In the Woods - Exhibition April 2011

”In the Woods...”

New maiolica-pieces by the ceramic artist Peder Rasmussen

Exhibition March 31 – April 30 2011

Peder Rasmussen: "In the woods, we meet all those, who try to be in contact with the birds and maybe learn about singing or flying. We see the many different kinds of trees and also run into people, who are just absorbed in themselves and enjoy life in their shadow.

There are naturally also those, who are out on a frisky hike, and not in the least those, who might overdo it and try to become a kind of nature themselves."

Website LINK - Peder Rasmussen

The exhibition consists of various series of figures and plates, which were made during the winter 2010-11, when Peder Rasmussen experimented with the old Italian maiolica-technique, which he first encountered in 1970, when for a period of time he lived in Faenza, the home-town of faience.

Photoes of the individual pieces: Peder Rasmussen - Photoes of the exhibition: Ann Linnemann

See Video - part 1 - YOUTUBE

See Video - part 2 - YOUTUBE

In Play - Exhibition March 2011

In Play

Lis Ehrenreich & Mikael Jackson

Exhibition 3 - 26 March 2011

Two generations of ceramic artists are set 'in play' and create dialogue.

The ceramic works by Lis Ehrenreich & Mikael Jackson DK are set 'in play' to create a new dialogue.

This exhibition holds ornamental variations from the installation 'Flying Carpet', where the shadow creates an oriental carpet, to vessels containing ornaments of a Middle Eastern cultural heritage.

The viewer is given the possibility to investigate this cultural meeting between two generations of Danish artists, who are both inspired by their love for ornamental images. Lis Ehrenreich connects the structural relief-patterns with layers of glaze. In Mikael's installations the two-dimensional ornaments are transformed to three-dimensional form.

Mikael Jackson “I always sculpture my work with geometry as my starting point. For this exhibition I have chosen to let myself be inspired by traditional Islamic patterns. The objects have developed from relatively simple three-dimensional elements, which are repeated. The parts are put together in various ways ending up as unique objects.

The abstract notions, I research, contrast fragility towards strength, the industrial towards the handmade, the visually tight opposed to loose expression, and order to chaos.” Mikael graduated from the Royal College of Art in London, 2008. He has a studio in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Lis Ehrenreich “The Classical form – presently the Albarello – is my starting point. The timelessness of the form is emphasized by the structural, rustic expressions of the glaze applied to ornamental imprints in the wet clay. I find inspiration for the patterns in my surroundings: walls, books... everywhere.”

Lis Ehrenreich is educated at the Jutland Art Academy, Aarhus, DK, 1976-81. She has a studio in Aarhus, Jutland, DK.

Light & Porcelain - Exhibition February 2011

Light & Porcelain
Margaret O'Rorke UK
Exhibition 27 January – 26 February 2011

Margaret O'Rorke from England exhibits light objects in transparent porcelain.

Margaret O'Rorke www.castlight.co.uk
”The translucency of fine high-fired porcelain captures my imagination and leads me to create thrown sculptural forms that give light. Ideas stem from the nature of the material, forms that can grow from the potter's wheel, the process of firing and a sense of adventure with light and space.

For the past 30 years I have worked as a ceramic artist in my studio. Recently I have furthermore created translucent porcelain lighting designs for industrial manufacture. Working closely with porcelain as a studio potter has given me an intimate understanding of the material and enabled me to develop an exciting approach to the concept of designing cast translucent porcelain forms that will be manufactured.”

Margaret O'Rorke was awarded a research and development grant for an industrial project at the Wade's porcelain factory in Stoke-on-Trent in 1999. Louis Poulsen Lighting A/S Copenhagen unveiled in 2002 an interesting exhibition of works by Margaret O'Rorke. In 2006 she did a collaborative commission project at the Danish Royal Copenhagen porcelain factory, a light installation for the Royal Copenhagen showroom at Amagertorv, Copenhagen.
She has made studio artist visits, workshops and industrial projects to Jingdezhen in China from 2007-2009.
In 2008 a collaboration with the Jeweler Marlene McKibbin resulted in a new collection of thrown porcelain Garment Sculptures. In 2009 she collaborated with the Finnish Art Weaver Sirkka Paikkari to create the Woven Light and Porcelain installation exhibited at Contemporary Applied Arts in London UK.

