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Ingram discusses his exhibition “… through line …” comprised of mixed media drawings, photo collages and sculptural elements reflecting a decade of research into Modernist art, architecture and design.

The exhibition continues through March 13.

Solomon Projects
1037 Monroe Dr.
Atlanta, Ga. 30309

MudFire Gallery hosts “The Curved Canvas”, a three-artist exhibition and sale which takes place Saturday, February 13, 2010. Ryan McKerley of Austin, TX, joins MudFire resident artists Erik Haagensen and Luba Sharapan in filling the gallery with studio pottery noteworthy for lively surface compositions. All three create wheel-thrown functional forms and invest significant time in crafting compelling surfaces.

The exhibit’s opening celebration includes an artist reception, studio tours, and live wheel-throwing demonstrations by McKerley. The exhibit and sale will take place all weekend, with work remaining on display through February 21.

The exhibit, open house, and demonstrations are part of a large annual arts event, Rail Arts District Studio Cruise that takes place on February 13. Over 100 artists will be featured at neighborhood venues during the RAD Studio Cruise, with demonstrations, studio tours, refreshments and entertainment at every stop.

ABOUT THE EXHIBIT

The Curved Canvas exhibit includes three radically different approaches to surface on functional forms. Texture, text, stencils, collage, relief, and line are used to compose in the round. In these artists’ hands, clay, or rather the clay object, becomes the blank slate for both additive and subtractive methods of laying down imagery. In this sense the act of throwing pots is really a preparatory step, the stretching or spinning of canvases.

Ryan McKerley is known for his use of water-carving to reveal pattern, texture, and depth lurking within the previously-smooth walls of freshly thrown pots. He favors built-up (really down) layers of geometric shapes and organic lines, and fires in atmospheric kilns for subtle glaze variations that break across textures and emphasize depth. The end result is a blend in stark geometry, flowing masses, and a weathered finish. He has been a studio potter for 15 years, and has been published, taught workshops, and exhibited nationally. His work has been featured on the cover of Ceramics Monthly.

Erik Haagensen’s intricately detailed and quirky artwork features absurdist humor, out-of-this-world characters, and snippets of text – all drawn by hand with a loosely cartooned style. His odd, irreverent drawings and bright accent colors float across one of the most ancient and revered of traditional Japanese glazes, a white shino glaze, forming an intentionally unlikely alliance between tradition and the contemporary. Haagensen exhibits in fine craft galleries throughout the Southeast, and regularly curates and juries indoor and outdoor art shows. His work and writings have appeared in both Ceramics Monthly and Clay Times.

Luba Sharapan creates meticulously thrown forms in a pure white clay body. She builds up surface with a painterly approach, using an extensive palette of rich hues applied thickly for texture. Her abstract color fields invite the eye and hand to turn and explore the work, occasionally discovering subdued collage of silhouettes and text, creating different moods ranging from humorous to foreboding, fanciful to nostalgic. Luba conceived and founded MudFire Clayworks and has grown it into one of the nation’s most prominent community ceramic studios. Her journey in clay was documented in a People Magazine cover article, and she and her artwork have been featured on Playboy Channel, Blue Collar TV, NBC, The WB, Fox, Discovery Channel, HGTV and others.

MudFire Clayworks and Gallery
175 Laredo Drive
Decatur, GA 30030

“Folium darwinii” Printmaking Exhibit

Thirty-Five Artists from the Atlanta Printmakers Studio and Asheville Bookworks created hand-pulled prints responding to the life and ideas of Charles Darwin. These prints were put together as the “Folium darwinii” print portfolio, and will be exhibited for the first time at the Seen Gallery in Decatur, Georgia.

2009 commemorated the bicentenary of Darwin’s birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of Origin of the Species. In celebration of the discoveries and life of Charles Darwin we asked our participants to respond to his life story, his scientific ideas and their impact on the modern world and artistic practice. The exchange title, Folium darwinii alludes to binomial nomenclature used to name and identify species. The Latin names are in two parts: the first part designating the genus to which it belongs and the second to the species itself. “Folium darwinii” is therefore a play-on-words, “Darwin’s leaves”, a synonym of paper, printmaking’s traditional support

The portfolio presents a wide range of traditional and non-traditional printmaking processes used singularly and in combination: relief, collagraph, monoprinting, letterpress, intaglio, silkscreen, lithography, and photo transfer methods. Folium darwinii is a technically and conceptually rich collection of images traversing the elegant, fantastical, the humorous, and introspective. The participating artists explore the beauty and complexity of the natural world and man’s place within this system. In addition to the prints on exhibit, catalogues of the portfolio will be available for purchase

The artists in the portfolio are: Daniel Allegrucci, Peery Angelika, Bill Clements, Dale Clifford, Laurie Corral, Gwen Diehn, Terri Dilling, Jan DiPietro, Martha Ebener, Eric Elliot, Andrea Emmons, Jonathan Fisher, Teri M. Fleming, Katherine Garrou, Nancy Maxwell Goldberg, Pedro A. Gonzalez, Toby Gordon, Alicia Griswold, Christopher Hickey, Jennifer M. High, Susan Ker-Seymer, Matt Liddle, Corrina Sephora Mensoff, Leslie Ann Pace Modena, Brian Randall, Richard E. Raschke, Gina Reynoso, Lisa Beth Robinson, Debrah Santini, Terry Schupbach-Gordon, Stephanie Smith, Gena VanDerKloot, John VanDerKloot, Judy Winograd, and Daryl White.

Through March 17.

The Seen Gallery
415 Church Street
Decatur, Georgia 30030