exhibitions

Ulsan International Onggi Exposition,

Ulsan, South Korea,

Virginia Artists 2010 Juried Exhibition

The Charles H. Taylor Arts Center

Hampton, VA

Juror Nancy Sausser,

BODY AND SOUL

Baltimore ClayWorks

Baltimore MD.

Best Foot Forward” Benefit and Auction for Drew Johnson

Charlie Cummings  Gallery Gainesville, FL

Curator Charlie Cummings

Bread And Puppet The Decapitalization Circus & Nothing is Not Ready Pageant

Director Peter Schuman

CLAY IN A CAN EXHIBITION September 14 – November 13, 2010     Arts and Heritage Center North Augusta, SC
November 17- December 31, 2010 Point of Art Gallery Union Point, GA

January 6 – January 27, 2011  Aiken Center for the Arts www.aikencenterforthearts.org Aiken, SC

Curator Tom Supensky

The 3rd Lillstreet International

Juror: Steven Young Lee, Resident Artist Director, Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts, Helena, Montana.

Richard Nickel in National Juried Cup Exhibition At Lux Center for the Arts  April 2 – May 29 Opening Reception: April 2, 5-7pm

Linda Arbuckle juries LUX Center for the Arts’ second annual National Juried Cup Exhibition. Arbuckle is known for the luscious majolica surfaces on her functional ceramic wares. Arbuckle has taught ceramics at the University of Florida since 1992. This exhibition showcases the diverse expressions of functional and non-functional cups.

Clay on the Wall :: 2010 Clay National
January 19 – February 28, 2010

Juror :: Elaine Henry, Editor of Ceramics, Art, and Perception

Juror’s Essay | Exhibition Checklist

When a juror selects work for an exhibition, it is impossible to be entirely objective. This exhibition is no exception. My own prejudices lie with work that pushes beyond our expectations and for this exhibition, pushing the potential of the materials is an underlying theme. Ceramics today are being pushed from the ephemeral to the industrial and beyond. Artists are doing things with clay that can be done with no other material. They are pushing its natural fluidity and its ability to be controlled; its function and its expressive qualities; its chameleon-like qualities and its purest essence. Ceramic artists represented within the selected works of Clay on the Wall epitomize all aspects of this spectrum (sometimes within one piece)
and the works included link the extremes of the possibilities like those on a progressive grey scale.Greg Stahly’s Plot Storage successfully mixes industrial materials and techniques as he pushes his denial of the role of the human hand in this alien creation with his meticulous craftsmanship. John Thomas Richard uses more familiar mechanical forms in his Disintegrating Wing Segment but pushes the surface qualities to draw us in to the corrosion being wrought upon the form. Taking a similar approach with a less representational form is John Gargano with his Four Reasons Why. It appears that the club-like object might be as easily drawn from its wall mount as a gun from a holster and yet he lures us in to examine his organic, fluid surface. Lars Westby’s three Untitled works seem alien and organic but with a perfection of form and surface that also defies the use of the hand in its making.

Kelly Schnorr uses commercially made plates that mimic the roadside stand souvenir to tell her (and perhaps our) personal narrative in Collection. Focusing on suburbia, she shows us, for one thing, how we build prominent homes for our vehicles and attach our own housing in the back as an afterthought. Other societal statements are made with the plates in this exhibition, including Emily Loehle’s Meat Market Plate with their meat- and fat- and blood-colored glazes and
their packaging-mesh silk-screened surfaces with processed rectangular contents. These seemingly mass-produced plates contrast with other artists’ more organic interpretations of the same form such as Tony Moore’s Fire Painting, Lindsay Oesterritter’s Hanging Platters, David Crane’s Double Green Blanket Wall Platter and Richard Nickel’s Wearywoman. Wearywoman is an apt segue to a look at artists who approach the form as a canvas such as the Untitled work of Brian Benfer, Natalie Hellmann’s Topography II, Shin-Yeon Jeon maximizing the line in Self Within Self, Deborah Robinson Miller in her Still Life with Orange and Tom Myers’ Pentative to name a sampling.

The material is pushed, seemingly, to its limits of fluidity by numerous artists in the exhibition, some by exhibiting what is possible with the plastic qualities of the clay or the glaze, others by combining the two. Martha Grover pushes the fluidity of the porcelain clay and maximizes the qualities of the juicy satin glazes to present her Perfume Bottles. The botanical forms seem to be regurgitating the vessels that present us with their aromatic essences. Bethany Rusen’s The Clothespin Bag is so familiar, yet alien and the material seemingly has been pushed to its limits and then left raw and vulnerable to its contents. In Ivan Albreht’s Triptych, he deflates the epidermis and hangs it on the wall, dehumanised and de-individualized. He infers that we might wear our skin as we wear our clothing or our cars. Jeff Mongrain’s Philosopher’s Halo becomes that only when it is in its intended place and the evidence lies in the photograph. In the installation, the philosopher appears to be hiding behind his halo as he stands on his pedestal poised to spew his wisdom.

The American Heritage Dictionary defines ‘push’ (in this context) in the following ways:
“To urge forward or urge insistently…To extend or enlarge… To advance despite difficulty or opposition; press forward… To expend great or vigorous effort… A vigorous or insistent effort toward an end; a drive…” As synonyms, the dictionary offers “propel, shove, thrust.” We live in a time when technology is changing daily and we have become accustomed to change. Ceramics is changing rapidly as well. The artists in this exhibition and elsewhere are pushing the materials, the forms and the concepts in exciting ways that offer starting places for the next generations of ceramic artists to push, ‘propel, shove and thrust’ the field even further.

