Spotted | Ceramic + Fashion Mash-up, Cracks, a Pottery Hillside and more!

Welcome back to Spotted, our weekly round-up of ceramic finds that have garnered our attention from the worlds of contemporary ceramic art and contemporary ceramics. This week, we’ve spotted design works, styrofoam walls and even a ceramic landfill, but let’s start with our oddball: cultish fashion designer J.W. Anderson. Has Cfile gone mad? Likely, but don’t go into a fuss quite yet.

J.W. Anderson

Designer J.W. Anderson’s eponymous gender-bending fashion label features oversized chunky sweaters and bright crocheted patchwork.

So, what’s he doing HERE?

Turns out, Anderson is mega obsessed with contemporary ceramic art, especially the work of Bernard Leach. In an interview with W Magazine, he said his penchant has caused him to even make personal “budget cuts.”

“…Ceramics are kind of my big [thing] I’m obsessed by and are mainly the addiction.”

Inspired by Leach, Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore, Anderson has curated an exhibition Disobedient Bodies at The Hepworth Wakefield gallery (Wakefield, West Yorkshire, March 18 – June 18, 2017), which aims to investigate the way the human form has been reconceived by artists and designers across the 20^th and 21^st centuries.

“They were tackling how to reduce the physical form, and in a weird way, I think that’s what we try to do in fashion as well.”

The exhibition features world-renowned fashion in direct dialogue to ceramic selections from his personal collection by artists such as Jean Arp, Louise Bourgeois, Lynn Chadwick, Naum Gabo, Sarah Lucas, Magali Reus and Dorothea Tanning.

Anderson tells W, his favorite pairing is Rei Kawakubo’s amorphous “lumps and bumps” collection with one of Brancusi‘s ultra-polished heads.

“It’s probably the most important thing I’ve ever done.”

Peter Pincus

Peter Pincus never fails to deliver exquisite ceramic works, especially with this grey gilded vessel with its mesmerizing painted crevices yielding illusionary effects.

Check out our previous musings on the ceramist.

Sol LeWitt

Up next, we have more crevices. This time in these incredible cracked walls by American conceptual artist Sol LeWitt, which give off the effect of cracked ceramic. The work aligns with LeWitt’s large-scale “Wall Drawings.”

Monte Testaccio

Monte Testaccio isn’t necessarily art, but rather a gorgeous happenstance. It’s a mound of thousands of broken amphorae shards covering roughly 220,000 square feet.

Beth Cavener

Selections from Beth Cavener‘s bestiary were on display as part of an exclusive exhibition Turn the Page: The First Ten Years of Hi-Fructose (May 22 – December 31, 2016) at the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) featuring more than 50 artists, Hyperallergic writes.

Read more of Cfile’s reflections on Cavener.

Thomas Bohle

Thomas Bohle‘s upcoming exhibition World famous, Except in France at Le Don du Fel (May 14 – June 22, 2017) is a first step towards correcting an unwitting injustice. Bohl’s art, precise and complete, is based on the construction of a dialogue between surface and support, entities that he considers aesthetically and ideologically indissociable.

Text (edited) from the gallery.

Do you love or loathe our Spotted finds from the worlds of contemporary ceramic and contemporary ceramic art? Let us know in the comments.