Post #428358 by Babalu on Mon, Jan 12, 2009 7:41 AM

The topic of "good ceramic art" was brought up in another thread, or well, kind of brought up anyway, and I thought it might be kind of fun to expand on it in here. There are quite a few folks that are playing in clay right now at my house, and everywhere else, that I feel could really benefit from seeing some good ceramic work that may not necessarily be tiki. By looking at some of this work I believe artists and collectors alike can use the imagery and methods of construction to further expand their own work and ideas in Poly Pop and Tiki. One good example of this would be the scale (size) of work...everyone has been thinking small over at my house lately, mugs, bowls, etc. What about doing some platters, or taller tikis, wall hangings, drums, or well, damn, it's such an open door...who knows what. It would be cool to also juxtapose some of this newer imagery to other ceramics that might have come, or are currently coming from Polynesia.

Let me start with a few of my favorites ceramic artists out there...

Most ceramists look to Peter Volkus as the father of modern ceramics. In 1953 he started moving ceramics in to a sculptural medium which was really unheard of at the time. Clay was not considered to be a "true" artists medium like say working in bronze was. Despite the art critics of the day, he persisted and opened up the eyes of the world to clay

http://www.voulkos.com/core.html

Check this fun little link out on Peter...talk about "Clay Jams"....using 4000 lbs of clay in one night...DAMN! That's an intense night in the old studio there! How much does your car weigh huh?

http://www.queensrow.org/QR-rev2.html

Next up: Ruth Duckworth....I love Ruth! Her work, and her dedication to ceramics is unparallel. Ruth apprenticed under Henry Moore in bronze. One day she went to Moore and explained to him that she was moving on and changing her medium to clay, Moore became furious with her...clay was not a medium that Henry thought any artist should use. Later on, he came to one of Ruth's opening dedications of one of her installation tile works and openly admitted he was wrong and that she made the right move. Cool huh....

http://www.artsmia.org/ruth-duckworth/

Next up: Don Reitz....I have had the pleasure of working with Don. This man is not a young man anymore, and he is so full of energy that it's mind blowing! Don has sent me in search of the child within myself...I owe him.

http://www.empyrean.net/donreitz/don_reitz_profile.htm

John Balisteri: What can I say...John is awesome!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Balistreri
http://johnbalistreriartist.com/?page_id=7

Next: Jun Kaneko...Jun is breaking ground to day that no one else has. I had the honor of helping to fire one of his Dongos over at John's house at a 4 day Anagama firing once in the early 80's...This guy is one of those type of people that lights up a room when he walks in.

http://junkaneko.com/
http://www.knoxart.org/exhibitions/kaneko/

Well, that's enough for now....there is soooo much more.