Katie McLaughlin and Richard Nickel

• Date(s): 10/30/2009 – 11/29/2009
• Recurring daily
• Times: Tuesday – Friday 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM Saturday – Sunday 12:00 PM – 4:00 PM
• Location: Portlock Galleries at SoNo
• Address: 3815 Bainbridge Blvd.
  Chesapeake, VA 23324
• Contact: Nicole Benson
• Phone: (757) 502-4901
• Admission: Free

• Send e-mail
• |
• Visit Website

This exhibition will feature the ceramics, photography, and mixed media of Katie McLaughlin and the ceramics of Richard Nickel.

Katie McLaughlin is an up-and-coming artist from Norfolk, VA. She is currently studying at Old Dominion University and has shown her work in many regional and group exhibitions such as the 2006 New Waves exhibition at Contemporary Arts Center of Virginia and the 23rd Annual Juried Photography exhibition at the Suffolk Museum where she was awarded the Juror’s Choice award in 2007. She was included in the New Directions in Photography exhibition at Portlock Galleries where the idea for this exhibition was born. McLaughlin’s work explores what it means to be female in today’s society and examines the dual nature of the female instincts for reproduction and survival as a woman matures.

Richard Nickel will be highlighting a new series of ceramic works. He is an Associate Professor of Art Education and Ceramics at Old Dominion University. He joined the faculty at ODU in 2002 after receiving his Bachelor of Science degree in Art Education from State University College in Buffalo, NY and his Master of Fine Arts degree in Ceramics from the Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. Richard has been an active artist and educator. He has been published in several Lark books on ceramics and in Ceramics Monthly Magazine. His juried and invitational shows include the Tidewater Craftsman Invitational at the Charles H. Taylor Arts Center, Celestial Images in Art at the Suffolk Museum and A Tea of Unusual Proportions at the Rawls Museum of Art in Courtland, VA. He has had solo exhibitions at the Contemporary Arts Center of Virginia and the Rawls Museum of Art. He has also been awarded several grants on research in education and ceramics, a Faculty Innovator Grant, and an ODU Summer Research Fellowship.

craddock-terry gallery

Richard Nickel: Recent Works

July 3 – August 23, 2009

Richard Nickel is a painter and ceramic artist whose work addresses themes of love, power and absurdity through folk-art inspired imagery. 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.  Born in Rochester, New York, Richard Nickel received a BS in Art Education from SUNY in 1996, and then received an MFA in Ceramics from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania in 2000. In 2002 he began teaching at Old Dominion University where he now serves as the Program Director for the Ceramics and Art Education Departments. As an artist, Nickel has participated in numerous national solo and group shows including recent exhibitions at the Virginia Beach Contemporary Arts Center, the Kellogg Gallery (CA), and Art Santa Fe.

July 3 – August 23, 2009

Richard Nickel in Clay & Context National Juried Exhibition at Indiana State University

CLAY & CONTEXT: National Juried Exhibition
January 15 – February 6, 2008

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. — The Indiana State University Art Gallery welcomes Clay & Context, National Juried Exhibition, Jan 15- Feb 6, 2009. A public reception with Juror Sherman Hall, Editor of Ceramics Monthly Magazine, will be held on Friday, Jan 16, 5-7pm. Sherman Hall will give a public lecture followed by an awards ceremony that same evening in the Music Recital Hall, (CPFA) at 5:30pm.

Clay & Context was conceived to draw new attention to clay as a material with fresh significance in contemporary art, while acknowledging the history from which it evolved. The exhibition explores both the functional and non-functional aspects of current ceramic art. The exhibited works not only reflect the personal vocabulary of each of the artists, but the cultural climate in which they were produced.

About the Juror: As editor of the worlds leading ceramic art magazine, Sherman Hall is a staunch advocate for ceramics as a promoter and practitioner. Hall received his BFA in Ceramics from Ohio State University in 1996 after studies at New York University and Columbus College of Art & Design. Following his undergraduate education, Hall was the sole proprietor of the Sherman Hall Studio from 1996-2003. He has worked with Ceramics Monthly since 1999.

Artists Featured: Chris Archer, Lesley Baker, Daniel L. Bare, Dylan J. Beck, Nathan Betschart, Kyan Bishop, Kristina Bogdanov, Klai Brown, Stephanie Craig, Danny Crump, Kit Davenport, Derek Decker, Christine Golden, Mark Gordon, Vicky Hansen, Phil Haralam, Margaret Haydon, Steve Hilton, Kevin Hughes, Michael Jamison, Andréa Keys, Phyllis Kloda, Michael Lancaster, Carrie Longley, Jon McMillan, Cory Medina, Marcy Neiditz, Richard Nickel, Lindsay Oesterritter, Vince Palacios, Margaret Park Smith, Kyle & Kelly Phelps, Joseph Pintz, Derek Reeverts, Scott Ross, Jan Schachter, Sam Scott, Jinsoo Song, Hunter Stamps, Haruka Takemoto, Lydia C. Thompson, Michelle Tobia, Dan Van Tassell, James Wayne, Sigrid Zahner, Valerie Zimany

Richard Nickel  in Hearts DesireNational Juried  Exhibition at Carbondale Clay Center

Opening reception First Friday, February 6th 2009, 6-8p A juried and invitational exhibition of work inspired by ‘love, lust and everything in between.’  At CCC Gallery, 135 Main Street, through March 2nd 2009.  Featured artists: Bethany Benson, Huntingdon PA; Kalika Bowlby, Kansas City MO; Pattie Chalmers, Carbondale IL; Darlene Glitzen, Merrillville IN; Leisha Hiester, Monument CO; Cara Jung, Erie PA; Richard Nickel, Norfolk VA; Juliane Shibata, Holland MI; Lea Tyler, Carbondale CO

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:

What

What

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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