Margaret has written two books about light and porcelain:
“Clay, Light and Water' by Margaret O’Rorke, A & C Black Ltd February 2010 - AMAZON.
'Light and Porcelain' about Margaret’s pieces – design/print in China, 2010.
USA Publishers interviewed Margaret in April 2010 - see: YOUTUBE

PROCESSES AND TECHNIQUES
"The majority of my studio work is hand-thrown porcelain. When the clay is sufficiently firm, I cut and reform it. Frequently, pieces are joined when leather hard. Some hand-built work has included rolled reeds. For free-standing pieces, I may throw stoneware bases which incorporates the light fitting.
Following my industrial research projects and experiments I have made plaster-moulds from the thrown forms. Some cast forms are re-formed when leather-hard.
The pieces are fired in a gas kiln to 1300 C.
The high-fired porcelain is unglazed in order to preserve the definition and directness of the making process.
Within each piece, incorporating the lighting technology is an integral part of the creative process. Installations, including chandeliers, wall pieces and fountains, have all involved my developing complex engineering, both electrical and mechanical."

RECENT EXHIBITIONS 2007-11
2007 Victoria and Albert Museum, Flow Gallery “Collect”.
Galerie Besson “Classic and Contemporary Ceramics”.
Oxford Museum, Woodstock, “Potters of Portland”.
Flow Gallery. London. “Commissioning Exhibition”.
Jingdezhen Sanbao Ceramic Art Institute. China “International Master's exhibition”
Wison Art Museum & Jingzhe Modern Art Museum. China "World Contemporary & Public Ceramic Art"
Contemporary Applied Arts London, Showcase.
“Porcelain Garment Sculptures”. Collaboration with Marlene McKibbin
2008 KOTONA III Fiskars Finland “Garment Sculptures”
Light Sculptures, Tulessa Syntynyt
International Exhibition, Makasini, Fiskars, Finland.
Galerie Besson 'Twenty Years, Twenty Pots'.
Jingdezhen International Ceramic exhibition and workshop. Sanbao. China.
2009 Work included in McKnight Residence Artist Exhibition May.
November – December. Northern Clay Center Solo Exhibition in Gallery A, Minneapolis USA.
2010 Solo Exhibition NCECA Translucent Porcelain and Light
Woven Light and Porcelain a Collaboration
(Sirkka Paikkari is part of the exhibition Made to Cherish at Contemporary Applied Arts London).
2011 Circus Satellite to CAA 58 Marylebone High St London

RECENT ARTIST RESIDENCES AND EVENTS 2007-10
2007 International Ceramic Research Center – Denmark, Collaborative Relationships Seminar
Royal Copenhagen Porcelain.
Jingdezhen Sanbao Ceramic Art Institute China “International master's workshop.
The 2nd ICMEA Conference International Ceramic Magazine Editors Association
Fuping Pottery Art Village, Fuping, Shaanxi, China
Conference Theme Appreciation of Ceramic Art Presentation
Margaret O’Rorke Presentation Title:
Translucent Porcelain with light Studio Potter & Industrial Designer.
2008 Jingdezhen International Ceramic exhibition and workshop. Sanbao. China.
2009 Awarded Mc Knight Visiting Artist in Residence. January – March.

PUBLICATIONS AND ARTICLES
Porcelain: Caroline Whyman. Batsford.
Ceramic Technology for Potters and Sculptors: Yvonne Cuff. A & C Black 1996.
Porcelain: Jack Doherty Ceramic Handbook, A & C Black 2002.
Porcelain and Bone China: Sasha Wardell. Crowood 2004.
Naked Clay: Jane Perryman, A & C Black 2004.
Ceramics with Mixed Media: Joy Boswell, A & C Black.
Breaking the Mould: Black Dog Publications 2007.
Clay, Light and Water: by Margaret O’Rorke, A & C Black Ltd February 2010 - available on AMAZON.
USA Publishers of the book did an interview of Margaret in Philadelphia April 2010 - posted on YOUTUBE.
Light and Porcelain Booklet of Margaret’s work designed and printed in China.
Ceramic Technical May - October 2010
American Crafts June-July 2009

