Marketplace | Selections from the New York Ceramics & Glass Fair

Now in its 17th year, the New York Ceramics & Glass Fair is ready to open again at the Bohemian National Hall in New York City. Spread across two floors, the fair features 30 galleries, private dealers and artists from the United States, Europe, England and Asia. The selections on display come to us from across time, spanning the 17th century to today.

Meg Wendy, who co-produces the New York Ceramics & Glass Fair with Liz Lees, said that the market has taken care this year to include many contemporary ceramic and glass artists.

“Our fair has always been dedicated to presenting the best in the field of ceramics and glass. By introducing the work of single cutting-edge artists in these mediums, we are broadening the horizon of the fair and pushing its boundaries to illustrate how three-dimensional art has gained a foothold in the world of art and design.”

We are showcasing the work of some of those artists here today, along with some of the older offerings, finds that can only be dated with the word “circa” preceding.

The above work comes to us from Pippin Drysdale, who is represented at the show by Joanna Bird. Drysdale, who has been a ceramic artist for 40 years, works with a focus on landscape, especially on the desert of Australia. Drysdale was recently named one of Western Australia’s 15 Living Treasures. Joanna Bird calls her work a narrative of the vastness of color seen only in the Australian landscape.

“The landscape is the ever-constant lure, the catalyst for making, the connecting point and anchor for each new development. Her work is ambitious. It negotiates interweaving journeys through various landscapes describing her artistic practice and her engagement with the sites she documents.”

Carrie Gustafson studied printmaking at Rhode Island School of Design, but she felt an undeniable pull toward hand-blown glass. She learned more from the studio at the Corning Museum of Glass and at the Rosin Studio on Murano, Venice’s “glass island.” Fair organizers state that Gustafson is fascinated by the natural world, including plants, flowers, seeds and crystals. She is currently working on her first large outdoor sculpture.

 

Hideaki Miyamura studied new glazes during a five-year apprenticeship in Japan. He completed more than 10,000 test pieces. In his final year of apprenticeship he discovered an iridescent glaze on a black background, which he says was his contribution to the art of Yohen Tenmoku. Hideaki Miyamura experiments with glazes that are iridescent.

In the long history of crystal glazes, I could find no iridescent crystal glaze. This fueled my ten-year long passion and intent to create an iridescent crystal glaze which has never been made anywhere, at anytime in history. I started testing, using data from my apprentice years. Over and over again, I experimented, completing over 2,000 test samples in the last few years. Last year, the newest glaze came out of my kiln. It was the most complicated glaze formula and firing process that I have ever done. I call that newest glaze YOHEN CRYSTAL GLAZE. YOHEN means “stars glistening in a night sky.” To make a new glaze is my lifelong passion.”

 

 

 

Cliff Lee takes kaolin clay from the England’s white cliffs of Dover and shapes them into vessels inspired by Song Dynasty porcelain. He recreates historic glazes “believed to be long lost to history.”

“The artist creates two kinds of porcelain art: intricately carved vessels inspired by nature and sleek teardrop shapes narrowing to a slender stem. Both are rare, primarily because it is so difficult to throw, carve and fire porcelain.”

 

 

 

We ran a video about Michael Boroniec a few weeks ago. The work pictured above is from the Massachusetts-based artist’s Spatial Spiral series. Boroniec states that his primary goal as a ceramics sculptor is to re-introduce substance and craftsmanship into the world of fine art.

“Art is not just about an object or concept. It is a conversation between an object and idea. And for me, ceramic art is about having a conversation with the clay. It’s about the hands-on relationship of the artist and the medium that makes for a piece that is more than just beautiful. It is an expression of the human soul.”

Vetro Vero (Italian for “true glass”) was launched by Michael Schunke and Josie Gluck in 2011. Their goal was to preserve glass tradition. As such, their works are hand-blown, then shaped and finished without molds or machinery. “Schunke and Gluck’s are the only hands that touch the works,” the Fair tells us.

Tickets to the show are $20. A private preview event will be held Wednesday, January 20th, and then the fair will run Thursday, January 21 through Sunday, January 24. The Bohemian National Hall is at 321 East 73rd Street in the city. More information can be found here.

Among the galleries and dealers represented are: Martin Chasin Fine Arts (Fairfield, CT), Polka Dot Antiques (Waccabuc, NY), Chen Yan Arts (China), Antiques Van Geenan (Delft, Holland) Garry Atkins Antiques Ltd. (London), Michelle Erickson (Hampton, VA), Ferrin Contemporary (Cummington, MA), Jeffrey S. Evans (Harrisonburg, VA), Jill Fenichell/The Bespoke Porcelain Company (New York), Katherine Houston Porcelain (Boston), Roderick Jellicoe (London), Leo Kaplan Ltd. (New York), Lee Gallery & Studio (Stevens PA), Martine Boston Antiques (Ireland) Moylan/Smelkinson (Baltimore), Polly Latham Asian Art (Boston), Ian Simmonds (Carlisle, PA), Philip Suval Inc. (Virginia), Earle D. Vandekar of Knightsbridge (New York), Maria and Peter Warren Antiques (Wilton CT), Mark J. West (Redhill, England) and Lynda Willauer Antiques (Nantucket, MA).

What do you think about this time-spanning art offered by the New York Ceramics & Glass Fair? Let us know in the comments.