On Display: March 7th – 28th
Vessels — do they hold? house? protect? conceal?
Vessels may be the most ubiquitous and useful objects in human history. They are important both because they hold and because they can assign meaning to the contents that they hold as well as to the being using them. This iterative web of meaning has forever inspired artisans to explore the potentials of a vessel’s shape, form, function, accessibility, materiality, decoration, symbolism and purpose.
Vessels of all kinds are on display at By Hand Gallery:
Lee Cohn’s raised hollowware cups sit aloft fluid, interpenetrating arcs of polished silver. Cohn dedicates his work to the exaltation of the spirit and the austere grace of his lyrical forms suggest ritualistic purpose and pure beauty.
Marcy Neiditz shows boldly colored and whimsically patterned vessels which belie their petite and precious lidded nature — they could feel equally apropos as a pet’s funerary urn or jellybean jar. Neiditz is known for her surface decoration of incised sgraffito, biomorphic motifs that are layered in signature glazes of black, white and primary colors.
The cartoon character, antique cars constructed of clay are part and parcel of the droll wit of artist Walt Schmidt. The wheels rolls, the headlamps ogle, and the cavity is just tight enough to not be able to get anything really useful inside. Likewise, Schmidt’s face jugs, indebted to a long Southern tradition, are festooned with ridiculous caricatures and have spouts only large enough to pour moonshine or another favorite beverage both into and out of.
Other Vessels shown are in inlaid silver with inlaid stones by Marilyn Greenwood, woodfired clay and moss by Ruth Conway, kiln-formed glass By Michal Ann Carley; stratified felt and embellished textiles by David Sloma, and the pierced gold narrative boxes of Joey and Jack Forney.
