“Inciteful Clay,” a national touring exhibit that offers an unparalleled overview of an emergent movement in contemporary ceramics dedicated to social commentary, opens at the California State University, Dominguez Hills University Art Gallery on September 10 and runs through October 7.
Incorporating a broad range of work, this selection of 27 ceramics looks at artists who have mustered an age-old medium to issue provocative critiques of current social and political inequities. The exhibition is organized around five themes: war and politics; the social and human condition; gender issues; environmental concerns; and popular and material culture.
Featured artists in the exhibition include Akio Takemori, Toby Buonagurio, Nuala Creed, Michelle Erickson, Anne Drew Potter, Ehren Tool, Richard Shaw, and Paula Winokur. Using figurative imagery, narrative content, and a range of expressive avenues, including caricature, parody, satire, obscenity, erotica, and the grotesque, they convey their messages in styles that are aggressive, violent, disturbing, irreverent, and at times, humorous, but ever passionate.
“InCiteful Clay” is curated by Judith S. Schwartz, professor and director of craft media in the Department of Art and Art Professions at New York University, and is a touring program of ExhibitsUSA, a national division of Mid-America Arts Alliance (M-AAA), the oldest nonprofit regional arts organization in the United States.
An opening reception will take place on Thursday, Sept. 10 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. As part of the reception, Jim Keville, associate professor in the CSUDH Art and Design Department who is a ceramist and oversees the ceramics and sculpture program, will discuss the exhibit at 6 p.m. in the University Art Gallery.
Open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday, the University Art Gallery is in room A-107 on the first floor of LaCorte Hall. Admission is free.
CSU Dominguez Hills is located at 1000 E. Victoria St. in Carson. LaCorte Hall is on the west side of campus off Toro Center Drive/Tamcliff Street. Visitor parking in campus lots requires a parking permit, which is sold for $6 at yellow dispensing machines at each lot.
Bringing Arts in the Schools to Carson High
In conjunction with the “Inciteful Clay” exhibit, the University Art Gallery is pleased to announce that it is among a select group of regional presenters to receive a Mid-America Arts Alliance (M-AAA) programming grant. This award will support a series of Art in the Schools workshops in September led by CSUDH faculty and ceramic artists Keville and Mike Flower with the Boys and Girls Clubs in Carson at Carson High School.
Topics for the Arts in the Schools workshops include Clay, Pop Art and Everyday Images (September 9), led by Keville; War and Art: Photo Collages (September 16), led by Keville; Family Heritage and Identity in Mixed Media Sculpture and Clay (September 23), led by Flower; Water and Clay: The California Drought (September 30), led by Flower. The students will also get a tour of the Inciteful Clay (September 14), and of the Art and Design Studios on the CSUDH campus.
“The University Art Gallery, CSU Dominguez Hills, is to be commended for their commitment to serving their community with these distinctive events,” Mary Kennedy, M-AAA’s chief executive officer, said. “Mid-America Arts Alliance is proud to help support this work and the University Art Gallery, CSU Dominguez Hills.”
Funding for University Art Gallery’s M-AAA grant is drawn from generous underwriting by the National Endowment for the Arts, the California Arts Council, and foundations, corporations, and individuals throughout Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas. This award is contingent on funds allocated to M-AAA by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Hearst Foundation.
For more information about the exhibition and the Carson High School workshops, call (310) 243-3334.
