“At the core of Anderson’s current body of work is a philosophical, existential examination of identity politics; based in Los Angeles, the 30-year old gay, Asian-African American sculptor is an artist working against stereotype and racialism rampant in today’s society. By working in an unexpected medium and channeling methodologies surrounding artistic production in ceramic arts, Anderson manages to create fantastic, multifaceted sculptures that are both subversive and whimsical at the same time. Alex Anderson uses the classical aesthetics of western power, which ironically share space with the aesthetics of queer camp cultural production, to translate the structures that govern his lived experience in society and others’ social perceptions of his identities into form. While his work engages with the ceramic canon and draws from the western art historical canon at large, it primarily operates at the core of Post-Blackness. Anderson’s method of production directly corresponds with current aesthetic and artistic practices and ideologies surrounding theories of Post-Black art. Working at the intersection of identity politics and aesthetic empowerment, Anderson’s ceramic creations appear charming and playful, but their frivolity is only glaze-deep. The artist’s work layers conceptions about blackness, masculinity, and perception, folding them onto one another until they become inextricably fused together, reciprocating the merging of his own personal lived experiences, historical inheritance, and conscious self-awareness as his artistic point of departure.” continued HERE.
REMOTE Curator Talk with Mac Star McCusker
Join the curator of It’s Still Political: Gender, Sexuality, and Queerness in Contemporary Ceramics, Mac Star McCusker, for a lecture and conversation surrounding topics of the associated exhibition.
It’s Still Political, curated by Mac Star McCusker with Kelly Connole as Curatorial Advisor, revisits the themes addressed by Sexual Politics: Gender, Sexuality, and Queerness in Contemporary Ceramics, an exhibition originally on view at Northern Clay Center in the spring of 2015. In that exhibition, Kelly Connole wrote, “Artists have the potential to freeze a moment in our collective cultural history, record it, interpret it, and help us breathe in the truth of our own time.”
The theme is just as relevant today. It’s Still Political focuses on gender fluidity, specifically, gender expression. McCusker offers, “We are all forced to participate in narrowly defined gender roles. Feminine men and masculine women have assumptions immediately made about their sexuality even though gender expression and gender identity have nothing to do with sexuality.” Five years after the original exhibition, it is still a misconception frequently held in our culture.
This exhibition features works by artists who actively engage in and promote insightful dialogue about gender expression and identity and provides much-needed current perspectives on the subject within the context of both human experience and ceramics.
Participating artists include: Shane Elliot Bowers, Dekalb, Illinois; Shannon Gross, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania; Arthur Halvorsen, Somerville, Massachusetts; G.V. Kelley, Lincoln, Nebraska; Mac Star McCusker, Durham, North Carolina; Marval Rex, Los Angeles, California; and Maya Vivas, Portland, Oregon.
About the curator
A maker themself of wheel-thrown, slab-built, and sculpted ceramics, McCusker’s work “spotlights the policing of gender, anti-discrimination laws, Bathroom Bills, and issues addressing the LGBTQ community.” The artist has produced work in such series as The Transition Series, Project Canary: The Gender Magnet Drop, Trans-Action Figures, among others. McCusker lives and maintains a studio in North Carolina and currently teaches at Odyssey Clayworks. They hold an MFA from Georgia State University in Atlanta and a BA from Armstrong Atlantic State University in Savannah, Georgia.
Of their practice, McCusker says, “Living and working in the state of North Carolina has forced me to address things affecting my community, making me the subject of my own work. I have become, for better or worse, visible and vulnerable through making and creating ceramic sculptures. I am generating a dialogue about my life, my own narrative, political, and social concerns, and through that process I am educating others.”
“I chose to become an artist to try to pursue a life of true questioning and subversion and an alternative position to what I saw as a common drive towards capitalist values of growth and progression and I want to just to continually have access to watching and observing and questioning that.” – Shary Boyle
The MacKenzie Art Gallery was pleased to host, as part of the weekend opening events for Victor Cicansky: The Gardener’s Universe, a panel discussion on Regina artist Victor Cicansky. Cicansky’s artistic universe is firmly rooted in place and in his garden. For over fifty years, ideas for sculptures in ceramics and bronze have grown out of his intimate relationship with gardens, plants and trees. His approach embraces both the immigrant knowledge of his Romanian-Canadian family and more contemporary concerns around urban ecology and environmental sustainability. Rooted in local realities, his work speaks to the wider world of the joys and trials of supporting life in an urban prairie space. Each panelist was invited to present a 15 minute version of their essay to be included in the forthcoming exhibition catalogue. The presentations cover Cicansky’s early days as a student of Jack Sures (University of Saskatchewan, Regina Campus) and Robert Arneson (University of California, Davis), his Funk and Nut-inspired sculptural ceramics, his monumental ceramic murals, his later bronze furniture and his garden. The panel presentations are now available on the gallery’s YouTube channel. Below is the order of the presentations.
VICTOR CICANSKY AND THE GARDENER’S UNIVERSE: A PANEL DISCUSSION
Saturday, June 8, 2019 – 1:00–3:30 pm
Shumiatcher Theatre, MacKenzie Art Gallery, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
Welcome – John Hampton, Director of Programs, MacKenzie Art Gallery
Introduction – Timothy Long and Julia Krueger
PART 1 – “Entering the Garden Universe”
An exploration of how Victor Cicansky’s garden imagery engages art, history, community, and environment.
Trevor Herriot – Writer, Regina
“This Garden Universe”
Timothy Long – Head Curator, MacKenzie Art Gallery
“The Whole Earth Romanian Icon”
RESPONSE – a conversation with Victor Cicansky, Trevor Herriot and Timothy Long + questions from the audience
PART 2 – “Troubling Paradise”
An appraisal of how Victor Cicansky has challenged and expanded the definitions of “folk,” “craft,” and “prairie” through his murals, furniture and sculpture.
Susan Surette – Art Historian, Concordia University, Montreal
“Victor Cicansky’s Fine Folk”
Julia Krueger – Craft Historian, University of Western Ontario, London
“Radioactive Fossils and Virtual Gardens: Victor Cicansky’s Craft Redux”
Alison Calder – Poet and Professor, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg
“Victor Cicansky’s Post-Prairie Imaginings”
RESPONSE – a conversation with Victor Cicansky, Susan Surette, Julia Krueger and Alison Calder + questions from the audience