A Touch of ... Exhibition January 2011

A touch of...
Exhibition 6 – 22 january 2011

Salt/soda - embers - flames - ashes
Charlotte Thorup exhibits together with Ann Linnemann, Sten Lykke Madsen, Ane-Katrine von Bulow and Hans Vangsø. They show their ceramic objects, which are especially marked by their firing in gas, oil or wood fired kiln: salt/soda - embers - flames - ashes.
LINK: Charlotte Thorup - Ane-Katrine von Bülow - Ann Linnemann - Sten Lykke Madsen - Hans Vangsø

Thoughts behind the pieces - Charlotte Thorup:
”I am fascinated by patterns and repetition, dimensions and connections, and I am inspired by both nature and the city. It may be a field with the rhythm of the wheat or a building, where my attention are caught by a contrast, a new dimension. This interest appears in my ceramic work.

I enjoy working in a harmonious and simple way. It has led me to a technique where I form thin sheets of clay connecting them in various ways.
Guided by my curiousity I allow module by module to lead me towards a new form where small unities appear as one large piece.

Presently I make several objects that belong to each other and hang on a wall. Again a united whole.. created by modules. The viewer is invited to look at the piece from different angles where new balances and connections appear.

I mainly work in porcelain, because I like the inherent doubleness of this material.. between strength and fragility.
In my choice of colour I let simplicity rule, where the pieces own light and shadow effects create the 'colour'.

Finally I choose salt-glazing my ceramics, which is an ancient tradition. At high temperature salt connects with the clay and creates the glaze. This way of working is in one way unpredictable, because a salt-kiln partly 'lives its own life', and often adds the process an independent character to the pieces.”

Exhibition calendar 2011

2011 (subject to change)

6 - 22 JANUARY A touch of...
Charlotte Thorup exhibits together with Ann Linnemann, Sten Lykke Madsen, Ane-Katrine von Bulow and Hans Vangsø. They show their ceramic objects, which especially are marked by their firing in gas, oil or wood fired kilns: salt/soda - embers - flames - ashes.
LINK: Charlotte Thorup - Ane-Katrine von Bülow - Ann Linnemann - Sten Lykke Madsen - Hans Vangsø

27 JANUARY - 26 FEBRUARY Light & porcelain
Margaret O'Rorke from England exhibits unique light installations made in transparent porcelain. The translucency of fine high-fired porcelain captures her imagination and leads her to create thrown sculptural forms that give light. Ideas stem from the nature of the material, forms that can grow from the potter's wheel, the process of firing and a sense of adventure with light and space.
LINK: Margaret O'Rorke

3 - 26 MARCH In play Lis Ehrenreich & Mikael Jackson DK
The ceramic pieces by Lis Ehrenreich & Mikael Jackson DK are set 'in play' and create a new dialogue. This exhibition shows ornamental variations from the installation 'Flying Carpet', where the shadow creates an oriental carpet, to vessels containing motives of a Middle Eastern cultural heritage.

1 - 30 APRIL In the Woods - Peder Rasmussen DK
The exhibition consists of various series of figures and plates, which are made during the winter 2010-11, where Peder Rasmussen has experimented with the old Italian maiolica-technique, he first time discovered, when he in 1970 for a period of time lived in Faenza, the home-town of faïence.
LINK: Peder Rasmussen

5 - 28 MAJ Branch objects - Martin Bodilsen Kaldahl DK
What can a branch stump talk about? - Why make it in ceramics? - What wondering does it start? - And when is it even a branch stump.
LINK: Martin Bodilsen Kaldahl

1 - 25 JUNI Weight - Elisa Helland Hansen - Norway
At this exhibition Elisa Helland-Hansen invites the visitor to lift up the cups – see, touch, close the eyes and sense weight and gravity.
LINK: Elisa Helland Hansen

