This thematic exhibition explores the magical and mysterious worlds of fairytales, fantasies, and fears. The works of three contemporary artists - Mattia Biagi, Mark Newport, and Kako Ueda - is supplemented by permanent collection objects from the Mint Museum of Craft + Design and loans from local collectors.
Featured in the Resource Center adjacent to the gallery are the fairytale films of animation pioneer Lotte Reiniger (1899-1981). Her technique of painstaking, freehand cutting of paper silhouettes combined with stop-motion camera work has never been duplicated. For more information about Reiniger and the Resource Center's featured titles, visit the Fairytales, Fantasy and Fear Resource Center wiki page.
Listen to a discussion of the exhibit on WFAE's Charlotte Talks Friday, March 2 show. Guests are Director of the Mint Museum of Craft + Design Annie Carlano, featured artists Tom Price and Mattia Biagi, and Jungian psychologist Dorothy Campbell.
Italian artist Mattia Biagi is known for his work in tar. His recent series in this medium focused on fairytales. The objects are instantly recognizable, however; these works are icons of lost innocence, powerfully evoked.
2007 interview with Biagi from the blog Art is Alive.
Biagi is one of many artists and designers who exhibits at Twentieth Art and Design in Los Angeles.
Mattia Biagi Black Tar art
Fantasy
An artist and educator, Mark Newport creates hand-knit acrylic recreations of heroes' costumes, which combine their heroic, protective, ultra masculine, yet vulnerable personas with the protective gestures that he associates with his mother. They push the image of the hero by highlighting knitting materials, textures, and traditions in the form of costumes.
Mark Newport describes his work with fiber and knitting at the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Renwick Gallery on Art Babble.
And for those who wish to "impact the world through positive actions and random acts of kindness," check out www.reallifesuperheroes.org.
Fear
Japanese paper artist, Kako Ueda, has been focusing on the relationship and every shifting line between culture and nature in her detailed creations. Ueda states, "the tension (that includes the feeling of fear and anxiety) comes from the fact that humans departed from being "natural" and started creating our own "culture".'
Breschi's Pink Piggy was given with the Allan Chasanoff Ceramic Collection. To view Pink Piggy, click on this link, choose the purple search icon at the top, and enter 'Breschi' in the artist field.
Elizabeth Brim
Biography from the New England School of Metalwork.
Hoffman's The Joke, 1979, was given with the Allan Chasanoff Ceramic Collection. To see Hoffman's work, click on this link, select the purple search icon in the header and enter 'Kristen Hoffman' in the artist field.
The Mint Museum of Art presented Michael Lucero: Sculpture 1976-1995, a solo exhibition of his work in 2001. Excerpts from the exhibition catalogue are available online.
One of the ten artists commissioned by the Mint Museum of Craft + Design as part of Project Ten Ten Ten, an initiative commemorating the opening of the Mint Museum Uptown.
Selected Print Resources from the Mint Museum Library
Brown, Gail M. Life Insight: The Human Experience. Louisville: Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft, 2006. Showcases craft objects that are inspired by the personal passages experienced in life from the vantage point of the contemporary craft artists. Includes Sergei Isupov, Bruce Metcalf, Judith Schaechter, Red Weldon Sandlin, and Bill Stewart.
Cooper, Emmanuel. Contemporary Ceramics. London: Thames & Hudson, 2009. Survey of innovative work from the last ten years covering every aspect of contemporary ceramic practice. Includes biographies of featured ceramic artists, such as Stephen Dixon, Sergei Isupov, Justin Novak, and Patti Warashina.
Douglas, Mary F. Allan Chasanoff Ceramic Collection. Charlotte: Mint Museum of Craft + Design, 2000. The catalogue for the Allan Chasanoff Collection and the exhibition of the same name; includes nearly 450 artworks acquired by the Mint Museum of Craft + Design in 1995. Artists include Joe Bova, Kristen Hoffman, Michael Lucero, Justin Novak, Pattie Bauer Warashina, Sergei Isupov, and Chris Theiss. A website also accompanied the exhibition.
Halper, Vicki and Diane Douglas. Choosing Craft: The Artist's Viewpoint. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2009. Explores the history and practice of American craft through the words of influential artists; including Bruce Metcalf, Nick Cave, Michael Lucero, and Judy Kensley McKie.
Klanten, Robert, et al., eds. Fragiles: Porcelain, Glass & Ceramics. Berlin: Gestalten, 2008. Presents industrial applications made from porcelain, glass and ceramics which are being utilized by a new wave of designers and artists; including Takashi Hinoda.
Slash: Paper Under the Knife. Milan: 5 Continents; New York: Abrams, 2009. Catalogue from the Museum of Art & Design's exhibition that explores the use of "paper as a creative medium and source of artistic inspiration" in a range of diverse art forms. Includes featured artist Kako Ueda.
Additional print resources in the Mint Museum Library can be found through MARCO, the Mint Art Research Catalog Online.
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Created by Megan Westmoreland, Intern for the Mint Museum Library.
