Garth Clark’s latest book on Beth Cavener, craft hubs open and more. This is your go-to round-up of newsy shards and happenings from the world of contemporary ceramic art and contemporary ceramics––this is May’s NewsFile.
Human: The Art of Beth Cavener wins Two Major Book Awards
Garth Clark’s, definitive volume Human: The Art of Beth Cavener, published by Fresco Books, Albuquerque, is a superb de-luxe survey of Cavener’s art. It has won two first place awards both in the Fine Art category from the Independent Press Award and the top honor, an IPPY Gold Medal, from the Independent Publishers Association. Human was authored and overseen by Garth Clark with Ezra Shales and Lauren Redding. The book will be reviewed in out next issue of Newsfile by Eric Zetterquist.
Garth Clark + Mark Del Vecchio’s Gallery Design Lasts 47 Years
The renowned Dada specialist Francis Naumann has shuttered his gallery Francis M. Naumann Fine Art with his last exhibition in May. His gallery at 24 W 57th Street was formerly Garth Clark Gallery, the ceramics specialist, from 1983 to 2008. What thrilled Clark and Del Vecchio was that their gallery design was deemed perfect by Nauman and remained intact, except for a concrete floor, for 47 years.
It was also the home for Beatrice Wood’s luster ceramics for the 47 years––Clark and Del Vecchio were to first to show her work. Wood was actually responsible for them getting into the art business in 1981 and so was more than an artist, she was the gallery’s goddess. She died in 1998 at the age of 105.
She remained in the space even after Naumann took over for two reasons: she was part of the New York Dada movement in 1917 hence her the sobriquet, Mama of Dada, and Naumann was one of her closest friends.
“Her galleries may have closed, but her spirit will remain at 24 West, you will hear the clinking of silver jewelry, the kind worn by lower caste women in India, and gentle rustle of her saris”.
Mark Del Vecchio
Learn more about Dada and Wood in Cfile’s 250-page anthology R. Mutt.
Read more about Francis Naumann Fine Art’s closing in White Hot Magazine.
Man Escapes Fire by Hiding in a Kiln
Don’t try this at home. As ABC News reports, 67-year-old potter Steve Harrison escaped the bushfire raging in New South Wales last December by hiding in a makeshift kiln he built just the day prior in his backyard.
“The day before I had actually built myself a small kiln down the back—a coffin-sized kiln—just big enough for me to crawl inside,” he recalled while fighting back tears.
ABC News
Read more about Harrison’s miraculous survival.
The Clay Studio Breaks New Ground
Earlier this year, The Clay Studio broke ground on its new 34,000-square-foot home in South Kensington, Philadelphia. Envisioned as a ceramics hub, the building will allow for new gallery and studio space, more spacious classrooms and kilns, advanced equipment, and sustainable new programming,.
As The Architect’s Newspaper reports, the new building, designed by Philadelphia-based architecture firm DIGSAU , “will be 67-percent larger than the organization’s former space, will include a rooftop garden, an outdoor pavilion, and a number of classrooms that are twice the size of those in the current building. Studios dedicated to local and visiting artists will also be generously-sized to accommodate technologically-advanced art-making equipment, and the new building will have the flexibility to host exhibitions, conferences, and other special events. The ground floor’s interior will be visible from the street to promote a feeling of public accessibility, while the facade of the upper floor will modulate light with its variably-sized openings to produce the optimal conditions for ceramic production.”
New National Craft Hub
Late last year, the Center for Craft celebrated its public grand reopening after nearly a year of renovations to its historic 1912 building at 67 Broadway in downtown Asheville.
This new National Craft Innovation Hub will be a creative destination and resource for artists, researchers, curators, and the local community to celebrate the Building a Future for Craft campaign and successful renovation.
Woodman Family Foundation Launches New Website
The Woodman Family Foundation which features the lives and work of Betty, Francesca and George Woodman has launched it’s new website.
Check it out here.
Saddam Hussein’s Dinnerware Returned to Iraq
As WNYC reports, stolen Wedgewood dinnerware looted from one of Saddam Hussein’s palaces has been turned over to Iraqi diplomats.
The news hits close to home for an arts group in New York since the plates were used as part of an art project.
WNYC
Read the whole story here.
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like that there is an obvious and inviting way to comment on cfile.daily.
Is there also alplace selected readers comments. Like letters to the edditor.