EventJanuary 25 - May 10, 2020

CalArtian Works on View at Craft Contemporary

Top: Roxanne Jackson, Metal Goddess, 2017. Ceramic, faux fur, glaze, lace, and shell, 12 x 6 x 8 inches. Courtesy of the artist. Photo: JSP Photography. | Image courtesy of Craft Contemporary

CalArtians are among the artists represented in Craft Contemporary’s second clay biennial The Body, The Object, The Other, currently on view until Sunday, May 10 at Craft Contemporary in Los Angeles.

The exhibition features works by 21 artists expanding the “notion of figuration within ceramics,” including Cassils (Art-IM MFA 02), Cammie Staros (Art MFA 11), and Bari Ziperstein (Art MFA 04).

Curators Andres Payan Estrada (Art MFA 14) and Holly Jerger conceived the exhibition theme by examining humanity’s relationship with clay, notably the variety of creations myths claiming that humans came from earth itself. “The figure has always been present in ceramics,” Estrada noted in the official release. “These artists are questioning how the self can be constructed and refiguring their own relationships to the body and to clay.”

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I have a rare LA opening at @craftcontemporary Museum (opposite LACMA) THIS SAT FEB 1 6-9 pm. I’d love it if you wanted to come check out the show and attend the opening. Unfortunately the opening night is still a museum ticketed event- costs $10, so I won’t be offended if you can’t make it. The show is a biannual and feature as many incredible folks working in craft. Sometimes it’s hilarious to me that I’m featured in this context, one that hones such formal mastery and is often rooted in “feminine” work like needle point, weaving and pottery- Course that take on craft is antiquated and outdated. And I do have my own sense of rigor- despite not making traditional craft – as do all artists in this show. The balance of the exhibition displays a real array of approaches and a broad range of talent. Thank you to @hollyjerger and the thoughtful hardworking @andres_payan as well as the incredible and QUEER install team with all your help in meeting my “devil in the details” demands 😈 . I am exhibiting a sound and sense installation in pitch blackness. It is a deconstructed performance document of #becominganimage mage called #Ghost. . The sound piece was made with @kadetski – who is a wonderful talent that I’ve been working along side for many years. . If you cant come to the opening the show will be up till May:) Try to make it before the clay dries out:) . Ghost is a 4-channel sound installation which recreates the sounds of my breath, blows, grunts, and pulse rate during one performance of Becoming An Image. You hear mr darting from one corner to the other and circling the listener like a ghost. . “At the core of Cassils’ durational performances is this principle of calculated risk in the face of the material’s capacity, and, as Acker says, of the ultimate material, “of the body’s inexorable movement towards its final failure, toward death” PHOTOGRAPHY AND CULTURE @eliza.steinbock . Photo: Cassils with Eric Charles. Becoming An Image performance still. @onearchives 2013 . #transpeopleexist #haunted #soundhijacksthebody #deconstructed #document #craft #clay #raw

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Cassils (they/them) continues their exploration of art and the body with Ghost (2019), a sound installation capturing the artist’s “exhales, grunts, and breaths” as they wrestled a 2,000-pound block of clay. The installation envelops visitors in four-channel audio capturing Cassils darting from one corner of the room to another, as though the artist were a ghost. 

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Drawing heavily from Classical Greek red and black figurative vase painting, Cammie Staros’ ceramic works dissect the aesthetic language of classical art history. “The ceramics are distorted and asymmetrical versions of vases. I wanted to keep a reference to the Greek amphora I often invoke but make vulnerable, intimate, organic shapes with them. People have compared them to organs or animals. None of them can stand on their own."⁣ ⁣ This inability to stay upright is made apparent in the acrylic elements, which appear as integral to the works. To Staros', the acrylic elements are part-pedestal-part-vitrine, emphasizing the 'classic' museological presentation of the art object, which is so often coded in a visual language of authority and alienation. In her most recent works, Staros' both subverts and reinforces these expectations.⁣ ⁣ Get a closer look at the work of #CammieStaros at the #clay biennial. 'The Body, The Object, The Other'⁣⁣ is on view through May 10, 2020. ⁣ Photos: Blake Jacobsen

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Staros presents an array of ceramic and acrylic works influenced by classical Greek red and black figurative vase painting. Staros’ organic shapes, which are distorted and unable to remain upright without their vitrine-like acrylic pedestals, challenge historical practices of presenting art objects in a classic museum setting. 

Ziperstein, known for testing the technical limits of clay, will present colorful and character-inspired works influenced by media ranging from Soviet propaganda posters to terracotta raw pottery. 

Event Details

The Body, The Object, The Other

Through Sunday, May 10
Craft Contemporary
5814 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles
Admission information

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