NewsFile | NCECA Take-Away, The Met’s Rooftop Installation, a Farewell and more

Welcome to NewsFile, your weekly resource for tidbits and happenings from across the worlds of contemporary ceramic art and contemporary ceramics. We know what you all have been waiting for, so without further ado —  Cfile’s first take-away from NCECA.

NCECA in Portland Draws 6,008 Clay Warriors

Keith Ekstam, Excellence in Teaching Award 2017

NCECA was expecting about 4,500 to attend after the ballyhoo of their 50th anniversary in Kansas City. Instead, they set a new record: 6,008. Students, teachers, hobbyists and makers crowded into the Oregon Conference Center. Organization was signature Josh Green efficiency and excellent, although guide graphics remained as primitive as before.

The exception was the layout of the resources fair. The design has always been the booths in the middle in a kraal of surrounding non-profit tables. This time, all the tables were gathered into an impenetrable block maze. In the previous layout, people swirled around all day. In our ghetto one afternoon I counted 15 visitors. In fairness NCECA needs to acknowledge that this was botched and offer all the complaining table holders (everyone was seething), complimentary tables next time.

Exhibitions were another matter and very disappointing, but pointing with one exception, to that fact that Portland is not a key complementary art city. That will be discussed at the week’s end.

Garth Clark

Check out Cfile’s archived NCECA coverage over the years.

All the Wonders, a Farewell to George Woodman 

George Goodman

Renowned artist George Woodman (1932-2017), Betty Woodman’s husband, passed away on March 23, peacefully in his sun filled studio. While known primarily in his later years as a photographer, he was responsible for immense and powerful tile murals in the style of the Pattern and Decoration Movement which he belonged to as a painter. George also did all the painting on his wife’s pots until the later 1970’s when she took this over herself. He also wrote some of the most pithy and considered essays on contemporary ceramics and its curious place in the visual arts.

In an email informing me of his passing, Betty wrote:

“I read him these beautiful lines from Rilke just a minute before he stopped breathing:

And it was almost a girl and came to be

out of this single joy of song and lyre

and through her green veils shone forth radiantly

and made herself a bed inside my ear.

And slept there. And her sleep was everything:

the awesome trees, the distances I had felt

so deeply that I could touch them, meadows in spring:

all wonders that had ever seized my heart.”

Garth Clark

The Met’s Mysterious Rooftop Installation

Coming to a rooftop near you (that is, if you live in New York City—sorry) Argentinian artist Adrián Villar Rojass , who works with unfired clay, is creating an immersive sculptural world title The Theater of Disappearance for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s rooftop garden. Rojas’ imaginative world will come to life during an unveiling in April. To see cfile’s extensive coverage of his art, click here.

Rojas tell the New York Times, his installation aims to reference work from and activate the museum.

On April 14 he will pull back the curtain on ‘The Theater of Disappearance,’ a series of roughly 20 large-scale sculptures referencing (and toying with) artworks and objects the artist has cherry-picked from among the 17 curatorial departments at the Met, including the Egyptian wing and Arms and Armor. (Frequent visitors to the Met may recognize favorite objects; Mr. Villar Rojas’s installation might even inspire a scavenger hunt to locate his original sources of inspiration.)

And while Rojas tells the Times he prefers the theme of his installation to remain a mystery until next month’s opening, we can’t help but to glean from his previous works that there may be some interesting interactions between visitors and the concrete denizens and relics of his new world. But then again, your guess is as good as ours!

Not Clay, but… A Mega Smart Plate

Manually tracking what you’ve eaten throughout the day is a thing of the past. The new ceramic SmartPlate tells you exactly what you’ve eaten, then gives you expert and personalized guidance to move you closer to your goals.

Users can download the SmartPlate Android or iOS app to their phones, which can detect and identify over 6,000 foods and can scan up to 400,000 more. It can even detect over 600 restaurant menus, according to the design team’s product page.

SmartPlate TopView is the world’s first Intelligent Nutrition Platform that uses advanced photo recognition and AI technology to identify, analyze, and track everything you eat in mere seconds.

The plate isn’t designed merely for those who are managing their weight, but can also be used as a powerful tool to track eating habits for increasing energy, muscle building and prolonging endurance.

Set custom health goals or use one of the many doctor approved dietary programs SmartPlate has to offer. From weight management to building energy and endurance, SmartPlate allows to to analyze and adjust meals accurately, easily and quickly.

SmartPlate is dishwasher and microwave safe. Learn more about SmartPlate here.

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