1 - 30 JULI Wild & vigorous - Marianne Nielsen & Marianne Krumbach DK
In July, the gallery shows a wild and vigorous Summer exhibition of new work by the emerging Danish artists Marianne Nielsen and Marianne Krumbach.
LINK: Marianne Nielsen - Marianne Krumbach

4 - 27 AUGUST Clay & drawing - Kirsten Christensen DK
Exhibition of large Italian oil-pastel drawings with ceramic object applied and framed. Small flat houses with photos of studio, women and animals, and at last a sitting skeleton. "Death at last for all of us – important is a life before death."
LINK: Kirsten Christensen

1 - 30 SEPTEMBER Extrudox A/S - Steen Ipsen & Anne Tophøj DK
“EXTRUDOX A/S is a collaboration, where we research and challenge the ceramic technique: extruding.
We have used this project as a play ground and a free space away from usual methods and projects, to discover and take in new ceramic land, challenge each other and try on own boundaries.
LINK: Steen Ipsen - Anne Tophøj

6 - 29 OCTOBER Coupling - Pipaluk Lake & Jesper Palm DK
Exhibition of glass by Pipaluk Lake and photography by Jesper Palm. For this project the artists have challenged their usual work methods. For years, each of them have collected scrap glass objects of various kinds. This collection is their starting point for the exhibition. Pipaluk Lake deforms and transforms the objects
Jesper Palm uses the given objects in still-life photo settings, where the light plays an important role.
LINK: Pipaluk Lake - Jesper Palm

3 NOV - 23 DEC STILL in love - Akio Takamori USA/J & Steen Lykke Madsen DK
LINK: Akio Takamori - Sten Lykke Madsen

1 - 23 DECEMBER Christmas exhibition - Gallery artists

Illustrious Wonderers - Exhibition Nov. 2010

Illustrious Wonderers
Paul Scott UK, Kurt Weiser USA, Stephen Bowers AU

Exhibition October 30 - November 26 2010

Illustrations in porcelain from the Danish Stigsnæsværk to Arizona and Australia.
Humour, satire and story telling by three acknowledged international artists.
Paul Scott, Kurt Weiser and Stephen Bowers exhibit together for the first time at this exhibition in Copenhagen.
The viewer is guided wandering around the world and into each of the exhibitors personal magic place of illustrious porcelain.
The exhibition visualizes the cultural differences between Europe, America and Australia.
Here are pieces with an innocent elegance, that don't usually hold satire, social critique or political comments; but at a closer look the details open up for endless stories and meanings, and layer by layer reveal the artists knowledge and humour.

Paul Scott is an artist known for his research into ceramics and print. He creates individual pieces that are exacting and critical, blurring the boundaries between fine art and design.
His work involves the digital manipulation of established vocabularies of printed motif, pattern and image from industrial ceramic archives and engraved book illustration. Cloning and collaging these, sometimes with photographic elements, he creates contemporary artworks in ceramic and printed form.

Paul Scott lives in a rural area, Cumbria, North West England. However, he has gained international prominence for his ceramic work as well as his ceramic research, writing and curating activities. In 2005 he was awarded a Phd Bursary at MIRAD, Manchester Metropolitan University (www.miriad.mmu.ac.uk) for his project: 'Ceramics Landscape Memory and Confection'.
Paul Scott tells about his work for this exhibition: “Soda and salt glazed cups, bowls and plates, together with wood fired trees are the results of a series of wood firings in Denmark and Hungary.
The wood fired objects play on the methodology of production, the resultant artefact and the words and language used to describe them. They are also beautiful objects - the flash of flame or soda/salt glaze and the bleeding cobalt print - expressive graphic qualities imbued by fire and process, complemented by gold splash or painted line...”
www.cumbrianblues.com

Kurt Weiser is Internationally recognized as a contemporary ceramic artist and educator. Weiser is known for his technical virtuosity with porcelain forms and his use of china painting techniques in a distinct contemporary style. His subject matter illustrates lush, mysterious landscapes and distorted narratives set amidst colour-saturated flora and fauna that read as voyeuristic candid snapshots of the human condition.
This exhibition shows a salt-fired earthenware vase complimented by a series of blue and white cups, tall cylindrical vases and a 'teapot' painted in black and white. The illustrations challenge and surprise the viewer all the way around the forms with a continuous dreamlike narrative. www.contemporarycraft.org/The_Store/Kurt_Weiser.html

