My sculpture titled Green Current was selected for this show.

Big Red Boot and Sunshine Dancer were accepted into this show, juried by Wayne Higby, Head of Ceramics Dept at Alfred University

I was accepted for a 6 week residency at c.r.e.t.a. Rome in summer 2015. An awesome place to visit and make art!

From BIGREDANDSHINY.org

Art of the Northeast. Courtesy of Silvermine Arts Center.


Deceivingly Simple, Decidedly Unplugged: A Review of Art of the Northeast
BY SARAH FRITCHEY ON JULY 23, 2015

In its 65th year, Art of the Northeast, on view through July 26th at Silvermine Arts Center, is unplugged. Out of the eighty-five works in the show, none are new media. Forty-two works are paintings, eleven are prints, six are drawings, three are ceramic vessels, three incorporate fabric/textiles, and one is a porcelain sculpture. Overall, the selected objects both possess a strong physical presence, and reference the history of modern art and design. This focus on materiality hones in on the sensibilities of the show’s co-jurors, Michelle Grabner and Brad Killam.


Silvermine Gallery Director, Jeffrey Mueller, was drawn to Grabner and Killam’s artist-centricity, which mirrors Silvermine’s operating model and founding philosophy. In 1908, sculptor Solon Borglum established the rural region as an alternative place for artists to gather. Fourteen years later, twelve artist-residents formed a Guild. In 1924, the establishment of the Silvermine School of Art followed, attracting the likes of Milton Avery, Helen Frankenthaler, and Merce Cunningham, who took positions as teachers.

While Grabner and Killam “didn’t know a lot about Silvermine before participating in the show”, they recognized the list of founding artists, and reputable curators who had juried the Art of the Northeast in the past. Similarly, the pair was unfamiliar with the majority of the applicants. “This aspect of the show being democratic is important,” Mueller explained. “It’s about the work more than the name of the person behind it.” To ensure that the strongest work made it into the exhibition, Silvermine facilitated a two-part review process, which involved bringing the Grabner and Killam’s computer-juried selections into the gallery space, so they could assess whether each piece physically held up.

Grabner and Killam attracted artists who share their interest in the tension between fine arts and modern craft. Mueller explains, “Each year, the guest juror defines the show,” says Mueller. “Last year, Andrew Russeth was attracted to works that expressed an immediacy. In 2013, David Ross selected a lot of new media pieces. This year the works make you really stop…and think through just how they were produced. Production is an integral part of the work.”

Joan Zagrobelny’s ceramic vessels from the Abundance Series exemplify Mueller’s point. They are masterful objects, hand built with coils. Their size (roughly that of the female torso) is impossibly smooth, and their refined finish recalls the work of Ken Price. In contrast to the messy clay pieces that dominated New York’s Frieze Art Fair this year, the work demonstrates restraint, control and an intuitive process that the artist describes on her website as “paying attention and following where the clay wants me to go.” A lively tension arises between the potential for machine perfection and the introduction of human irregularity through touch.


ABOUT AUTHOR
SARAH FRITCHEY

Sarah Fritchey is a curator and writer based in New Haven, CT. She is the full-time Curator/Gallery Director at Artspace New Haven, and a contributor to ArtForum.com, Art New England Magazine, and The Fairfield Courant/Hartford Advocate.