Concurrent with the NCECA 2020 conference theme of Multi(VA)lent: Clay, Mindfulness, Memory, resisters presents a dynamic presentation of contemporary ceramic artwork by women artists from the state of Virginia. The exhibition connects and addresses themes of memory by focusing on the works of women in alignment with an important historical marker of the Workhouse site – the women’s suffragists movement.
The group show includes 19 artists and 37 pieces and considers the methods in which artists use clay to explore ideas of potency, power and unity. The exhibition is on view March 14 – May 10, 2020 in the Vulcan and Vulcan Muse Galleries at Workhouse Arts Center.
Due to the statewide closures from the Coronavirus outbreak, we have put this exhibit online! Enjoy the virtual exhibit, artist studio talks and artist statements HERE.
This summer Charlie Cummings Gallery will host Summer is Served: Plates, an exhibition exploring the dinner plate, one of the vessels most closely associated with cooking and serving in the home or dining out and with celebrating with family and guests. This exhibition will be via both invitations and submissions showing four individual plates from each participant and will be online only. We are pleased to invite artists to submit plates for consideration for this exhibition celebrating this vital functional ceramic object.
Deadline: midnight Eastern, May 31st, 2020
Exhibition calendar and details: May 31 – Submission deadline June 19 – Notifications sent July 9 – Plates Ship-by Deadline July 16 – Plates due at gallery August 1-27 – Summer is Served: Plates online May 2022 – Unsold plates returned
Cup: The Intimate Object XVI call for submissions
This fall Charlie Cummings Gallery will host Cup: The Intimate Object XVI, the sixteenth installment of our iconic annual cup show. This year the exhibition will once again be via both invitations and submissions showing five individual cups from each participant and will be online and installed in our brick-and-mortar gallery. We are pleased to invite artists to submit cups for consideration for this exhibition celebrating the most intimate and beloved of functional ceramic objects.
Deadline: midnight Eastern, June 28th, 2020
Exhibition calendar and details: July 5 – Submission deadline July 20 – Notifications sent August 21 – Cups Ship-by Deadline August 24-September 4 – Cups due at gallery October 5-October 31 – Cup: The Intimate Object XVI online February 2021 – Cups returned
Our Lives in Clay call for submissions
In December Charlie Cummings Gallery will host Our Lives in Clay, exhibition exploring the iconography of the ceramist and a life immersed in the culture of handmade ceramics. The kiln, the potter’s wheel, the warm cat on your lap, the faithful studio dog at your feet, and a favorite cup on the studio table are symbols of a clay artist’s life. The neatly arranged rows of cups on the shelves of a beloved cup collection are immediately recognizable to collectors who choose to fill their lives with handmade ceramics. Tables full of gorgeous wares and sculpture the speak of ceramist’s booths at art festivals and the bountiful collections found at ceramics galleries. These images describe a life lived in appreciation of enduring things produced by human hands with great time investment and skill to be used an enjoyed intimately in the home and proudly shared with all who will touch them and all who will listen. This exhibition will focus on self-referential ceramics that celebrate and examine the life we’ve chosen working with clay.. The exhibition will be via both invitations and submissions showing three individual ceramic works from each participant and will be online only. Pottery, sculpture, and clay prints are welcome. We are pleased to invite artists to submit works celebrating Our Lives in Clay.
Deadline: midnight Eastern, September 13, 2020
Exhibition calendar and details: September 13 – Submission deadline October 23 – Notifications sent November 11 – Work Ship-by Deadline November 18 – Work due at gallery December 12-January 7 – Our Lives in Clay online July 2021 – Cups returned
Social Distance Gallery will be posting BFA and MFA thesis exhibitions that are canceled or limited in access due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The digital exhibitions will be hosted on Instagram at @socialdistancegallery
STAY TUNED!
Here is what we need from you:
Gather all of the students in a show. There are hundreds of exhibitions being canceled and posting shows as a group will make things a little smoother. I understand it might be difficult to gather everything from everyone. These are unprecedented times, and this is a one-person operation. Please help me out by gathering all the info before sending it to me. Thanks and stay well.
Take and send multiple photos of the installation. Try to get photos that showcase the whole space. If the show is not being installed, you can skip this step.
Send up to 3 documentation photos of works for each student exhibiting. Please edit the photos so the color and light are correct. Please send files in .jpg format. Name each file with artists name, and image number (Example: JaneDoe_1.jpg) Along with each image, please include the following:
Name of institution
Is this a BFA or MFA thesis exhibition
Title of exhibition (if applicable)
Artists name / corresponding image number (example: JaneDoe_1.jpg or JaneDoe_2.jpg)
Title of work
Medium / size / date
Artists Instagram handle (if applicable)
Send all material to socialdistancegallery@gmail.com
In 2018, Alex Kraft and Melanie Shaw produced Critical Function, a stunning exhibition for the Pittsburg NCECA. Four internationally recognized critics and curators: Gail M. Brown, Janet Koplos, Paul Mathieu, and Anthony Merino each selected ten functional artists, whose work they admired. The exhibition engaged artists, students, collectors, and educators equally; making for a critical and commercial success. For 2020, Kraft and Shaw have kept the essential framework but reworked the selected guest jurors to reflect the NCECA theme: multiVAlent: clay, mindfulness, and memory. Bernadette and Neil Mansfield, Jill Foote-Hutton, Carole Epp, and Garth Johnson agreed to contribute their expertise and experience to this endeavor.
In the last 40 years there has been a continued pattern of exponential growth of engagement in the field of ceramic art. Without question, all four jurors have played important and mindful roles in promoting contemporary ceramics. Taking the main theme of multiVAlent into consideration—one characteristic connecting this diverse jury is the following: each person meaningfully expands the way ceramics are examined and promoted locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally. Each of the jurors pioneered new ways to promote ceramic art and ceramic artists. Bernadette and Neil Mansfield edit Ceramics: Art and Perception and Yarrobil, continuing Janet Mansfield’s vision of producing truly international ceramic journals. Jill Foote-Hutton, a maker in her own right, is Editor of The Studio Potter. She promotes social craft practice through www.whistlepigtales.com, sociallyengagedcraftcollective.org, and created the MJ Wood Residency as well as an Artists as Writer’s Residency at Red Lodge Clay. Carole Epp compiles the well-known Musing About Mud blog and Instagram feed, created makeanddo.ca to promote Canadian ceramic artists, and is an internationally celebrated artist (caroleepp.com). Garth Johnson is the Curator of Ceramics at the Everson Museum with writing contributions such as the blog extremecraft.com and 1000 Ideas for Creative Reuse. All were early pioneers in the use of social media and the world wide web to promote ceramics. Each juror carries forward a personal mission that promotes contemporary ceramics through community-oriented educational outreach. They inform their audience of current practice in relation to historical tradition and technical memory in the field of ceramics.
As with the first iteration of the exhibition, none of the jurors were given directions as to how they should make their selections. The only restrictions placed were not to include any of the artists who took part in the 2018 exhibition, and to consider their own interpretation of “functional ceramics” in their decisions. Critical Function 2 takes the memory of the previous exhibition forward in this exciting new iteration.
NCECA Concurrent exhibition. Sponsored by Visual Arts Center, 1812 W Main St, Richmond, Virginia 23220