Stephen Bowers ceramic pieces may reflect ideas about recollection and persistence in the form of remnants and shards; and be about how sections of memory survive; and utilise borders, patterns, overlaps, edges and shadows. He regularly retrieves and re-positions images, representing ‘the familiar’, often sourcing ‘clichéd’ images (i.e. blue and white, willow pattern, wallpapers, natural history illustrations, etc.) within a personal contemporary context, often with a surreal, whimsical, humorous, sceptical or satirical subtext.
Stephen Bowers tells: My aim is to make people look - and to look again; encouraging viewers to observe, react, consider, discover and re-consider.
I make both production and exhibition work, using hand craft skills informed (but not driven) by ideas with origins in the theory and study of images, their historical recall and reproduction and perception, and giving reference to the contexts and crossovers of visual arts with traditions, trade, travel, politics, science and exploration.
Compositionally, juxtaposition is important and I work in a kind of ‘mash up’ way; perhaps tongue-in-cheek, but always selectively, deliberatively and with an element of homage in mind. My work presents fictive tableaux, sectional or shard-like conjunctions, forming mosaic-like narratives of observation, conjecture and inquiry, often with a surreal, whimsical, humorous, sceptical or satirical subtext.
The skull is one of a series of 'skulls' of Australian fictive, legendary historical figures or real identities and/or literary characters (i.e. the English equivalent might be Sherlock Holmes, Jeeves, Boswell's Johnson, Hereward the Wake, etc).
www.robingibson.net/artists/stephen-bowers

Cumulus - Exhibition October 2010

Cumulus
Bente Skjøttgaard DK
Exhibition October 2 – 28 2010

Thematic exhibition of new ceramic work by Bente Skjøttgaard.
Bente Skjøttgaard's interest for the 'higher spheres' began two years ago, during her first visit to South Korea where she discovered the country's ceramic tradition. Soon after, her first clouds were born, sort of growths where interlaced columbine structures rise above very fine 'trunks'... (*quote of text for her exhibition “in the clouds” at Galerie Maria Lund, Paris. www.marialund.com Photo: Ole Akhøj

Bente Skjøttgaard tells: ”It is a play with forms and colour, variations of something as contradictory as making airy and light clouds in the heavy clay.
The pink colour is the colour that clouds get after the sun has set. A kind of reflection. The level lines appear as those of the horizon. I like when the wildly grown organic - that has no specific form and in reality could continue infinitely - are cut through by straight sharp lines."
www.skjoettgaard.dk

Bente Skjøttgaard participates in ”Traces”, as one of 12 artists selected by the Danish National Art Foundation for the project 'Hærvejen' at Vejen Art Museum www.kunst.dk/billedkunst/kunstidetoffrum/haervejen

About clouds...
Cumulus clouds are a type of cloud with noticeable vertical development and clearly defined edges. Cumulus means "heap" or "pile" in Latin. They are often described as "puffy" or "cotton-like" in appearance. Cumulus clouds may appear alone, in lines, or in clusters.
Cumulus clouds are often precursors of other types of clouds, such as cumulonimbus, when influenced by weather factors such as instability, moisture, and temperature gradient.
Cumulus clouds are part of the larger family of cumuliform clouds, which include cumulus, cumulus congestus, and cumulonimbus clouds, among others.

The most intense cumulus and cumulonimbus clouds may be associated with severe weather phenomena such as hail, waterspouts and tornadoes.
Cumulus humilis clouds, appearing as small- or medium-sized puffy shapes in the sky, often occur in times of fair weather.
However, cumulus clouds can grow into cumulonimbus clouds which may produce heavy rain, lightning, severe and strong winds, hail, and even tornadoes.
Cumulus congestus clouds, which appear as towers, will often grow into cumulonimbus storm clouds.
(Text freely quoted from Wikipedia) www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumulus
http://www.vildtvejrsklubben.dk/
www.dmi.dk/dmi/himlens_vejrudsigt_fraorientering.pdf