NATURE FEATURES September-October 2014

CLICK photo = LARGE format + slide show..

NATURE FEATURES
Jonathan Keep, Jane Reumert, Heidi Hentze, Lis Biggas, Inge-Lise Koefoed
Exhibition 18 September - 25 October 2014

Nature in contemporary ceramic art.. from bowls to 3D-print in porcelain.
3D-print technology and ceramic expertise meet in this international exhibition.
Jonathan Keep from the UK shows together with Jane Reumert, Heidi Hentze, Lis Biggas og Inge-Lise Koefoed from Denmark.
Nature inspiration is a great topical theme of all times and holds an infinite number of expressions, facets and angles.

Jane Reumert refines the delicate botanical in fragile porcelain pieces, Lis Biggas takes imprint of natural phenomena and Heidi Hentze combines paper-like geometry with organic growth and decay, Inge-Lise Koefoed mixes ceramic materials with oil paint in her sculptural objects, and Jonathan Keep decodes nature in 3D-printed porcelain pieces.
The ceramic pieces mirror artistic presence, expertise and fascination in the features of nature.

Jonathan Keep UK - www.keep-art.co.uk
Technology & ceramics – transformation. Jonathan Keep exhibits 3-dimensional print in ceramic materials.
Idealistic and artistically, Keep experiments with digital transformations of various codes appearing from sounds and objects of nature.

The pieces reference our time of constant digital presence. Poetic ceramic objects created by unusual codes of natural phenomena in a sophisticated combination of technological and ceramic knowledge.
www.youtube.com/user/jkpottery
The digital ceramics inform of the new possibilities for contemporary ceramic art in dialogue with the new technology of ceramic 3D-printing.
The digital information is passed on to a studio based DIY 3D printer that he has adapted to print in clay. Layer by layer the pots are printed out – a sort of mechanical pottery coil building. After printing, the ceramic is fired and glazed in the normal way.
"From the elemental forces of earth, fire and water pottery has traditionally drawn on nature for inspiration. In using computer code to create this work, I aim to add a further layer to include the elemental natural-mathematical patterns and structures that underlie all form. The appreciation of this work illustrates just how much we are connected at a very deep level to the natural world."
ARTIST TALK - Saturday 20 September at 15-17.00 Jonathan Keep on 3D-print..
For more information and previous exhibition in the Gallery: CLICK

Jane Reumert DK
Jane Reumert paints on thin porcelain bowls, light brush strokes with memories of Danish beaches, or she allows the ashes from the wood firing to deposit naturally on the structures of the surface.
She is known and admired by ceramics lovers for her eminent personal pieces.

The ceramic bowls, infinitely fragile and gentle, almost spherical, are often inspired by the patterns and colour tones from the Danish countryside, but worked for an abstraction, where lightness is transformed to the viewer, so the pieces in their fragile existence become useful signals about the nature of human.
Jane Reumert has in his career moved from modelled vessels in stoneware with precise decorations to delicate series of objects and unbelievably thin bowls in advanced porcelain types and techniques emerged from countless experiments with form, surface and ceramic firing.

Jane Reumert was educated at the Danish Arts&Crafts School ceramics 1960-1964, and has her studio and gallery in Copenhagen, 'Strandstræde Ceramics' with the colleagues Beate Andersen and Gunhild Aaberg.
She is a member of the exhibition group 'Ceramic Ways' and the International Academie de la Ceramique, IAC. - Represented in several museums from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Art and Design Museum in Oslo and Helsinki, the National Museum in Stockholm to Trapholt Art Museum and the Design Museum – Denmark, and has exhibited in New York, Paris, Brussels, etc..

Heidi Hentze DK
Heidi Hentze experiments with porcelain and glaze in poetically folded containers, that reveal new areas for personal and adventurous sensitivity as in origami and paper cutting.
It started as material tests, the invention and challenge of ceramic techniques and materials. The fight with and against gravitation. Making things as thin as possible, - and then a bit thinner than this...

About seeing and turning 'flaws' to advantages... colouring crackle glazes, 'the leaf' that fell of, the fragility of porcelain in complete and precisely constructed geometric shapes that unfolds in the heat of firing.
It is an increasingly technical, artistic and personal development - on materials, colours and firing temperature to form, idea and personal relevance. The sensuous in geometric shapes, boxes and systems refers to space, spaciousness, abandoned rooms, an 'absent presence'. To fit in. To adapt. To make room. To challenge the material and reinvent existence.

Heidi Hentze was educated at the Glass and Ceramics School of Design - Bornholm (now: Academy School of Design) 2002-06 and has been 'Artist-in-residence' at Svanekegaarden, Bornholm and in Ecuador. Now, she has a studio on the island of Bornholm. Since 2011, receiving the Danish Arts&Crafts Bronze Award and travel grant, an award from Annie and Otto Johs. Detlefs Foundation, she has been awarded with several grants and exhibited worldwide: 'Bornholm Juried Spring Exhibition', Danish Biennial for Crafts and Design, International Biennial Korea, in the Faroe Islands, Grønbechsgaard, International Ceramic Museum - Grimmerhus, Bornholm Art Museum, Round Tower Exhibition Hall in Copenhagen, Form & Design Center, Malmö, Gallery Turf and Collect, London, and 'SOFA' Chicago ...
She is a member of ACAB (Arts & Crafts Association Bornholm).

