Ceramics Visiting Artist Matthew McGovern on Monday, March 19, 2012
Presentation, Workshop & Critique: 2pm – 5pm @ Ceramics Studio
Matthew McGovern received a BFA in 1997 from Maine College of Art, Portland, ME, and a MFA in 2007 from Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH. He has taught at Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH, Northland College, Ashland, WI, as well as Ardmore Ceramics, Kwa Zulu Natal, South Africa. Matthew has been awarded the title of Emerging Artist by Ceramics Monthly in 2010 (http://ceramicartsdaily.org/ceramic-art-and-artists/ceramic-artists/matthew-mcgovern-emerging-artist-2010).
Artist Statement: The inherent plasticity of clay, the fluidity of the slip, the unpredictable nature of the glaze, and the surface-altering atmosphere of the soda kiln are all reflected in my functional pots. I am drawn in by the details of a form that allude to the story of its creation: fingerprints, dents, the rhythm and pattern of articulated slip trailing and of the impressions of different tools. Within the atmospheric soda firing, the glaze shifts from matte to shiny with a gradating pattern of crystal growth in between, imbuing the surface with a visually intoxicating effect. I do not seek to hide my process, but to embrace and extol it, capturing the texture of change. In this sense, I see my work as a direct reflection of the transformative processes we go through in life… www.mcgovernpottery.com
More Information: http://ceramicartsdaily.org/ceramic-art-and-artists/functional-pottery/matthew-mcgovern-glen-arbor-michigan/?floater=99
Fall 2010 GVSU Ceramics Visiting Artist: ALANNA DEROCCHI_Sabbatical Replacement
+ MFA, Ceramic Art: NYSCC @ Alfred University, Alfred, NY 2010
+ Post Baccalaureate Student- Ceramics: California State University Long Beach, Long Beach, CA 2005-2008
+ BFA, Ceramic Art: Western Illinois University, Macomb, IL 2004
I can't imagine feeling anything but detachment from something I myself did not witness. The only things I know for sure come from what was personally seen and experienced, and anything short of that is disconnected - surprisingly unknown and almost imaginary. The frustration from this has generated a desperate sense to not forget the things encountered in life and a desire to be a part of and make memories of things in the natural world that are mysterious and unfamiliar. The result becomes my work, which is a visual response and sincere exploration of this distance and estrangement felt from the world around me. It is a relentless search for a grounding- a way to create a connection, a history, to this world, however unnatural it may become, through my own observations and fragments of memory.
Through my installations I want the viewer to feel unsettled, but not through a visually deceptive illusion. The scale, fragmentation, and odd appearance of the animals/ furniture are intended to shift perception from the ordinary and disturb the connection to the familiar. The constructed displays are interpretations of natural history museum diorama staging and are meant to question the viewer's placement in their surroundings. By raising the work off the floor it is out of one's common ground. Some of the subjects confuse time by appearing in arrested motion. The installation often limits sight lines by framing the three-dimensional pieces in a seemingly two-dimensional scene as to be observed at a distance. The drawing and painting of the ceramic surface is meant to reflect my attraction to early nature drawings/prints and unfinished paintings, in an investigation of some grey area of what is real and not- where focus remains and memory is blurred.
