Contemporary American Studio Potter Exhibits Works at Erie Art Museum
Erie, PA, June 27, 2009 --(PR.com)-- Studio potter Kurt Weiser gives new life to the centuries-old tradition of painting china. His beautiful teapots and jars will be on view at the Erie Art Museum’s Main Gallery, 411 State Street, June 26 through Sept. 13, 2009.
Eden Revisited: The Ceramic Art of Kurt Weiser is comprised of approximately 40 ceramic sculptures and several drawings illustrating Weiser’s signature style that fuses the art of ceramics with advanced china-painting techniques. Weiser’s porcelain vessels range from classically inspired lidded jars and teapots to unique mounted globes that are richly decorated with otherworldly imagery, full of allegorical and mythological references and lush landscapes.
Weiser’s figures, often nude and distorted across the planes of his vessels, move through steamy, Eden-like landscapes, interacting with the natural world they encounter. Themes of lust, predation, scientific curiosities, and the vulnerability of both man and nature abound in these scenes, resonating curiously with the cultivated vessel forms and refined medium Weiser has chosen. Combined together, Weiser’s vesses become three- dimensional paintings and are some of the most captivating work being done in ceramics today.
“The ideas and subjects of these paintings on the pots are for the most part just a collection of my own history of fantasy and view of reality,” said Weiser. “They are built the same way we dream: around a central idea, a cast of other characters and environments that just seem to show up to complete the picture.”
Weiser (b. 1950) was born in Lansing, Mi., studied ceramics under Ken Fergusen at the Kansas City Art Institute from 1972-76, then completed an MFA at the University of Michigan. His work is in the collections of Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Smithsonian Institutions’ National Museum of American Art, the National Museum of History in Taiwan, the Museum of Contemporary Ceramic Art and Institute of Ceramics in Shigaraki, Japan, the Los Angeles County Art Museum, Carnegie Mellon University and others.
Eden Revisited: The Ceramic Art of Kurt Weiser was organized by the Arizona State University Art Museum Ceramics Research Center and curated by Curator of Ceramics Peter Held. This exhibit was made possible with the support of the Windgate Charitable Foundation’s Artist’s Exhibition Fund, which allowed for the catalogue and underwriting to all the museums hosting this exhibition.
The exhibition has traveled to museums and galleries throughout the United States.
About Community Programming
In conjunction with Eden Revisited: The Ceramic Art of Kurt Weiser, the Erie Art Museum’s ceramic arts facility ClaySpace will conduct a series of free, hands-on workshops for all ages at the Erie Summer Festival of the Arts, June 26-28, Discover Presque Isle, July 24-26, CelebrateErie, August 14-16, Gallery Night, August 21 and Nouveau, August 28. Free admission passes to the Museum and exhibition will be distributed at each of these community events.
ClaySpace offers pottery classes for all ages and ability levels. Also offered are inexpensive studios with access to wheels, slab roller, clay mixer and pay-as-you-go firing fees. All ClaySpace instructors are professional artists who love to teach. Programs offered include studio potter classes for kids and adults, independent study in ceramic arts, private studios, and group & birthday parties.
About the Erie Art Museum
The Erie Art Museum anchors downtown Erie’s cultural and economic revitalization, occupying a group of restored mid-19th century commercial buildings, including an outstanding 1839 Greek Revival Bank. It maintains an ambitious program of 15 to 18 changing exhibitions annually, embracing a wide range of subjects, both historical and contemporary and including folk art, contemporary craft, multi-disciplinary installations, community-based work, as well at traditional media.
The Erie Art Museum also holds a collection of over 6,000 objects, which includes significant works in American ceramics, Tibetan painting, Indian bronzes, contemporary baskets, and a variety of other categories.
The Museum offers a wide range of education programs and artists’ services including interdisciplinary and interactive school tours and a wide variety of classes for the community. Performing arts are showcased in the 24-year-old Contemporary Music Series, which represents national and international performers of serious music with an emphasis on composer/performers, and a popular annual two-day Blues & Jazz festival.
The Erie Art Museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. Admission is free for members, free on Wednesdays, $4 for adults, $3 for senior citizens and students and $2 for children under 12.