Lis Biggas DK
Lis Biggas works with the Nature's many materials in a direct, but no less sophisticated way - and for practical use.
The pieces are functional, intensively idea-based contemporary ceramics created by a dedicated craftswoman. A range of dishes, small plates and bowls have imprints of the turbot's warty skin that is pressed into the wet clay, and the rough glazes consists of clay from the local beach. Other works have crab shells, claws, fish bones and seaweed placed on the low-fired piece to which slip (liquid clay) is sprayed leaving a negative imprint on the surface. The multiple layers of colours create a depth as in watercolour painting.

The various nature objects and materials are not always clearly visible, but are revealed to the attentive observer as secret images encoded with life ideals and material knowledge. The mix of surface texture may be the close interaction between a glossy transparent glaze and a rough brown 'lava' appearing from a local clay that melts at high temperature.

Lis Biggas graduated from the Danish School of Applied Arts (Now: Academy School of Design) 1985. Selected exhibitions: 'Every thing has two sides' Sealand Group, Allerod 2013 - Biennial for Crafts and Design 2013 - 'The World on a Plate' SAK, Svendborg 2012 - Across Carlsberg New Tap 2010, Danish Ceramics Triennale, Trapholt Museum 1994; - Awards By Gertrud and Myre Vasegård's Estate 2009, the Danish Arts Foundation 2009, International Ceramic Center in Kecskemét, Hungary 2003, Town of Fredericia Art Award 1996, Herman A. Kähler 1st prize, Teapot Competition 1993 .. Commission works: the Epilepsy Hospital, Dianalund 2002, Fredericia Hostel 1996, Soppesøen Park in Copenhagen 1988, Non-Profit residential Ragnhildgade 1987…

Inge-Lise Koefoed DK
"Everything is connected, life is a cycle, a balance between the large and the small, the local and the global.
All living beings interact in an overwhelming but fragile ecosystem.
The world of insects is my big inspiration - these Creepy/Crawly creatures' adventurous development metamorphosis in shapes and colour.
'Empty House' is about the abandoned cocoon shelter that has hatched a butterfly, a beetle or some other insect. And the empty house has got a bit of the hatched-out's colour."

Inge-Lise Koefoed was educated at the Danish Arts&Crafts School 1956-60, and hereafter appointed to the Royal Porcelain Factory, where her large mural commissions in white porcelain led to working in the white marble. Subsequently, the stone, metal and paper became the materials that she has mainly worked with for exhibitions in Denmark and Internationally. In between numerous assignments she has been working in clay, as for the stoneware sculptures 'Empty House' and the new work for this exhibition.

Grateful thanks to Dalhoff Larsens Fond and Danish Crafts for funding in 2014,
and to Danish Arts Foundation for funding of international transport in 2014.

3D PRINTED POTS - Exhibition April-May 2013

CLICK Photo = LARGE FORMAT + slide show

3D PRINTED POTS - Jonathan Keep UK
Exhibition 11 April – 8 Maj 2013
Opening reception Thursday 11 april at 16-19.00
Artist talk: Jonathan Keep at 17.00-17.30

Technology & ceramics – decoding transformation of nature phenomena

Jonathan Keep experiments with 3-dimensional print in ceramic materials.
Idealistic and artistically free, Keep experiments with digital transformations of various codes appearing from sounds and objects of nature.
The pieces reference our time of constant digital presence.
Poetic ceramic objects created by unusual codes of natural phenomena in a sophisticated combination of technological and ceramic knowledge. www.youtube.com/user/jkpottery
The pieces combine traditional function with disturbing feelings of secrecy.
The exhibition of digital ceramics inform of the new possibilities for contemporary ceramic art in dialogue with the new technology of ceramic 3D-printing.
www.keep-art.co.uk

JONATHAN KEEP - Digital Pots
Jonathan Keep has long used computer software to develop new ceramic forms. With an interest in the hidden numerical code that underpins all nature he has developed a working process whereby the shapes of these pots are written in computer code.
This digital information is passed to a studio based DIY 3D printer that he has adapted to print in clay.
Layer by layer the pots are printed out – a sort of mechanical pottery coil building. After printing, the ceramic is fired and glazed in the normal way.
"From the elemental forces of earth, fire and water pottery has traditionally drawn on nature for inspiration.
In using computer code to create this work I aim to add a further layer to include the elemental, natural-mathematical patterns and structures that underlie all form.
The appreciation of this work illustrates just how much we are connected at a very deep level to the natural world."

