Magic Dirt Exhibition at The Contemporary Art Center in Virginia Beach

October 16-December 30, 2008

Richard Nickel is a local ceramic artist who addresses themes of love, power and absurdity through folk-art inspired pieces. Bright, fun and colorful slab constructions mimic traditional ceramic vessels and sculptural wall platters use figuration and pattern to draw narratives dealing with family dynamics and power structures.

Nickel’s clay works have been featured in several group and solo exhibitions including Cup: The Intimate Object IV, Fort Wayne, ID; HALIZO Art Festival, Norfolk, VA and The Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art, Biloxi, Mississippi. His work has been seen in multiple publications including Clay Times, 500 Animals in Clay and Ceramics Monthly. Currently he is Associate Professor and Program Director of Art Education and Ceramics at Old Dominion University. image: Richard Nickel, The Visionary, 2008.

Images of the Magic Dirt Opening at the Contemporary Art Center:

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Gordon Art Galleries Features “Stories from the Earth” Exhibit

An opening reception for “Stories from the Earth, Voices of Contemporary Ceramic Artists,” the latest exhibition at Old Dominion University’s Baron and Ellin Gordon Art Galleries, will be held from 3-5 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 7. The exhibit, which had a soft opening Aug. 9, continues through Sept. 14.

“Stories from the Earth” offers a selection of work by prominent American artists that speaks to individual viewers, prompting them to relate their experiences to the experiences present in the narrative works of each of the artists.

Richard Nickel, associate professor of ceramics, curates the exhibition, which features recent works by Erin Furimsky, Carrianne Hendrickson, Marlene Jack, Lori Mills, Beth Lo, Virginia Scotchie, Carol Schwartz, Michaeline Walsh, Jenny Mendes and Anna Freeman. Each artist, using a wide variety of storytelling, explores personal views on a variety of topics, from relationships between significant others to childhood memories. Personal symbols are carved, molded painted and thrown onto each form.

Hendrickson’s seemingly innocent work implies subtle sinister meanings. These works contain dark undertones, according to Hendrickson, as a “symbolic reflection of the human condition as being both good and evil, and thick with all of its many dark and mysterious facets.”

Furimsky, winner of a National Council for Education in Ceramics Emerging Artists Award, uses complex patterning and ceramic decals in her well-crafted sculptures. Through these highly decorative works she addresses notions of beauty and sweetness that might define “women’s art” for those who do not know better, according to Nickel.

In her ceramic sculpture, Walsh uses color and image associated with childhood to explore the complexities of memory. The sense of “sweetness and pleasure felt in seeing or recalling certain objects or experiences often intermingle with feelings of sadness, loss and regret,” she says.

Scotchie explores the narrative of time and its ability to transform the familiar.”The worn, crusty surfaces on many of the pieces are created to give a sense of how time acts to make and unmake a form,” Nickel says.

Schwartz uses domestic settings as backdrops to her animated slices of life. Focusing on relationships with lovers and friends, she memorializes sweet moments we often forget in her humorous colorful sculptures.

The Baron and Ellin Gordon Art Galleries, located at 4509 Monarch Way, Norfolk, is open 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday. The exhibition and reception are free and open to the public. For more information call 683-6271.

Stories From the Earth: Voices of Contemporary Ceramic Artists
reception was this last sunday from 3-5.

We had about 130 folks at the exhibit. I would like to thank all the artists who exhibit.
your work has been a valuable learning experience for our students.

Love’s Labor Reception at Mayer Fine Art Gallery in Norfolk
Thanks to those folks who showed up! Had a great opening. I sold my favorite painting and several other works. My work is off to Art Santa Fe next with Shelia for the exhibition July 10th-13th.

Mural Painting before the ODU Gallery opening:

2008 Spring SPCA Auction

Images from Shaking the Baby Tree exhibition at Rawls Musum Arts in Courtland VA.

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