Jessica Kreutter featured in Ceramics Monthly

Ceramics alumna, Jessica Kreutter (MFA 2010), was featured in the January 2014 edition of Ceramics Monthly. Below is a short excerpt. To read the full article, please clickhere.

“I generally work in fired clay because it is a material I know how to manipulate. It can assume a myriad of surfaces and mimic other materials. It can look soft and be hard. It is a material waiting to be transformed, yet part of that transformation is disguising that it ever happened. I love and hate the unknowability of how a piece will emerge from the firing. I love and hate the vast array of pos- sibilities of what clay can become.”

Advertisement

Exhibition proposal accepted by the NCECA

Proposal Rendering for Bumfack Co., by Kevin Kao and Xia Zhang to take place at the NCECA Project Space, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, March 2014.

Kevin Kao, a second year graduate student in ceramics at UT and Xia Zhang, a graduate student in ceramics at West Virginia University have had their exhibition proposal accepted by the National Council for Education in the Ceramics Arts (NCECA). Their ceramic art installation titled Bumfack Co. will be featured in this years’ NCECA Project Space to take place in conjunction with the annual conference in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, March 2014.

Their installation will explore perceptions of authenticity and value as they create handmade ceramic knock-­offs at a production facility situated within the NCECA conference. NCECA attendees will be invited to participate in the production of work and in so doing will be encouraged to consider their own perceptions of authenticity and value while experiencing differing, culturally based, production methods. The NCECA Project Space is a venue that incorporates clay within time-based, performative, or site responsive works and encourages interaction between the artist’s and NCECA conference attendees.

Current student and alumni news

Ed Miller, MFA Candidate in Ceramics; and Kevin Kao, MFA Candidate in Ceramics; Works were selected from both MFA Candidates’ by Juror Nan Smith to be reproduced in the upcoming book Figurative Ceramics 500 Figures in Clay, Volume 2. Aaron Benson, Ceramics BFA, Summa Cum Laude 2009, Started August as an Assistant Professor of Ceramics and Sculpture at the University of North Alabama in Florence, AL.Adam Paulek, Ceramics MFA 2004, ,Guldagergaard’s 100 Cups Artist for 2013. Guldagergaard – International Ceramic Research Center commissioned Adam to make 100 cups for the kitchen and for a special event to support GG programs. Adam is Assistant Professor at Longwood University VA.

Tara Wilson, BFA 2000 Tara will conduct a five-day wood fire workshop and public artist talk in October at the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts in Helena, MT Tara’s work also on display in Grasp a Group exhibit at the Schaller Gallery. Tara’s work will be on display along with 19 other ceramics artists from July 10- July 30, 2013. Chris Pickett, Ceramics, BFA 2001, in September will exhibit a two-person show and one dayworkshop at National recognized Red Star Studio in Kansas City, MO, Chris will demonstrate how to use molds and templates to make tableware inspired by mid 20th century modern design.

Sally Brogden awarded faculty development leave

Sally Brogden, Professor of Art, ceramics, has been awarded a Faculty Development Leave for the fall 2013 term and she has several professional activities scheduled during this leave. Sally will spend a month working as an artist in residence at the Pottery Workshop in Jingdezhen, China. Her work will be featured in the exhibition “China Kaolin Grand Prix” to be held in October at Great China Museum, Jingdezhen and Organized by the Chinese National Academy of Arts and the Department of Culture. Before returning to Knoxville, Sally will deliver a talk at the 7th Gyeonggi International Ceramic Biennale in Incheon, South Korea.

Recent Ceramics alumna to be intern at Archie Bray

Samantha Briegel, BFA ceramics 2013, has been selected to be an intern at The Archie Bray Foundation Clay Business for the 2013/14 school year. As an intern, Samantha will assist the research mission of the Archie Bray Clay Business by developing new glazes and helping them to initiate their new custom ceramic decal enterprise. While in Helena, Samantha plans to keep her pottery work going with the plan of moving on to graduate school afterwards.

Works by Samantha Briegel.

Workhouse Clay National exhibition

Hannah Short, MFA in Ceramics 2013; Kevin Kao, MFA Candidate in Ceramics; and Sally Brogden, Professor of Art have work on exhibit at the Workhouse Arts Center in Lorton Virginia. The Workhouse Clay National exhibition is one of the leading annual ceramics exhibitions in the US, and Hannah Short was awarded an honorable mention for her work, “Byproduct”.

Left to right: “Byproduct” by Hannah Short (2013), “Trisect II” by Kevin Kao (2013), Untitled by Sally Brogden (2012).

Visiting artists and upcoming exhibitions

Visiting Artist: Chad Curtis

Panorama of Desire from Chad Curtis on Vimeo.

Visiting Artist, Chad Curtis “is an artist and technologist living and working in Philadelphia. Curtisʼs work, drawing inspiration from from both digital technology and homebrew DIY makers, examines the effects of high technology on the relationship between human beings and the natural environment” (taken from his website). He gave a lecture at the University on January 31, and his exhibit is running at theDowntown Gallery until February 23.

Upcoming Exhibition: “Orange: UTK in NYC”

Work by ceramic graduate students Kevin Kao and Hannah Short will be featured in the upcoming exhibition “Orange: UTK in NYC,” February 12-17 at White Box, 329 Broome Street, New York, NY.

Left: “Dinnertime2” by Kevin Kao
Right: “Folly” by Hannah Short

Ceramics Spotlight: Faculty & Graduate Students

Jessica Kreutter’s (MFA 2010) work has been selected for inclusion in this year’s NCECA Project Space to be held in conjunction with the annual meeting of the National Council for Ceramic Arts, Houston, TX, March, 2013. Five individuals/groups are selected annually and given a space in which to create a temporary on-site performance/installation.

Jessica will be creating a still-life of a domestic scene: a kitchen table and relating objects, all covered in thin, wet clay slabs patterned in Victorian designs. As the clay dries, it will crack and fall away, revealing the objects beneath. The scene juxtaposes the labor of covering the space and the decay of that labor.

 

 

Tara Wilson’s (BFA 2000) was recently featured in the Helena Independent Record, Helena, MT. In the article, Tara Wilson’s Art Shaped By Nature, Earth and Fire, Tara discusses why she is drawn to the wood firing process, a process which she first began here the University of Tennessee. “You never know what’s going to happen,” Wilson said. “Wood firing keeps you humble.” To read the full article, click here.

Ceramics faculty Sally Brogden and Frank Martin, will be exhibiting together at Pewabic Pottery, Detroit, MI. Together Again, Sally Brogden & Frank Martin, is a homecoming of sorts for Sally and Frank.It was at Pewabic Pottery, where they first met and exhibited together while they were students: Sally Brogden at the University of Michigan and Frank Martin at Cranbrook Academy of Art. The exhibition runs January through March. To view more info on the exhibition, click here.

Frank Martin currently featured in NC exhibit

Source • Material: An Exhibition on Water and the Ceramic Cup, a show curated by Lindsay Rogers, is going on November 1 – December 31 in Bakersfield, NC at Crimson Laurel Gallery. Our very own Frank Martin, a Ceramics professor, has several of his pieces featured in the exhibit. The picture to the left is just one example of his excellent work.