'Crafting a Continuum: Rethinking Contemporary Craft'
An example from "Crafting a Continuum: Rethinking Contemporary Craft," “Tied Up #62” (2010), glazed stoneware with cord by Steen Ipsen. (Photo by Craig Smith, Courtesy of Arizona State University Art Museum and Ceramics Research Center.)
The Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art (NEHMA), a part of Utah State University’s Caine College of the Arts, presents Crafting a Continuum: Rethinking Contemporary Craft, an exhibit opening Jan. 23 and on view through April 18 at the museum. Additionally, an opening reception is Jan. 23 from 7-9 p.m. at the museum and held in conjunction with Arts Week 2015, a week-long celebration of the arts and the Caine College of the Arts.
Crafting a Continuum: Rethinking Contemporary Craft features more than 60 works in wood, ceramic and fiber. It provides an international perspective on craft innovations from the past 50 years. There is an emphasis on recent work by artists exploring craft through a powerful blend of material, process and concept. The collection of work shown is from Arizona State University Art Museum and includes emerging artists, including Sonya Clark, Anders Ruhwald, Mark Newport and Alison Elizabeth Taylor alongside influential, established artists that include Peter Voulkos, Ed Moulthrop and Dorothy Gill Barnes.
The exhibition is organized by the Arizona State University Art Museum and Ceramics Research Center in Tempe, Ariz., and is curated by associate director and senior curator Heather Sealy Lineberry and curator of ceramics Peter Held with assistance from the Windgate Curatorial Fellow Elizabeth Kozlowski.
In conjunction with the exhibition, the NEHMA will also host a symposium and film screening. The symposium, Contextualizing Craft and Design, is Jan. 30-31 and is free and open to the public. Keynote speaker Jenni Sorkin, assistant professor of contemporary art and material culture from the University of California, Santa Barbara, speaks at 7 p.m. Jan. 30. Continuing Jan. 31 from 8 a.m.-5 p.m., the symposium explores historical and contemporary dialogues in American studio craft and design, providing a platform for varied perspectives within these fields.
Selections from the Craft in America PBS film series will be screened at the museum Feb. 27 at 7 p.m. The film series explores the vitality, history and significance of the craft movement in the United States and its impact on the nation’s rich cultural heritage. Capturing the beauty, creativity and originality of craftsmanship, the films highlight artists and explores the inter-relationship of what they do, how they do it and why they have chosen a life of creating art.
As a component of the Caine College of Arts, the NEHMA is dedicated to collecting and exhibiting modern and contemporary visual art to promote dialogue about ideas fundamental to contemporary society and provide meaningful engagement with art from the 20th and 21st centuries to support the educational mission of Utah State University. NEHMA also provides programs that include lectures, panels, tours and symposia to serve USU as well as the local and regional community.
The museum is located in the Chase Fine Arts Center complex at Utah State University and is free and open to the public Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. For more information and a complete schedule, visit the museum’s website.
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Writer: Whitney Schulte, 435-797-9203, whitney.schulte@usu.edu
Contact: Denise Albiston, 435-797-1500, denise.albiston@usu.edu
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