Kirsten Stingle: ceramics and found objects

Kirsten Stingle’s use of a bundt pan drew me in, the pan now a skirt for her ceramic torsos. Maybe the whimsy made me look, but it is Stingle’s ability to tell a story through the sculptural details that held my interest. She mixes ceramics and found objects to create narrative figures, drawing on her background in theater to help the stories unfold.



In Renewal, pictured above, a young woman is holding an empty bird’s nest above her found-object skirt. Is the look on her face sadness, contemplation, or could it be something else? Look closely and you will see two baby birds resting on the back of her skirt. A nice reminder that Spring, a time of renewal and rebirth, has arrived. Perhaps her expression is one of quiet joy.





Her background in the dramatic arts led her to want to express common threads of the human experience. Stingle was working in the field of welfare policy in New York City when the events of 9/11 happened, which led to a shift back to her creative roots. Says Kirsten, “More than ever I wanted to break down barriers and expose the common threads of humanity through storytelling. This time, however, I turned to ceramic sculpture as a vehicle for my narrative impulses.

~From an article in Multi-Tasking Woman

Ronit Baranga - Tea party - Clay sculpture

ronitbaranga.com

The clothing from ceramic shards

Li Xiaofeng is Beijing artist who creates clothing piece made from traditional chinese ceramics.
He makes the clothing from ceramic shards coming from the song, ming,yuan and qing dynasties, which are sewn together on a leather undergarment. Some of his projects include a suit jacket and tie as well as a number of mid-length women’s dresses. In Xiaofeng’s studio, piles of ceramic pieces sit in bins sorted by date, colour and shape. ‘save as: contemporary chinese art born of ancient traditions’ currently running at the Virginia Miller Gallery is his exhibition debut outside of Asia.

virginiamiller.com

Hayashi Shigeki Ceramic Art

The ceramic and porcelain work by Japanese artist Hayashi Shigeki is really impressive. He took tradition Japan ceramic art works to another level. He hand made, oven bake each piece.

Hayashi Shigeki, from Tajimi City, draws inspiration for his ceramic figures from images from science fiction, animated film and Japanese comic books known as manga?all of which have attracted him since he was a child. He comes from a region of Japan famous for the production of porcelain domestic ware, and he says "In order to express my ideas as art, I have found that porcelain is the best medium. However, I do not think of my works as ceramic pieces."

Winstanley Pottery Cats

Winstanley Cats have been made by Jenny Winstanley for over 40 years. All the animals produced are unique in that there are no two painted exactly the same, therefore each animal is highly collectable. They are made in a range of sizes from the smallest size kittens through to life-size size. Their eyes are made of cathedral glass.Their bodies of the finest hard-fired earthenware.Their colours and patterns painted by a select team of artists.They are also listed in the "MillersGuide" to antiques.

Source:winstanleycats.uk.com

Beate Kuhn - Pioneer German studio potter

Beate Kuhn is one of the most important German potters of our age.

The works of Beate Kuhn are known in the whole world. Her awards and honors are numerous. Beate Kuhn’s artistic work is characterized by her pottery: the potter’s wheel is her base tool. The sheer number of one-off pieces by the artist – more than 1,500, all bear her unmistakable and fascinating personal touch.

Already during her studies at the Werkkunstschule in Darmstadt, she designed elegant avant-garde vases and a jar for the Rosenthal porcelain factory’s studio-line . These are 1950s’ classics. Her first autonomous works are sculpted vessels, which reveal her fascination with the oeuvre of Joan Miró and Paul Klee.

Throwing pots on the wheel was to determine her whole oeuvre. Already in the 1950’s visitors to the International Expo in Frankfurt were delighted by her intensively colored and painted works. This is surprising, as painted vessels were not trendy at the time.


In 1957 Beate Kuhn moved to Düdelsheim and set up her own workshop. The important German potters Karl and Ursula Scheid also live in her neighborhood. This time coincided with a change in her oeuvre. Since the early 1960’s Beate Kuhn has created freely designed sculptures, each piece consisting of individual thrown and cut elements, assembled into a whole. In each of her works, the artist confines herself where possible to a single basic element executed in different sizes, which are then all juxtaposed in serial fashion. By taking this step, Beate Kuhn became one of the first potters in Germany to abandon utilitarian work in favor of purely artistic work.

The Stiftung KERAMION is exhibiting a survey of Kuhn's oeuvre from the early 1950’s until today. The artist's animal sculptures, especially many depictions of cats, for which Beate Kuhn creates detailed sketches, show she is a very close observer of nature.
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