For additional information on the Erie Art Museum, visit online at http://www.erieartmuseum.org/ or call (814) 459-5477.
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Eden Revisited: The Ceramic Art of Kurt Weiser is comprised of approximately 40 ceramic sculptures and several drawings illustrating Weiser’s signature style that fuses the art of ceramics with advanced china-painting techniques. Weiser’s porcelain vessels range from classically inspired lidded jars and teapots to unique mounted globes that are richly decorated with otherworldly imagery, full of allegorical and mythological references and lush landscapes.
Weiser’s figures, often nude and distorted across the planes of his vessels, move through steamy, Eden-like landscapes, interacting with the natural world they encounter. Themes of lust, predation, scientific curiosities, and the vulnerability of both man and nature abound in these scenes, resonating curiously with the cultivated vessel forms and refined medium Weiser has chosen. Combined together, Weiser’s vesses become three- dimensional paintings and are some of the most captivating work being done in ceramics today.
“The ideas and subjects of these paintings on the pots are for the most part just a collection of my own history of fantasy and view of reality,” said Weiser. “They are built the same way we dream: around a central idea, a cast of other characters and environments that just seem to show up to complete the picture.”
Weiser (b. 1950) was born in Lansing, Mi., studied ceramics under Ken Fergusen at the Kansas City Art Institute from 1972-76, then completed an MFA at the University of Michigan. His work is in the collections of Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Smithsonian Institutions’ National Museum of American Art, the National Museum of History in Taiwan, the Museum of Contemporary Ceramic Art and Institute of Ceramics in Shigaraki, Japan, the Los Angeles County Art Museum, Carnegie Mellon University and others.
Eden Revisited: The Ceramic Art of Kurt Weiser was organized by the Arizona State University Art Museum Ceramics Research Center and curated by Curator of Ceramics Peter Held. This exhibit was made possible with the support of the Windgate Charitable Foundation’s Artist’s Exhibition Fund, which allowed for the catalogue and underwriting to all the museums hosting this exhibition.
The exhibition has traveled to museums and galleries throughout the United States.
About Community Programming
In conjunction with Eden Revisited: The Ceramic Art of Kurt Weiser, the Erie Art Museum’s ceramic arts facility ClaySpace will conduct a series of free, hands-on workshops for all ages at the Erie Summer Festival of the Arts, June 26-28, Discover Presque Isle, July 24-26, CelebrateErie, August 14-16, Gallery Night, August 21 and Nouveau, August 28. Free admission passes to the Museum and exhibition will be distributed at each of these community events.
ClaySpace offers pottery classes for all ages and ability levels. Also offered are inexpensive studios with access to wheels, slab roller, clay mixer and pay-as-you-go firing fees. All ClaySpace instructors are professional artists who love to teach. Programs offered include studio potter classes for kids and adults, independent study in ceramic arts, private studios, and group & birthday parties.
About the Erie Art Museum
The Erie Art Museum anchors downtown Erie’s cultural and economic revitalization, occupying a group of restored mid-19th century commercial buildings, including an outstanding 1839 Greek Revival Bank. It maintains an ambitious program of 15 to 18 changing exhibitions annually, embracing a wide range of subjects, both historical and contemporary and including folk art, contemporary craft, multi-disciplinary installations, community-based work, as well at traditional media.
The Erie Art Museum also holds a collection of over 6,000 objects, which includes significant works in American ceramics, Tibetan painting, Indian bronzes, contemporary baskets, and a variety of other categories.
The Museum offers a wide range of education programs and artists’ services including interdisciplinary and interactive school tours and a wide variety of classes for the community. Performing arts are showcased in the 24-year-old Contemporary Music Series, which represents national and international performers of serious music with an emphasis on composer/performers, and a popular annual two-day Blues & Jazz festival.
The Erie Art Museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. Admission is free for members, free on Wednesdays, $4 for adults, $3 for senior citizens and students and $2 for children under 12.
For additional information on the Erie Art Museum, visit online at http://www.erieartmuseum.org/ or call (814) 459-5477.
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Contact
Erie Art Museum
Tammy Roche
814-459-5477
erieartmuseum.org
Tammy Roche
814-459-5477
erieartmuseum.org
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