Welcome to NewsFile, our round-up of newsy shards from the world of contemporary ceramic art and contemporary ceramics. Let’s kick off this week’s edition with a Postwar exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art as well as some mega-cool tile designs.
Featured image: Ken Price, L. Blue, 1961, Ceramic painted with lacquer and acrylic on a wood base. 6 x 9 5 inches.
Hidden Narratives
Hidden Narratives: Recent Acquisitions of Postwar Art is now on view at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (February 17, 2018 – January 6, 2019)
Coalescing recent acquisitions from the museum’s growing collection of modern and contemporary art, the exhibition features works ranging from sculpture to painting––all which explore language as an artistic medium or conceptual framework, as others foreground the body; its capabilities and limits, and the stories it might mask or expose, a physicality which is evident in the pictured work by Ken Price above, LACMA writes.
Whether focusing attention on the artists’ personal beliefs and experiences, on shared cultural narratives, or on the overlooked, the works included in this exhibition illuminate the times in which they were made while also resonating in the present day.
Other artists featured include Bas Jan Ader, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Dorothea Tanning, Idelle Weber, Jesse Howard, Joseph Kosuth, Los Carpinteros, Alexis Smith and Lawrence Weiner.
Agrob Buchtal’s Tile Awards
Avishkar Bharati, JDAP Design, Transmittance Color Curtain
A bold, billowing tile pavilion, a sexy/sporty pentagonal design and pixelated rainbow waves are all design schemes which received tile manufacturer Agrob Butchal‘s biannual Tile Award earlier this year (the award was given in January, but we wanted to make sure you didn’t miss these mega cool designs).
A conceptual experimental competition run in collaboration with AIT magazine, the award calls for international architects and interior designers to develop new and unique ways to utilize ceramic tiles. This fourth edition called on entrants to focus on color and pattern in architecture.
The three winners included Indian architect Avishkar Bharati of JDAP Design, and architects Andreas Crynen and Agnes Morguet, both from Germany.
Andreas Crynen, Ingenhoven Architects, RE: TILE
Agnes Morguet, Agnes Morguet Interior Design & Design, Stay Unique
Magdalene Odundo Named UCA Chancellor
Magdalene Odundo
The University for the Creative Arts (UCA) bestowed the role of Chancellor onto international artist and UCA professor Magdalene Odundo.
A UCA alumna, Professor Odundo graduated from the West Surrey College of Art & Design––now UCA Farnham––in 1976 with a first-class degree in 3D Design: Ceramics, Printmaking & Photography. She has achieved international acclaim for her work, which has been collected in museums globally, and is known for being one of the world’s greatest contemporary potters.
Odundo served as UCA’s Professor of Ceramics until her retirement in 2016, when she was awarded her the lifelong title of Professor Emerita to recognize her contribution to the University’s research culture.
Read more here.
Garth Johnson to Head Ceramics at Everson Museum of Art
Garth Johnson
Our friend Garth Johnson (endearingly called “Other Garth” around these parts) has been tapped to lead the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, New York as Curator of Ceramics. The museum opened a gallery specifically dedicated to ceramics in 2016.
The Museum now holds a ceramics collection boasting over 5,000 pieces ranging in date from 1000 CE to the present and including works from the ancient Americans of the Southwest to cutting-edge examples by contemporary artist.
Johnson most recently served as Curator of Ceramics at Arizona State University’s Ceramic Research Center.
Chainless Ceramic Bike
Ceramic bearing design company CeramicSpeed unveiled its “Driven” chainless (yes, chainless) bike concept at the 2018 Eurobike show earlier this month. DesignBoom reports the design eliminates the need for derailleurs and chains by replacing them with a pinion-style driveshaft system, thus creating less drag, less weight and less space than conventional bicycles.
The company states their design team strived to create the most efficient drivetrain imaginable.
Partnering with the Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of Colorado, we have created a drive shaft concept that utilizes 21 CeramicSpeed Bearings and sets a new benchmark as the world’s most efficient drivetrain.
Read more at DesignBoom.
Love or loathe these headlines from the world of contemporary ceramic art and contemporary ceramics? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
It is brilliant, love seeing ceramic is being used in so many different ways. I find it inspiring.
Thanks cfile.