3D PRINTED POTS GO ON SHOW...
Jonathan Keep exhibits several series of digital 3D-printed ceramic pieces with various starting points. He has developed a working method where the three dimensional mathematical structure of the forms of his pots is first written in java computer code. This digital information he then prints out into physical objects using a studio based DIY 3D printer that he has adapted to print in clay (porcelain). The printed pots are dried, glazed and fired in a traditional manner.

SOUND SURFACES - Created in computer code, a pixel is set to spiral in virtual space and as it grows into the pot shape a three dimensional computer mesh is created. The surface of the mesh is progressively textured by adding the data from digital sound recording. The surface, from base to rim becomes a time representation of the tone and rhythm of the music named in the title of the pot. The digital file is then 3D printed in clay. After printing, the ceramic is fired and glaze in the normal way. - MUSIC: Benjamin Britten, 4 Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes, Django Bates, You Live and Learn…

RANDOM GROWTH - This series of work characterizes my interest in the code underlying organic nature. As with the making of stalactites or ant hills, these forms have an underling structure or logic but as the computer code that generates these forms has a built in variation function a different form is created each time the code is run. I want the viewer to bring their own subject interpretation to the form, trying to make sense of the shapes while allowing for a personal and imaginative reading of the object.

ICEBERGS – These works are about the beauty to be found in apparently random natural form. The algorithm used to generate these forms has an inbuilt randomness set within natural parameters as with the formation of icebergs. The DIY studio based 3D printing technique offers a timeless sense of layering while the porcelain echoes the translucency of ice.

TREES - This is an on going project based on ideas of the relentless growth of natural forms. As ceramics objects now frozen in time this group represents mans desire to control nature - how trees are cut but continue to grow.

SEEDS MORPHOLOGI - This collection is about the evolution and morphology of form. My working method lends itself to slight alterations in the computer code to generate related and ever evolving shapes.
Being able to print or build these unique individual forms directly from the computer with my 3D-printer represents the strength of this technology and fulfils my desire to explore the possibilities of ceramic form.

JONATHAN KEEP - ABOUT THE EXHIBITION:
”This exhibition is based around ceramic 3D printing. While all work will be for sale, it is also an opportunity to introduce and educate the public about computer aided design and making in ceramic with 3-dimensional printing technology.
Within ceramic 3D-printing there are two developing technologies, one using layered powder clay bonded with an inkjet type print head and the second a layered extrusion of wet clay almost like mechanical coil building. I use the latter extrusion type printer that is a DIY kit that I have adapted to print with clay.
I tend to work in series based around an idea that often comes out of the process used.
Interest in the hidden numerical code that underpins all nature I have developed a working process whereby the shapes of my pots are written, or described in computer code using the java based Processing program.
The printing process is then very hands on as I offer support and assisted drying as the forms are created.
After printing the ceramic is fired and glaze in the normal way. Currently I am using porcelain clay finished in a palate of reduction glazes that are fired in a gas kiln."

The exhibition holds 30-40 pieces from the Icebergs series, the Random Growth series, the Sound Surface series, the Morphology series and other individual forms as illustrated on my website – see http://www.keep-art.co.uk/digital.html
- This page also has a brief statement about the digital pots.

For further information on recent developments - see studio journal: http://www.keep-art.co.uk/journal_1.html

Jonathan Keep is educated at the Royal College of Art in London, and in his 30 years carriere as a ceramic artist and potter he has attained a reputation for creating innovative og constant re-newing projects from his studio in Suffolk.
He was born and grew up in South Africa, obtaining my BA (Hons) Fine Art degree from the University of Natal in 1979. After working in a number of studios and a period of teaching he moved to England in 1986 and settled in Suffolk where he continue to live and have a studio at his home. His freethinking approach to pottery has had him investigating the subject of pots from a number of viewpoints. In multimedia and virtual reality when commissioned to produce a CD-ROM in the Insite Arts program, to a Year of The Artist residency where he worked in collaboration with patients at two doctors surgeries using the pot as a vehicle for patients to visualise their medical condition.
He received a MA from the Royal College of Art in 2002, where his postgraduate show was awarded overall prize-winner of the Lattice Group Awards. He was subsequently awarded a Woo Foundation Graduate Arts Bursary. His work has been exhibited widely and has been seen recently at Collect in the Victoria and Albert Museum, Network Europe at the Museum of International Ceramic Art, Denmark, - at Sotheby's in New York, the Carlin gallery, Paris, Puls gallery, Brussels and Sarah Myerscough Fine Art, London.
In an artists advisory role He was involved in the Working Party for the Center for the Visual Arts, Bury St. Edmunds and on the steering committee of the Visual Arts Marketing & Business Development Scheme in Suffolk. He has sat on the Advisory Panel of the Hub Arts Center in North Kesteven and assisted in an advisory capacity to Platform 5, a professional development program for emerging artist in the eastern region.

Thanks to the Danish National Bank Anniversary Foundation and Danish Crafts!