Current Exhibition
Clayarch Gimhae Museum: An Introduction
Gimhae, South Korea
…Through architecture new possibilities in ceramics can be further explored and developed, while through ceramics architecture can experiment with new aesthetical expressions simultaneously as discovering more about its materialistic qualities. Gimhae Clayarch Museum Mission
Gimhae, South Korea
…Through architecture new possibilities in ceramics can be further explored and developed, while through ceramics architecture can experiment with new aesthetical expressions simultaneously as discovering more about its materialistic qualities. Gimhae Clayarch Museum Mission
In the South Gyeongsang Province of South Korea, northwest of the coastal metropolis of Busan is the city of Gimhae. There lies a ceramic art campus that includes large, diverse buildings, open courtyards, onsite sculpture, and strolling pathways that comprise the Clayarch Gimhae Museum. It was founded in 2006 as the first museum in the world to specialize in architectural ceramics. The exhibition halls, artist-in-residence studios, and hands-on community venues present numerous and varied opportunities to engage with clay.
On a beautiful fall day in November, I toured the facilities with Curator Kim Seungtaek and witnessed the organization’s robust celebration of the local community. Special exhibitions, educational displays, ikebana demonstrations, and an outdoor pottery showcase were vital components of the four-day Gimhae Buncheong Ceramics Festival. The exhibits found in the vibrantly-tiled circular Dome House featured the Gimhae Ceramic Tableware Exhibition, the Ceramics Comparison Exhibition exploring porcelain, celadon, and buncheong ware, and the 9th Korean Buncheong Ceramics Competition.
The compelling show, HUMANISM: Poems of Earth for Human (catalog) displayed the diverse work of ten artists, six from Korea and four from the United Kingdom, filling the galleries just weeks earlier and activating cultural exchange. Woo Kwanho’s (b. 1960) largescale installation, Ten-Thousand Gifts occupied the soaring Central Hall exploring the idea of global communication. It featured a rising open tower populated with small sculptures symbolizing humankind's pain. With over ten-thousand 2 - 3 inch high heads and tanukis, a raccoon-like animal, he extended the installation globally through the gift economy. Visitors could keep a uniquely glazed piece then digitally photograph it in its new context, which was sent to the artist who in turn shared it through his online platforms. This concept, and the exhibition in total, aligns with the institution's stated goals of recovering human values through culture and art. As is the nature of exhibiting institutions, lingering elements of this exhibition were still visible during the festival.
The name “Clayarch" combines the concept of ceramics and architecture to reference the organization's founding perspective of fostering new ideas through installation-driven ceramic exhibitions. Consequently, this premise has been interpreted in sculptural form by Jacques Kaufmann, an artist from Switzerland. His Clay-arch for Clayarch is permanently installed on the property near to a related work by Canadian artist, Robert Harrison's Clayarch – Arch, 2009. Kaufmann’s sculpture evolved from the 2008 exhibition, Architectural Ceramic OLD, and was created during a month-long residency there. Harrison, who is a member of the World Association of Brick Artists (WABA) created his piece in association with the 2009 show, Architectural Ceramic Now & New.
A distinctly separate and equally large building known at the Ceramic Creative Center (C.C.C.) stands nearby. Described as the only professional ceramic studio in Korea, it provides visual artists in the diverse fields of architecture, ceramics, design, painting, and sculpture with state-of-the-art space to focus on ceramic arts or architectural ceramics. Recognized Korean sculptor Kwangwoo Kim, was an artist-in-residence at the time. Also known as a land artist and with exhibitions worldwide, he re-engaged with clay on a large scale after having attended Alfred University’s Ceramic Sculpture Program in 1994. During this visit, large swaths of clay were taking shape on the studio floor.
Enabling artists to share and experience new ideas and technologies while engaging in creative and experimental activities is the admirable mission of the C.C.C. Developing networks among participating artists is encouraged. Stimulating a creative fusion among different genres and fostering an evolution of architectural ceramics with other ceramic practices is also a goal. The impressive facility with its large studios and selection of kilns is at the forefront of creative international exchange and artistic probing using clay.
Like many rewarding site visits, the Gimahe Clayarch Museum calls for much more time as well as international attention.
