3 March - 7 July 2012
Mint Museum of Craft + Design
Mint Museum Uptown at Levine Center for the Arts
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.
Read a review by Art Knowledge News.
Fairytales
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.
- Artist's website.
- 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.
- Artist's website.
- Newport is currently the Artist-in-Residence and Head of the Fiber Department at the Cranbrook Academy of Art.
- Q & A Mark Newport from Smithsonian.com
- 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".'
- Artist's website.
- Kako Ueda on artnet.
- Interview with Ueda on myartspace>blog.
- Biography, article links and images of Ueda's artwork from George Adams Gallery.
Additional Artists in the Exhibition
Steven Abee
- Brief biography from the Catawba Valley Pottery of North Carolina.
- Steve Abee at work.
Akiyama Yo
- Biography and gallery exhibitions from Joan B. Mirviss, LTD.
- Description and photographs of Akiyama Yo's work from the Japanese Pottery Information Center
- Blog entry on Akiyama Yo
- Akiyama Yo speaks on his work at SOFA
Russell Biles
- Artist's website.
- Biography the Museum of Arts and Design.
- Article on Columbia Museum of Art exhibit featuring Biles from Free Times.
Bibian Blue
- Designer's website.
- Article on Bibian Blue's fashion from Auxiliary Magazine. Download and go to page 35!
Joe Bova
- Artist's website.
- A mini-interview in Ceramics Today.
Robert Brady
- Interview with the artist.
- Artist profile from Square Cylinder.
- Biography of artist from Online Nevada.
Karen Lee Breschi
- 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.
- Brim on The Artist Blacksmith's Association of America.
- Interview with Brim in Anvil Magazine.
Nick Cave
- Images of Cave's work from the Jack Shainman Gallery.
- NYTimes Topics on Nick Cave.
- Nick Cave discusses his art making philosophy.
Lisa Clague
- Artist's website.
- Autobiographical article on Ceramic Arts Daily from the January 2010 issue of Ceramics Monthly
- Clague at Crimson Laurel Gallery
Cristina Cordóva
- Artist's website.
- Cordóva is one of ten artists of Project Ten Ten Ten commissioned by the Mint Museum of Craft + Design and was a featured artist in the Mint exhibition Possibilities: Rising Stars of Contemporary Craft in North Carolina.
-
Cordóva discusses her art.
Burlon B. Craig
- 1991 N.C Heritage Award winner from the North Carolina Arts Council
- Biography from the National Endowment for the Arts; a 1984 National Heritage Fellow
- Burlon Craig discusses his pottery.
Michael and Melvin Crocker
- Brief overview of Crocker Pottery.
Einar and Jamex de la Torre
- Artists' Website.
- The de la Torre brothers in Craft in America, including a video of the brothers speaking about choosing a medium for self expression.
- Interview with Einar and Jamex at the Tuscon Museum of Art
Stephen Dixon
- Contemporary Applied Arts profile.
- Artist's biography as professorial research fellow at Manchester Metropolitan University.
Julie Elkins
- Artist's website
- CV, artist's statement and link to images of Elkins' work from Sherrie Gallerie.
Dan Essig
Carol Gentithes
- Johnston and Gentithes Studios.
- Biography from Discover Seagrove.
- Article about the artist and her work.
Kirsten Hassenfeld
- Artist's website.
- Links to reviews, press releases and images of her work from the Bellwether Gallery.
Takashi Hinoda
- Images of artwork from Imura Art Gallery.
- Images of artwork from Dean Project.
- Overview of Hinoda from the blog Chidi Widi.
Albert Hodge
- Artist's website.
- Information on Hodge's "Devil Face Jug" from Smithsonian American Art Museum.
- Albert Hodge discusses his pottery.
Kristen Hoffman
- 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.
Sergei Isupov
- Artist's website.
- Images of Isupov's work from Ferrin Gallery.
Ai Kijima
- Artist's website.
- "Pop Art and an Asian Eye" article from Layers of Meaning blog.
- Chris Churchill, Franklin Parrasch Gallery Director, introduces the art of Ai Kijima.
Stacy Lambert
- Lambert at Artistic Spirit Gallery.
Peter Lenzo
- Website devoted to his work.
- Brief biography from 701 Center for Contemporary Art.
Michael Lucero
- 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.
- Biography of Lucero from Ceramics Today.
- Article on Lucero from Carnegie Magazine.
- Profile and Exhibition history from artnet.com
Jason Luck
- Biography from Low Country Artists.
- Artist's studio, Luck's Ware.
Judy Kensley McKie
- Biography and images of McKie's work from Gallery Naga.
- A transcript of an interview with the Smithsonian Archives of American Art, from 2004.
- Article on McKie from American Craft Magazine.
Kate Malone
- 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.
- Artist's website
Bruce Metcalf
- Artist's website.
- The MintWiki for The Miniature World's of Bruce Metcalf, exhibited at The Mint Museum of Craft + Design in 2009.
- Bruce Metcalf discusses his art.
Justin Novak
Natalya Pinchuk
- Artist's website.
- CV and images of artwork from Galerie Rob Koudijs.
Tom Price
- Artist's website
- Interview with the artist and images of his tree installation from My Modern Met blog
- Boomspdesign 2012's Designer of the Year!
Sylvie Rosenthal
- Artist's website.
- Article on Rosenthal from WNC Magazine.
- Feature on Rosenthal from Women in Woodworking.
Red Weldon Sandlin
- Ferrin Gallery provides a bio and images of artist's work.
- Article on Sandlin from Critical Ceramics.
Reinaldo Sanguino
- Images of Sanguino's work and additional information on the artist from the Dean Project.
- Biography and images of artwork from Cavalier Galleries Inc.
Judith Schaechter
- Artist's website.
- Judith discussing her work, "Parables in Glass".
- Late Breaking Noose, Judith's blog.
Richard Slee
- Artist's website.
- Richard Slee and Grayson Perry discuss 'Sausage'
Bill Stewart
- Artist's website.
- Westside News mini-article on one of Stewart's installations.
James Tanner
- Tanner in the Littleton Collection.
- Information on one of Tanner's exhibitions from Western Carolina University.
Chris Theiss
Patti Bauer Warashina
- Brief biography from Craft in America.
- Q & A with Warashina from University of Washington's alumni magazine.
Kurt Weiser
- Artist's biography.
- Article about Weiser and his mid-career retrospective Eden Revisited.
- Kurt Weiser discusses his art.
Janis Mars Wunderlich
- Artist's website
- Short article from Ceramics Today
Jeff Young
- Artist's website.
- Brief biography from Catawba Valley Pottery.
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.
- Newport, Mark. Mark Newport: Super Heroes in Action. Bloomfield Hills: Cranbrook Art Museum, 2009. Catalog for the exhibition of the same name.
- 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.
____________________________
Created by Megan Westmoreland, Intern for the Mint Museum Library.