Pewabic Exhibition Schedule
2008 Shows

Until the rise of complex societies which in turn developed ritualized dining habits, dishes specialized for specific foods did not exist.

These days, even though many of us dine from frozen dinners, and eat out, we seem to still be adding to the list of specialized serving and presentation ware: hence the recent craze for long narrow olive dishes and the ubiquitous chips and dips combination plates.

This exhibition exhibits some of the variety of specialized shapes developed by a small group of potters to serve or display specific foods, or to reference idiomatic shapes as ideas of food containers; a more conceptual approach to the theme.

March will feature the one-person show of Recent Works: the Still Life Series by Anat Shiftan. She says of her new work: I explore the subject of ambivalence in floral and zoological imagery, the representation of nature in art: the texture of sexuality, life and death, and power and subversion, all which ultimately reflect complex political and social attitudes. Rather than working from nature, I work from historic representations of nature to imply that I am not sure if NATURE is there to be seen anymore. I am interested in that moment where skillful application of technique and image become significant and where the ornamental and the decorative become a visual language and gain a critical voice. I expect my work to reveal the fine line between the beauty and corruption of nature, as well as our obsession and fascination with that ambivalence. I use the images of nature as a vehicle for self-awareness and reflection.

In the spring Six Ceramic Artists: Pioneers of the German Studio Craft Movement, by guest curator, Linda Ross (formerly of The Sybaris Gallery, Royal Oak) will open on May 9. The exhibition will focus on the careers of six artists who have been part of the German ceramic art scene since the late 1950s. Beate Kuhn, Georg Hohlt, Ursula and Karl Scheid and Gotlind and Gerald Weigel are six of the country’s leading vessel makers – men and women whose works demonstrate the range and depth of expression of a potter’s art. Their influence on other German potters in the decades following WWII was immense. Associations with the Bauhaus, Bernard Leach, Lucie Rie, Hans Coper, Ruth Duckworth and Rosenthal pottery abound.

In 1969 five of the six participants along with Margarete Schott, who passed away in 2004 at the age of 93, exhibited their work at Henry Rothschild’s London gallery, Primavera. This was a remarkable exhibition for several reasons: it was probably one of the first exhibitions of the work of German potters in England since the end of WWII, the work was very different from that of Bernard Leach whose influence reigned in England at the time where even the ceramics of the British artists Lucie Rie and Hans Coper seemed foreign and because the invitation to exhibit came from a man whose family had fled Germany to escape death. After this historic event, the London Group as they came to be known formed a cooperative and they exhibited off and on together throughout the world until 1999 on the occasion of Karl Scheid’s 70th birthday. The show at Pewabic will mark the group’s first U.S. debut. Georg Hohlt, another pioneer of the German studio craft movement whose work is also internationally recognized, will join the original five members for what promises to be a historically significant event.

One of the great Pewabic Summer traditions – one that both the public and staff eagerly look forward to (like our summer kids camp Passport to Pottery) – is our Annual Staff and Student Show. The opening in July will mark its 32nd year. The excitement is hard to contain, just waiting to see the latest creations from the year by our staff and students. A former student and staff person remember: “I started as a student in 1976 when Pewabic was with Michigan State. Jim Powell always put together a student show and I think there has always been one ever since. I think when Mary Roehm (working date c 1985-1991) first started working at Pewabic is when we started to have student and staff shows.”

And lastly, Texting: Print and Clay: Prints and Text on Clay will open next September. This exhibition will focus on the application of various printmaking techniques in combination with ceramics; its use in history dates from the Langshan period in China (c. 2500 b c) to Golden Era in Greece to contemporary Zulu and Kuba cultures in Africa. The combination of print and clay has a long association and has been used both as a decorative element and as a technique to impart conceptual depth.