color, to the addition of found objects used as line in her wall installations. They are somewhere between drawing and sculpture, low-brow and wacky to stunning.

Ellen Hackl Fagan’s hand held ceramics place a small painting into the palm of the viewer’s hand. Addressing impulse and desire, random found beauty and nature, she creates an intimate dialogue with the viewer as they pull in her small sculptures for a closer look. Through multiple layers and kiln firings, these hand-helds mimic her painting processes yet satisfy the need for touch. These objects will be juxtaposed in vignettes, 3-D notes from the studio that concern composition, materials, nostalgia and beachcombing.

Jackie Welsh was happily pumping away on her party balloon pump with a twisted Carney grin. These long balloons were being covered in sloppy paper clay strips, painted in hot colors, and then fired. She transforms other ordinary household objects like mops, potatoes, sponges, bedspreads and towels through this vitrifying process, testing the strength of the paper/porcelain mix. Another side to Jackie’s exploration is in printmaking. Here, she has perfected both the thermo-fax/screen printing process as well as ink transfers to make two dimensional images that echo Warhol as she investigates color and humor. Jackie’s subjects conjure a perfect blend of mad scientist and domestic subversion.

Tomoko Amaki Abe was investigating positive and negative in small sculptures that resembled swiss cheese chunks in black and white. These blocky forms with pierced holes encourage us to see through a solid into the space. Her search for lightness and air, in porcelain gestures, are comments on the soul’s movements through earthly substances like fired silica, and metal shards. For Einstein, Ephemera & Crank, Tomoko has been experimenting with combining large-scale
photograms with the tensile strength of porcelain and glazes.

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