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Tiles
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Still buzzing from one of the most exciting presidential elections in recent (or even not so recent) memory, I jumped a plane out of LaGuardia on Thursday morning and headed to Chicago for what what would surely be one of the most exciting SOFA Chicago exhibitions in years. (For the uninitiated, SOFA is an acronym for Sculptural Objects and Functional Art.) Celebrating its 15th year, SOFA Chicago is now not only one of the longest running weekend long (from November 7th to 9th) shows featuring contemporary arts and design but can now proudly proclaim ...
On Our Radar
If there’s one thing that can be said about Jed Morfit (shown with Bullheaded) it’s that he’s never boxed himself in. The 35-year-old’s career spans sculpture, illustration, fabrication, printmaking and teaching. This defining factor has allowed him to explore and break down many barriers in the art world. Something not all artists have been able (or even want) to do.
“In the beginning, I tried to keep everything compartmentalized,” Morfit says. “Fine and commercial art communities often don’t have a lot of respect for each other and I didn’t want my work in one to negatively impact the other.” While in ...
Wide World of Craft
Featuring Over 20 Photographs Not Seen in Print! ...
Feature
A love of architecture and geography has spurred Laurel Porcari to reinvent her career and in turn help revive New Orleans’s wounded creative glass community. ...
Feature
Evelyn and Jerome Ackerman did it “their way,” designing for people like themselves, who were on a budget yet wanted to live with beautiful, well-made things. ...
Extra
While there were no claims of Obama sightings, sounds of jubilation rose once again in Chicago during a celebration last night at the Museum of Contemporary Art, when artists across a broad array of disciplines—architecture and design, crafts and traditional arts, dance, literature, media, music, theater arts and the visual arts—were honored with United States Artists (USA) Fellowships.
Launched in 2006, USA, the national artists’ advocacy organization, annually provides support to outstanding artists, some still struggling to achieve their dreams, through its highly competitive national nomination process. This year, 50 unrestricted grants of $50,000 each ...
Product Placement
In 1988 Nawal Motawi, the owner of Motawi Tileworks in Ann Arbor, MI, took a tile production job at the legendary Pewabic Pottery in Detroit. Motawi, who studied ceramics at the University of Michigan, was trying to “find my way,” she says. She found inspiration at Pewabic, where she fell in love with the pottery’s Arts and Crafts-style works.
In 1992 Motawi struck out on her own and in a 600-square-foot garage began creating the historically informed tile designs that reflect the work of Pewabic, Grueby, Rookwood, the Roycrofters, Ernest Batchelder and William De Morgan, as well as the architecture of ...
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“Wow, it’s just one thing after another—it’s just amazing,” a passerby enthused at the American Craft Council Baltimore Show and as the event draws to a close I can think of no better way to sum up the experience. Except to say what a total pleasure it was to meet the artists, see their work up close and in many cases put a face to the names I often heard and somehow felt I already knew. Spending time with all the artists I hoped to proved impossible but nevertheless, here’s a final nod to a few more ...
Extra
After four days of frenzied crowds at the Eleventh Annual Sculpture Objects & Functional Art Fair (SOFA) at the Park Avenue Armory in New York—opening night alone drew over 2,600 people—visiting the exhibition on Sunday, June 1, the final day, was an unexpectedly calming experience. No longer were there throngs pushing past each other rushing to stake claims on one must-have piece or another. Rather, people stood in small groups or by themselves, some speaking quietly with artists and gallery owners, others closely examining ceramics at Lacoste’s booth, testing out furniture by ...
Guest Post
An art history scholar and painter, Jacqueline Moore found herself "anxious, afraid, stunted in creativity and at a crossroads" in 2009. The journey that began in England and had brought her to Southern California, led one afternoon to a garden in Montecito. She was strolling amidst lush plantings, breathing air fresh from a recent rain and captivated with what she considered "wee art works"- old hand painted tiles that dotted the landscape. Moore had an epiphany on that sunlit stroll.
Using her extensive knowledge of art history, design and architecture, her virtuoso skill with a brush, near forensic study ...
Guest Post
Bobby Silverman thought he wanted to be a social geographer, the study of spatial patterns, investigating how and why we live and work where we do. On the way to getting his degree, he took a detour to Japan. There he witnessed the daily use of beautiful handcrafted objects, born of traditions that were thousands of years old. He became an apprentice to the master potter Samejima Saturo. What might have felt serendipitous at the time was actually, according to Silverman "preordained." His family had actively collected antiques and decorative objects. The Japanese ritual of utilizing art that was functional ...
Guest Post
It is indeed daunting and incredibly sustaining to sit with a blank surface trying to find exactly the right shape or rhythm or movement that brings bits of stone, fossil, glass, or porcelain to life in a way that is aesthetically relevant. Amid the sublime satisfaction of creation, there is inevitably a vital bit of delicious suffering involved as I make decisions that seek to carry the life of the piece to the viewer.
It is a thrill to come to the art of mosaic with a naiveté and purity of heart - still exploring technicalities, but trusting that the beauty ...
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