On a beautiful fall day in November, I toured the facilities with Curator Kim Seungtaek and witnessed the organization’s robust celebration of the local community. Special exhibitions, educational displays, ikebana demonstrations, and an outdoor pottery showcase were vital components of the four-day Gimhae Buncheong Ceramics Festival. The exhibits found in the vibrantly-tiled circular Dome House featured the Gimhae Ceramic Tableware Exhibition, the Ceramics Comparison Exhibition exploring porcelain, celadon, and buncheong ware, and the 9th Korean Buncheong Ceramics Competition.
The compelling show, HUMANISM: Poems of Earth for Human (catalog) displayed the diverse work of ten artists, six from Korea and four from the United Kingdom, filling the galleries just weeks earlier and activating cultural exchange. Woo Kwanho’s (b. 1960) largescale installation, Ten-Thousand Gifts occupied the soaring Central Hall exploring the idea of global communication. It featured a rising open tower populated with small sculptures symbolizing humankind's pain. With over ten-thousand 2 - 3 inch high heads and tanukis, a raccoon-like animal, he extended the installation globally through the gift economy. Visitors could keep a uniquely glazed piece then digitally photograph it in its new context, which was sent to the artist who in turn shared it through his online platforms. This concept, and the exhibition in total, aligns with the institution's stated goals of recovering human values through culture and art. As is the nature of exhibiting institutions, lingering elements of this exhibition were still visible during the festival.
The name “Clayarch" combines the concept of ceramics and architecture to reference the organization's founding perspective of fostering new ideas through installation-driven ceramic exhibitions. Consequently, this premise has been interpreted in sculptural form by Jacques Kaufmann, an artist from Switzerland. His Clay-arch for Clayarch is permanently installed on the property near to a related work by Canadian artist, Robert Harrison's Clayarch – Arch, 2009. Kaufmann’s sculpture evolved from the 2008 exhibition, Architectural Ceramic OLD, and was created during a month-long residency there. Harrison, who is a member of the World Association of Brick Artists (WABA) created his piece in association with the 2009 show, Architectural Ceramic Now & New.
A distinctly separate and equally large building known at the Ceramic Creative Center (C.C.C.) stands nearby. Described as the only professional ceramic studio in Korea, it provides visual artists in the diverse fields of architecture, ceramics, design, painting, and sculpture with state-of-the-art space to focus on ceramic arts or architectural ceramics. Recognized Korean sculptor Kwangwoo Kim, was an artist-in-residence at the time. Also known as a land artist and with exhibitions worldwide, he re-engaged with clay on a large scale after having attended Alfred University’s Ceramic Sculpture Program in 1994. During this visit, large swaths of clay were taking shape on the studio floor.
Enabling artists to share and experience new ideas and technologies while engaging in creative and experimental activities is the admirable mission of the C.C.C. Developing networks among participating artists is encouraged. Stimulating a creative fusion among different genres and fostering an evolution of architectural ceramics with other ceramic practices is also a goal. The impressive facility with its large studios and selection of kilns is at the forefront of creative international exchange and artistic probing using clay.
Like many rewarding site visits, the Gimahe Clayarch Museum calls for much more time as well as international attention.
Gustavo Pérez: Self Portrait in Black and White, 1998 - 2018
After forty-five years of being with clay I have the same feeling I had in the very beginning of my story: there is still so much to learn, to discover and to create. Gustavo Pérez
After forty-five years of being with clay I have the same feeling I had in the very beginning of my story: there is still so much to learn, to discover and to create. Gustavo Pérez
For four months the San Francisco Museum of Craft and Design hosted an elegant installation of the work of Mexican artist, Gustavo Pérez.
On the floor in the museum's main gallery were over 200 vessel-based pieces lyrically arranged according to stylistic series contained within
an elongated rectangle. Their arrangement fashioned a synergistic flow of pattern and form, revealing the artist's attention to creative detail. Gustavo Pérez: Self Portrait in Black and White was part of the museum's year-long celebration of its 15th anniversary.
The mature artist, Gustavo Pérez, (b. 1950) evolved from the young engineer and mathematician. He found satisfaction in clay while studying
at the Escuela de Diseño y Artesanias in Mexico City (1971 – 1973). Disciplined studio practice and timely support enabled the artist to move to various parts of the world to garner experience beyond his home country of Mexico. These locales – Holland, Japan, and the South of France –cultivated broad interaction with ceramics, ultimately positioning his work as global spurring any regional classification. When asked which artists Pérez looks to for influences, he says that visual artists are a small part of that equation. He finds literature and music among his most inspirational muses.
