Claudi Casanovas remains one of the most important sculptors working clay even though, since he works in the Pyrenees, it often seems as though he’s channeling volcanic rock. His current exhibition of ceramics and works on paper, titled Quart Creixent or crescent moon, at Erskine, Hall and Coe (London, October 1-31, 2014) is no exception.
Above image: Claudi Casanovas, Ovar, 2014, 63 x 58 x 50 cm and 54 x 66 x 45 cm. Photograph by Michael Harvey, courtesy of the gallery.
Five pairs of ceramic sculptures link with with ten superb charcoal drawings in this exhibition. Each pair of sculptures have a unique name which refers to organic and eternal growth and the Myth of Dionysus: Ovar, relating to ovaries, Bacant, referring to Bacchus (Dionysus), Verduc, to plant growth, Broll, to the youngest part of a plant, and Broton, relating to plant buds.
Installation view of the Claudi Casanovas exhibition “Quart Creixent.” Photograph by Michael Harvey, courtesy of the gallery.
Claudi Casanovas was born in 1956. He studied ceramics and theatre in Barcelona, and trained as a ceramicist in Olot, Catalonia. He was a member of the Coure Potters’ Cooperative from 1978 until 1987, and in 1992 he won first prize at the III International Ceramics Competition in Mino, Japan. In 2004 he won a competition to create a monument against Fascism in Olot. This Memorial als Vençuts was installed in June 2006.
His artwork has been displayed in major exhibitions and museum collections worldwide, including The Museum of Contemporary Art in Oostende, Belgium, The Roman Museum in Nyon, Switzerland, Kunstforum in Kirchberg, as well as in New York and London.
Garth Clark is the Chief Editor of CFile.
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Claudi Casanovas, Untitled (Quart Creixent series), 2014, charcoal on paper, 32.5 x 46 cm (55 x 41 cm framed)
Claudi Casanovas, Untitled (Quart Creixent series), 2014, charcoal on paper, 32.5 x 46 cm (55 x 41 cm framed)
Claudi Casanovas, Untitled (Quart Creixent series), 2014, 32.5 x 46 cm (55 x 41 cm framed). Photographs by Michael Harvey, courtesy of the gallery.
Claudi Casanovas in conversation with Alun Graves, Curator of Ceramics and Glass Collections at the V&A, at a private exhibition on Sept. 30, 2014.
A number of the articles you,have posted have affected me deeply, especially the one on Mario Botta, and now this one. Because if your writing I have discovered work that I was not aware of, work that is so phenomenal that it will continue to affect my own sense of design and esthetic from here on out. Thank you! I LOVE the work of Claudi Casanovas, and somehow it belongs with the architecture of Mario Botta … I hope they find each other!