A beginning course dealing with the basics of building forms with clay. Utilizing coil building, slab building, pinching and wheel forming methods, work with low-mid fire and raku clays. Finishing techniques include underglazes, slip colored glazes, majolica, raku glazes sgraffito and stenciling, cold finishes. Instruction is given learning how to fire electric, gas fire and raku kilns. Glaze and glaze formulation is also taught.
October 13 – November 27, 2011
2nd Thursday Receptions: October 13th & November 10th from 6-9pm
Location: University of Delaware Gallery
Hours: Wednesday, 12-4, and Thursday thru Sunday 12 to 6
Though the word “grotesque” has in contemporary usage come to refer primarily to the unpleasant or disgusting, The Unsettled instead explores the term as it relates to notions of duality, hybridism, and transformation. The work chosen occupies the physical, mental, and cultural spaces between states of being and emphasizes those unsettling elements that exist just below the civilized veneer of society. It is about those things we attempt to hide from our friends, family, neighbors, and even ourselves, and the transformations that take place as a result of such suppression, It is about the futility of denying our basic natures and examines the mechanisms by which our fears, doubts, and primal instincts – real and imagined – manifest themselves to ourselves and the world around us, on both a personal and societal level. Taken as a whole, The Unsettled suggests that what we think is solid might not be, and dares us as viewers and artists to peek beneath the surface of what we consider normal.
co-currated by Michael Merry and Patrick Koziol, two currentUniveristy of Delaware MFA students
Featuring:
Susan Camp
Erica Eyres
Alex Fogt
Brandon Jones
Patrick Koziol
Michael Merry
Cindy Stockton Moore
Josh Nobiling
Andrew Prayzner
Elaine Quave
Troy Richards Terri Saulin
Jacob Smiley
Adam Parker Smith
Lindsay Wraga
September 7 – December 4, 2011
Reception: Wednesday, September 7, 6-8PM
Exhibition walkthrough with curator Ingrid Schaffner: Wednesday,
September 7, 5PM, ICA Members Only
The Institute of Contemporary Art presents Bill Walton's Studio
in the Project Space. This exhibition recreates the unique environment
of the minimalist artist, a key figure in the Philadelphia art community
for nearly 50 years.
Walton, a commercial printmaker by trade and later an instructor at
Moore College of Art and Design (1974-1990), was often more interested
in the materials used for printmaking—wood, lead, steel—than in the
finished product. His studio contained an exhibition area so he could
display his work in progress in order to judge whether or not it was
finished, a crucial part of his studio practice. At the time of his
death in 2010, Walton's studio was a small miracle of order.
Tools and materials were arranged as carefully as works of art. Indeed
it was not always simple to tell the tools from the work, to judge
whether an artful arrangement of screws and bolts was waiting to be used
or to be admired.
ICA's exhibition catalogues, transfers, and displays the elements of
Walton's studio, from finished work to workbench to cassette tapes and
coffee cups. Using plywood slats and weathering techniques, ICA
faithfully re-creates the studio's painted wooden floor, down to the
way Walton filled the seams in the area that was his exhibition space.
In today's art world, where so many artists work digitally and conceptually,
this installation gives visitors insight into the hands-on, craft-oriented
way a traditional artist hones his craft. This exhibition is organized by
ICA Senior Curator Ingrid Schaffner, and is accompanied by a brochure
publication.
RELATED PUBLIC PROGRAMS
Sunday, December 4, 2pm
Bill Walton: Gifting the Studio
Share memories, receive ephemera, and help complete the transfiguration
of Bill Walton, a key figure in the Philadelphia art community for nearly fifty
years. Hear how his animating spirit affects artists working today as ICA's
recreation of his unique studio environment prepares to close.