Pérez prefers to work in a sand-colored stoneware clay which he throws in a myriad of forms. No work is more than two feet in height. Many are then hand-formed to create irregular organic shapes that, interestingly, are precise in their conception and execution. Gustavo Pérez often works in series interweaving relational pieces for exhibitions. The artist cuts fine lines with a utility knife into the undulating forms of leather-hard clay. He then pushes intersections outward to force a surface burst in a strategic pattern. His mastery over inherent ceramic vice, that is its vulnerability to crack, shatter, and break, place his work on a conceptual and technical level successfully achieved by few artists – Jim Melchert and Steve Lee among them. Pérez also makes folded clay pieces of fullness and poise.
Pérez's insightful restraint in using soft tonal glazing interplays with each form creating dynamic abstraction. Self Portrait in Black and White displays a reduced color palette which emphasizes the artist's draw on music and mathematics as inspiration. He creates individual
pieces that are strong complete forms that stand on their own. Collectively they resound in this expansive floor arrangement. An imaginary metropolis, pulsating circuitry, or meditative performance piece are some of the interpretations applied to his installations. These ideas tap into Pérez's quest to advance his work while retaining his singular vision.
When asked about his sculptural vessels, Gustavo Pérez replied: "After forty-five years of being with clay I have the same feeling I had in the very beginning of my story: there is still so much to learn, to discover and to create."
Gustavo Pérez: Self Portrait in Black and White, 1998 - 2018
The San Francisco Museum of Craft and Design
November 10, 2018 – February 24, 2019
San Francisco, California
All photos by Nancy M. Servis unless otherwise noted.
On the floor in the museum's main gallery were over 200 vessel-based pieces lyrically arranged according to stylistic series contained within
an elongated rectangle. Their arrangement fashioned a synergistic flow of pattern and form, revealing the artist's attention to creative detail. Gustavo Pérez: Self Portrait in Black and White was part of the museum's year-long celebration of its 15th anniversary.
The mature artist, Gustavo Pérez, (b. 1950) evolved from the young engineer and mathematician. He found satisfaction in clay while studying
at the Escuela de Diseño y Artesanias in Mexico City (1971 – 1973). Disciplined studio practice and timely support enabled the artist to move to various parts of the world to garner experience beyond his home country of Mexico. These locales – Holland, Japan, and the South of France –cultivated broad interaction with ceramics, ultimately positioning his work as global spurring any regional classification. When asked which artists Pérez looks to for influences, he says that visual artists are a small part of that equation. He finds literature and music among his most inspirational muses.
Pérez prefers to work in a sand-colored stoneware clay which he throws in a myriad of forms. No work is more than two feet in height. Many are then hand-formed to create irregular organic shapes that, interestingly, are precise in their conception and execution. Gustavo Pérez often works in series interweaving relational pieces for exhibitions. The artist cuts fine lines with a utility knife into the undulating forms of leather-hard clay. He then pushes intersections outward to force a surface burst in a strategic pattern. His mastery over inherent ceramic vice, that is its vulnerability to crack, shatter, and break, place his work on a conceptual and technical level successfully achieved by few artists – Jim Melchert and Steve Lee among them. Pérez also makes folded clay pieces of fullness and poise.
Pérez's insightful restraint in using soft tonal glazing interplays with each form creating dynamic abstraction. Self Portrait in Black and White displays a reduced color palette which emphasizes the artist's draw on music and mathematics as inspiration. He creates individual
pieces that are strong complete forms that stand on their own. Collectively they resound in this expansive floor arrangement. An imaginary metropolis, pulsating circuitry, or meditative performance piece are some of the interpretations applied to his installations. These ideas tap into Pérez's quest to advance his work while retaining his singular vision.
When asked about his sculptural vessels, Gustavo Pérez replied: "After forty-five years of being with clay I have the same feeling I had in the very beginning of my story: there is still so much to learn, to discover and to create."
Gustavo Pérez: Self Portrait in Black and White, 1998 - 2018
The San Francisco Museum of Craft and Design
November 10, 2018 – February 24, 2019
San Francisco, California
All photos by Nancy M. Servis unless otherwise noted.