"Weaving Form and Surface" at the Cohen Center

“Weaving Form and Surface”, an exhibition of work by ceramic professor Andrea Gill, opened Wednesday October 19th at the Cohen Center on Main Street. The 4 pm reception was well-attended by faculty and students who were excited to see a glimpse of Gill’s work “behind-the-scenes”. Not only did the artist chose to exhibit a spread of artifacts used in her creative process (from glaze tests to musings), but the pieces displayed feature glazes and bodies not used before by her. Most are abstracted vessels that showcase bright and opaque to earthy and transparent colors. Her patterning in some instances hides itself in the shadows of recessed places or stand bright and obstinate on eye level platforms. A great opportunity to see a wider example of Andrea Gill’s work or to become familiar with the philosophy in practice of a mentor and respected Alfred icon, a visit to the Cohen Center is in your future. Exhibition runs until Friday December 2nd.

To make an appointment to view “Weaving Form and Surface” please contact Kevin Jacobs at jacobsj@alfred.edu.

-Olivia Hartwig




To accompany this post we've included Andrea's artists statement from the faculty website. Enjoy!



My personal vision as an artist has focused on a format that is admittedly ancient: I am passionate about pottery form as a site for personal expression. I have no excuse for this arcane practice. I have little interest in the functional debate, although I recently allowed a florist to fill a vase with an outrageous arrangement. I choose to make vases and bowls because those forms allow the most open interpretation of shape without losing the iconic identity of the object. The scale of the vases, from two to six feet, gives me room to explore color, shape and pattern. The bowls provide a more intimate space where I have been exploring narrative ideas, recently involving mythology.

My devotion to surface patterning has also proven to be an addiction that satisfies my love of stylized image and my firmly positive response to the word DECORATIVE. In the motifs of my overlaid figure/ground surfaces, I suspect I am often exploring my subconscious. The sources for the motifs range from my garden to doodles to texts of historical ornament, such as Owen Jones' Grammar of Ornament.

Ceramics is the ideal media to combine surface color and three-dimensional form. There is the affirmation of historic precedence of the painted pot, and the possibilities of current clay and glaze technology to support my vision.

Anders Ruhwald and Marie T. Hermann Artists Talk Friday

Anders Ruhwald and Marie T. Hermann will be speaking Friday October 21 at 12:00 in room C, Binns Merril Hall. Anders Ruhwald is an Artist-in-Residence and Head of Department at Cranbrook Academy of Art, and Marie T. Hermann is currently an adjunct faculty member at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, Michigan. Their exhibition 'Echo Chamber' opened yesterday at the Schein-Joseph International Museum of Ceramic Art. Don't miss this free lecture!

Look for a full writeup and photos of the exhibition next week.

Table Space at Fosdick Nelson Gallery

Last Friday marked the opening of Table Space a showcase of ceramic works curated by Linda Sikora and Albion Stafford. The show adresses the table as exhibition space, and features a number of noted ceramic artists and designers. Among the artists featured are Mark Pharis, Ole Jensen, and Lisa Orr.

The show will be up through December and gallery hours are Mon- Fri 11:00am- 4:00pm and Sat-Sun 1:00pm- 3:00pm

Closing Reception of Twenty, Schein-Joseph International Museum of Ceramic Art

The closing reception of TWENTY last Thursday was attended by a large crowd of enthusiastic students, faculty, and visitors to the Schein-Joseph International Museum of Ceramic Art at Alfred University. Last Thursday’s celebration of the exhibition marked the museum’s twentieth year anniversary, though the collection began in 1900. Curators Dean Leslie Bellavance and Susan Kowalzyck, Museum Collections Manager, combed through this collection of about 8,000 ceramic pieces. They chose only two from each year since the museum’s inception. At its roots the selection process was shaped by simple criteria: that the group to be shown reflect the breadth of the museum’s collection, and that the pieces selected had not been exhibited at Alfred University before TWENTY. What resulted was a showcase of work dating from 2700 BCE to present, featuring Charles Fergus Binns, Eva Zeisel, Satoru Hoshino, Betty Woodman, Karen Karnes, Robert Sutherland, and others. Among these include faculty Linda Sikora, John Gill, and Anne Currier.

Museum hours are Wednesday-Friday, 10am to 4pm.