website:alanna derocchi
2010 GVSU Ceramics Visiting Artist Presentation & Critique
Del Harrow, Assistant Professor
The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA
Monday, April 19, 2010 @ 11:00am - 4:30pm
Del Harrow is an artist, originally from Portland Oregon. He has worked studied and shown work throughout the U.S., in Australia, Costa Rica, China and Holland. When seen as a whole his work forms a network of tangentially related ideas, intentionally eschewing a linear - formal development. Themes in his work include the individual mythologies of modern artists, visual and verbal systems of abstraction and classification, and an ongoing exploration of the relationship between images, and physical experience of objects and spaces. Harrow holds a BS from the University of Oregon, and an MFA from Alfred University. http://homepage.mac.com/delharrow1/
Frank Ettawageshik Pottery Workshop in conjunction with “Enduring Traditions: History and Meaning in Southwest Pueblo Indian Pottery”
Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2010 @ GVSU Ceramics StudioWhen Frank Ettawageshik (etta-wah-GHEE-shik) strolls through the north woods, he takes out more than he brought in. "This stuff is pretty valuable to me," said the Odawa (oh-DAH-wah) Indian man from the Grand Traverse Bay area, "and it's worthless to others." Ettawageshik, 44 at the time of this interview, was referring to clay and pulverized granite, gifts of the Earth with which he re-creates the traditional pottery the woodland Indians stopped making hundreds of years ago. In 1973, Ettawageshik began teaching pottery at the Keweenaw Bay Indian Tribal Center in Baraga. He wanted to teach techniques of his students' ancestors but could find no one who knew the methods. So he copied traditional pieces in the stoneware style he knew. Since then, Ettawageshik has removed all modern tools and devices from his Indain pot making, while his wife at this time, Mary Ann, had taken over the stoneware style for their store, Pipigwa Pottery & Gallery in Karlin. "The essence of the whole thing is the process," Frank Ettawageshik said, "being one and one with the Earth and the materials of the Earth." When he leaves the woods, with his bags full of granite, clay and wood for the fires, he turns back and says miigwech (ME-gwetch) which means "thank you" in the language of his people. Frank Ettawageshik searches through a quarry looking for granite so old that it crumbles. With permission of the property owners, he takes what he needs, grinds it into sand-like particles and mixes it with clay. He forms pots in the living room of his home adjacent to the store. Ettawageshik's methods are as close to those of his ancestors as he can make them. He uses knotted vines and roots to make designs and uses his fingers to pinch the pots to even out the thickness in areas. He fires the pots outdoors, using heat from burning wood. Everything he uses comes from the woods and Mother Earth. _ Parts taken from Hands Across Michigan: Tradition Bearers by Alan R. Kamuda (http://famousamericanindians4.homestead.com/FrankEttawageshik.html)
GVSU Ceramics & GVSU Contemporary Ceramics Association Visiting Artist: Dan Anderson
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 2:00pm - 4:30pm
The GVSU Contemporary Ceramics Association presents visiting artist Dan Anderson.
There will be a lecture from 2:00-3:00, in the sculpture room (CAC 1815), Demonstrations 3:00-4:20 in the ceramics studio (CAC 1422), and critiques with students from 4:30-6:00 in the Padnos Gallery.
For more on Dan Anderson, visit: http://www.akardesign.com/creators/moreinfo.asp?iCreatorID=72&iCategoryID=4
2009 GVSU Ceramics Visiting Artist Presentation & Critique
Timothy Berg, Assistant Professor
Pitzer College in Claremont, CA
www.timothyjohnberg.com
2008 GVSU Fall Arts Celebration: Ceramics Show
New Work by Korean Visiting Ceramic Artists-In-Residence
Soonjung Hong & Eunmee Lee
Soonjung Hong and Eunmee Lee both have their BFA & MFA from Ehwa Woman’s University in Seoul, Korea and they studied at the Istituto Statale d’Arte per la Ceramica in Faenza, Italy. Hong and Lee have had numerous solo and group exhibitions nationally as well as internationally including ‘The World Ceramic Biennale’, Korea; ‘Tradition Transformed’, Europe tour exhibition; and ‘From the Fire’, US tour exhibition. They are currently resident artists in the Heyri Art Valley and are working as ceramic artists in Korea.
Hoon Lee (Ceramics program Coordinator) is collaborating with Henry Matthews (Director, GVSU Art Gallery) to invite Korean Ceramic Artists, Soonjung Hong and Eunmee Lee in Fall 2008 for the GVSU International Ceramic Artist Workshop & Exhibition. The artists’ visit will enhance the Ceramics program, Art & Design Department, and the entire GVSU community. Hong and Lee will stay for 6 weeks and have a two person exhibition at the culmination of their stay while sharing ideas and inspirations, creating work, and participating in an ongoing intensive discourse about contemporary art within a supportive learning environment where relationships are mutually reinforcing. The primary benefit of the Fall 2008 GVSU International Ceramic Artist Workshop & Exhibition is the artist’s presence within the GVSU Ceramics studio, as visual art students will have the opportunity to learn by example. The students will be able to observe as well as converse and collaborate with established international artists as they process ideas from conception to completion.
