Excited to be a part of this, thanks to Ferrin Contemporary! New Yorkers and ceramic enthusiasts, print this invitation and present at entrance for one free admission…here is a link if this page doesn’t print for you: http://ferrincontemporary.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/NYCFfreeadmission2.pdf
Below the invite you will find images of my teapots featured at the fair (two views of each). All three were recently housed by the Palmer Museum In PA. Thanks for looking!
I am very excited to share my newest works focusing on the Syrian Civil War. Please join me in Seattle on Thursday, Dec. 5, at Abmeyer + Wood Fine Art for the opening of Proceed With Caution. Exhibition may be extended through mid-January, 2014, so drop by the gallery if you’re in town! If you can make it on Dec. 5, please say hello ~ I will be venturing up to Seattle with a truck-load of work and staying the week!
Streetwise 2013, a Collaboration
Jessica Hess (hand painted acrylic) and Christa Assad (wheel-thrown porcelain)
Represented by: Abmeyer + Wood , artMRKT booth #623
First trained as a studio potter, Assad currently uses the wheel to generate “blanks” of identifiable objects from the urban landscape. Collaborating with other artists using the exquisite corpse concept, in which one artist responds in a call and response to the other, her porcelain blanks are the beginnings of lively visual dialogues and social commentary. Glamorizing an ordinary object, the spray can, led her to collaborate with San Francisco-based painter, Jessica Hess. “Our shared vision is to recreate urban street scenes in trompe l’oeil realism, involving faux found objects of ceramic and painted surfaces, stenciled “sidewalks”, and “tagged” gallery walls. I create the objects and Hess paints their surfaces. As visual documentarians, we are working to bring street art indoors to archive and make permanent these otherwise transitory public works.”
Working independently in the Bay Area, Assad in Berkeley and Hess in downtown San Francisco, each artist is firmly established in their respective careers with work in numerous private and public collections. Assad received her MFA in ceramics from Indiana University in 2000 and has taught throughout the US and internationally while maintaining an active showing schedule from her home base. Hess received her BFA in illustration from Rhode Island School of Design in 2003. She moved to San Francisco from Boston to exhibit and participate in the west coast art scene that combines street art with fine art based in illustration.
The National Council on the Education for the Ceramic Arts meets once again for its annual conference, this March 20-23, in Houston, TX. I’m excited to have my GIANT GOLD GRENADE (pictured here) included in the Biennial Exhibition, hosted by the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft.
In addition to the conference activities and fabulous Biennial, I’ll be showing a new series of functional pots at the Artstream Nomadic Gallery. (I also snuck in a few ceramic “hand grenades”!) If you’re in Houston, stop by the Convention Center and visit me — I’ll be working plenty of shifts at the trailer!
Last, and certainly not least: spaces are still available in my demonstration workshop with Ryan McKerley — don’t miss out! We’ll be rocking and rolling in Austin, TX, along with the South By Southwest Music Festival….AND firing a soda kiln…AND demonstrating our fun and frivolous techniques! Hope to see you there!
It is with great enthusiasm that I present my newest works in a solo exhibition at Harvey Meadows Gallery in Aspen, CO, entitled Forward and Back. Exhibiting alongside my work you’ll find the amazing vessels of one of MY very favorite ceramists, Sam Chung — twice the impact and in a brand-new gallery space, to boot! I’ll be in town for the opening on Thursday night – hope to see some of my dear Aspen/Snowmass friends there!
STATEMENT
Forward and Back, an exhibition of Christa Assad’s most recent ceramic sculpture, offers a commentary about war and decaying cities in the U.S. With the Industrial Revolution came iron and steam technologies, followed by the advent of steel and other alloys. Subsequently, the Machine Age introduced mass production, moving assembly lines, enormous machinery for high-volume output, and the development and deployment of modern war machines such as tanks, submarines and the modern battleship. All of this “progress” affected craftspeople in an adverse way: mass consumerism and national branding replaced local buying and skilled crafts. Large corporations employed low-skill laborers, and their exploitation eventually led to trade unions. Nations fighting over energy and material resources contributed to the causes of two world wars. Ironically, these coveted natural resources were soon employed in the fabrication of weapons of war.
Assad states, “I am drawn to photographs that document the Industrial and Machine Ages, particularly the work of Berenice Abbott (1898-1981), whose black and white images often document the relationship between technology, society, and the ever-changing urban landscape.”
The slow, personal process Assad employs – each piece is individually wheel-thrown and constructed – subverts our acceptance of the fast, impersonal, machine-made. The hand-painted surface imagery lends an added touch of nostalgia for the forgotten past, which once pointed to a future bright with promise.
Details here! Hope you can join us ~ our mini-pre-conference coincides with the fabulous South by Southwest Music Festival held in Austin every March. Two great tastes that go GREAT together: ceramics and ROCK ‘n ROLL!!!
December heats up in Miami as Art Basel, ArtMiami, and Design Miami take full hold of the city and beaches for a week of fantastic art-overload. I’m excited to be attending the events both as an exhibiting artist AND a free-lance journalist. I’ll be checking out the latest trends and art-stars while navigating the madness with a shiny new iPad and fun mini-moo cards in hand. You can keep up with me via Facebook, Instagram, this blog, or stay tuned for a follow-up article in Ceramics Monthly.
Meanwhile, catch a preview of my newest works HERE.
Click HERE for link to Ferrin Gallery and details about ArtMiami
http://ferringallery.com/dynamic/exhibit_artist.asp?ExhibitID=520
Click HERE for link to COVET: Art + Objects
http://ferringallery.com/dynamic/exhibit_artist2.asp?ExhibitID=489
Thanks for your continued support. Hope to see you in Miami!
*print out above image + voucher to receive two complimentary general admission passes from Ferrin Gallery
Join us this October 5/6, 2012, for a rare opportunity to see Brad Miller demonstrate his patented tricks of the trade. If you don’t know Brad and aren’t familiar with his sensual sculptures and geological shapes and surfaces, this is a workshop not to be missed. Personally, I like Brad’s humor and completely accessible way of teaching…add to that his unorthodox approaches to clay, and his vast knowledge of the material, its history, and Brad’s first-hand relationship to many of the key players in ceramics, and voila: a creative explosion!
Oh, and Brad will be bringing a selection of smaller works for sale at Fourth & Clay Gallery, so come early for first choice!
Details below. Reserve early – space is limited. Hope to see you in October!
Ceramics enthusiasts! Lets show our love for the fabulous Karen Karnes – at 86, and potting for more than 60 years, Karen’s work and living example has set a high standard for studio potters all over the world. In conjunction with this event, Peter Held, Curator of Ceramics at ASU Art Museum (Tempe, AZ), will be giving a talk on June 23rd…follow this LINK for details. Hope to see you there!
I’m honored to be invited by artist-juror Brad Miller to the 4th Contemporary Clay Biennial Exhibition, hosted by The Art Center, Grand Junction, CO. I’ve sent some of my newest works to the show, which promises to be an excellent survey of our country’s best clay artists. Thanks for including me, Brad!
christa assad 