Hamilton Gallery’s latest exhibit features three contemporary ceramic artists
The Dorrance H. Hamilton Gallery recently opened “Cursive and Clay,” a group exhibition that highlights the work of three contemporary ceramic artists and educators from New England: Justin Gerace, Kathy King and Stephanie Lanter.
The union of written text and ceramic form can be traced back to the ancient world. From the earliest clay tokens and cuneiform tablets, a vast array of “cursive and clay” amalgams has emerged that includes coins, tiles, buttons, pottery and more. This exhibition reflects on that rich history by exploring the innovative treatment of text, writing, graffiti, pictographs, inscriptions, and other forms of cursive expression in ceramics today.
Justin Gerace, an adjunct lecturer in ceramics at Salve, injects the grittiness of urban life into functional ceramics. Drawing inspiration from the lyrical storytelling of hip-hop and the graffitied environments of the city, Gerace depicts a landscape at full boil, one bubbling over with juxtapositions of imagery and text. His stoneware platters and vases become active receptacles for his lived experience and his observations on social and political unrest.
A work by Justin Garace
Cultural issues and personal narratives enliven the ceramic vessels of Kathy King. Trained as printmaker, King employs a range of subtractive drawing and carving methods on thrown porcelain. Her work constructs charged relationships between text and image while navigating the politics and poetics of identity from a feminist point of view. Kathy King is director of the ceramics program and visual arts initiatives at the Office for the Arts at Harvard University.
Stephanie Lanter’s layered ceramic sculptures often spring from her own writing and meditation on a single word or phrase. Lanter interrogates language to the point of its embodiment. By contemplating the dimensions of each utterance, she coaxes handwritten liquid clay to deform, coagulate and blossom into new dynamic states of expression and solid form. Lanter is associate professor of ceramics at the University of Harford Art School.
A work by Stephanie Lanter
The Dorrance H. Hamilton Gallery is located in the Antone Academic Center on the campus of Salve Regina. It is a fully accessible space with parking along Lawrence Avenue and Leroy Avenue. “Cursive and Clay” is open to the public Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.; Wednesdays and Fridays from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.; and Saturdays and Sundays from Noon to 4:00 p.m. The gallery is closed on Mondays and November 22 -27 for the Thanksgiving holiday.