Arts Calendar
Grand Valley State University
Fall Arts Celebration 2008
Art Gallery Exhibit
"Separation as Together: Soonjung Hong and Eunmee Lee, Korean Ceramists at GVSU"
In this premiere exhibition, renowned Korean artists present work created during the first GVSU International Ceramic Workshop. Both artists have exhibited extensively throughout Korea, China, the United States and Europe where the exhibition, "Tradition Transformed" continues to travel through 2009. Both artists have had their work in prestigious international ceramic competitions including, most recently, the World Ceramic Biennale in Yeojoo, Korea.
Opening Reception: Tuesday, October 7, 5-7 p.m.
Art Gallery, Performing Arts Center
Allendale Campus
Exhibit Open: October 7-31, 2008
For more information contact GVSU Director of Galleries and Collections Henry Matthews,
at (616) 331-3196, or visit www.gvsu.edu/fallarts.
GVSU exhibit merges art, cultures
Sunday, October 05, 2008
By Molly Kimelman
The Grand Rapids Press
ALLENDALE -- Grand Valley State University Art Gallery's newest exhibit fuses the artwork and cultures of two nations. "Separation as Together: Soonjung Hong and Eunmee Lee, Korean Ceramists" is the culmination of the university's inaugural International Ceramic Workshop and six-week artist-in-residency program. It started when Hoon Lee, GVSU's ceramics program coordinator, and Henry Matthews, its director of galleries and collections, traveled to Korea last year in search of ideal candidates for what would become the Ceramics Artist-In-Residency Program. They attended ceramics conferences, prominent ceramics residency programs, galleries and private artists' studios throughout the country, where ceramics is its most prestigious art form. "We visited as many as 20 different artists," Matthews said. "We met amazing people, saw incredible works of art. We concluded that these two ladies would be the best people to start with." Hong and Lee live and work together in Heyri, a village in the Paju Province of Korea. Both artists earned bachelor's degrees from the College of Fine Arts Ewha Womans University in Seoul, Korea, and master's degrees from the Graduate School of Ewha Womans University, also in Seoul. Together, they attended the Istituto Statale d'Arte per la Ceramica in Faenza, Italy. Their work is celebrated throughout Korea, China and the United States, where the artists often join forces along the gallery circuit. Works by both have appeared in competitive juried shows around the globe. Hong and Lee employ contrasting styles, but both artists blend ancient Korean techniques with modern ideas. When shown together, their work tends to encapsulate the scope of ceramics as a medium. Hong shapes delicate objects, while Lee enjoys molding rough, massive installation work. The ceramists arrived at GVSU in mid-August to begin working with art students. Their exhibition comes on the heels of Hoon Lee's "Function or Submarine: New Work by Hoon Lee," in which 20 of the fellow Korean-born coordinator's clay-and-porcelain vessels opened the gallery's fall season. In bringing Soonjung Hong and Eunmee Lee to GVSU, Hoon Lee aimed to inject the current ceramics program with a hands-on, collaborative experience for students. He described the artists' time here as "sharing ideas and inspirations, creating work and participating in an ... intensive discourse about contemporary art within a supportive learning environment where relationships are mutually reinforcing." According to Matthews, all of the items showcased in "Separation as Together" were hand-crafted inside GVSU's art department. The artists and students shared in the creation process. "(The show) will be just as new for me as it will be for everyone else," he said. Thus, organizers aren't certain how many items viewers will find once they step into the gallery. Matthews expects most of the pieces will be available for purchase. The exhibit's opening coincides with the university's annual Fall Arts Celebration, a festive ovation of music, art, literature, dance and poetry. An opening reception with the artists is 5-7 p.m. Tuesday in the gallery. Although the show runs through the end of October, Hong and Lee are scheduled to return to Korea following the artists' reception. "We're very fortunate in West Michigan to get artists of this caliber," Matthews said. "They've been a delight to work with, and I can't wait to see the exhibition."
If you go
When: Tuesday through Oct. 31
Where: Grand Valley State University Art Gallery, Performing Arts Center, Allendale campus
Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday, until 7 p.m. Thursday
More information: gvsu.edu/artgallery, 331-2563
Send e-mail to the author: yourlife@grpress.com
GVSU Contemporary Ceramics Association (CCA) Visiting Artist
Tom Lauerman & Shannon Goff