ICA is grateful to the Edna W. Andrade Fund of The Philadelphia Foundation for their generous support. We acknowledge the generous sponsorship of Barbara B. & Theodore R. Aronson for the exhibition brochure, and are grateful to the Dolfinger-McMahon Foundation for funding public educational programs in conjunction with this project. Additional support has been provided by The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation; The Dietrich Foundation, Inc.; the Overseers Board for the Institute of Contemporary Art; friends and members of ICA; and the University of Pennsylvania. General operating support provided, in part, by the Philadelphia Cultural Fund. ICA receives state arts funding support through a grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency. We are grateful to John Ollman and the Fleisher/Ollman Gallery for their in-kind support. ICA acknowledges Le Meridien Philadelphia as our official UnLock Art partner hotel.
images: (Top, middle left and right): Bill Walton's Studio, 2011, Philadelphia. Photo
by Karen Mauch. (Bottom): Bill Walton,Untitled, n.d. clamp, brass, aluminum, copper,
4 1/2 x 3 1/2 x 7 1/2 inches. Collection of Kirk Kirkpatrick and John Wind.
Two-years in the making, Continua is a systems-based project that explores
the foundational aspect of color as a continuous and singular element that is
fragmented into formalized units of three-dimensionally parceled space using
hand-dyed Philadelphia phonebooks.
CONTINUA will be presented as a site-specific installation at 319 N. 11th Street, 2nd Floor, September 2nd through October 7th, 2011.
Opening Reception September 2nd, 4-9pm. Closing Reception October 7th, 4-9pm.
Open gallery hours Wednesdays and Fridays, 12-6pm. And by appointment.
Below you will find links to important documents for the Projects in Clay class.
Please click HERE for the Syllabus and weekly calendar.
Some notes about supplies can be found here.
For our first week's discussion, we will talk about the first two assignments;
Project #1:Metamorphosis and Project #2: Hybrid Forms.
Below, please find some artists that we will examine and discuss in class.
Please re-visit the slide shows as you continue to work on your projects. Click on the links provided. These will direct you to several video biographies, articles and artist statements that are required viewing/reading for class discussion and development of your individual research project.
CLASS 1: 8/31/11
Demo: Slab, pinch, and coil building / hollowing out a solid construction
Assign: Students will develop a progression of five or more forms that "morph" from organic to machine made, or conversely.
HOMEWORK DUE
Class 2: 9/7/2011
Design one Hybrid Form
Based on exploration of the five forms progression and further research, students will design a "hybrid form."
Please bring a quality drawing of the proposed form, formatted to hang, to class on 9/8/10.
The drawings will be hung for discussion, so ideas can be refined and building techniques discussed.
We will review 5 forms that demonstrate a progression from organic to machine made.
Consider the following: content, form development, rotation axis and mass.
PROJECT #1 Metamorphosis:
This exercise will introduce students to various building techniques and to push the boundaries of what clay will "do." It is intended to prepare students for construction of larger objects. Students will begin with one inorganic object and morph it into an organic object in five or more stages. (Think about making a mold of one or more of the resulting objects for later use.)
Project #5: INDIVIDUAL RESEARCH PROJECT: (Semester Long)
This project should actually be considered #1!
Presentations will be at the end of the semester. Artists will be added to this section frequently, so check back regularly! Students should feel free to post links of interesting articles to this section as well.
As mandated by the department, each student must complete an individual research project for every course. You will be provided with a variety of artists from which you can choose on the blog. You are also encouraged to explore other artists works on your own. Students will choose three artists. (The artists don’t all necessarily have to be visual artists) This choice should be given great consideration, because not only will you be spending a great deal of time with these artists in the course of your research, but because you will also be expected to tie some aspect of these artist’s working methods (directly or indirectly) to at least one of the pieces you will produce for this class over the course of the semester. It is extremely important that you take the time right away to begin your search. Be sure you locate three artists who you really find provoke an emotional response from you. Do your research in earnest. Delve deeply into forming a real and unique critical understanding of the relevance of the work to your own current understanding, taste and interests. Remember that these are the issues on which you should concentrate. This is not to be a report, in which you will relay a condensed biography, a series of facts or an amalgam of writings by art critics and historians. The nature of the assignment is to achieve a personal, critical dialog with the artist and the work. This is a semester-long project, and the quality and depth of your work should reflect this time frame.
The specific requirements of this research assignment are:
1. A short (minimum of 2 pages) written paper/essay.
2. A Power Point (or other digital-based projection program) presentation of not less than 10,
and not more than 25 images to your subject.
3. Towards the end of the semester, each student will be required to give a brief presentation
(10 to 15 minutes) about their subject.
