Formed and Fired: Contemporary American Ceramics
This exhibition presents the work of four groundbreaking contemporary American artists whose practices emerge from the history of ceramics and provide both insight into the past and ideas for the future. Kathy Butterly, Kahlil Robert Irving, Simone Leigh, and Brie Ruais are pushing the boundaries of fired clay, building on the work of stalwarts from the past and exploring new questions. While these contemporary artists have distinct visions, they share a reverence for ceramics and its rich, sometimes complicated history. Together, they provide extraordinary insights into the medium’s capacity for individual expression. This exhibition is curated by Jason Linetzky, Director of the Anderson Collection at Stanford University and organized by the Anderson Collection at Stanford University. We gratefully acknowledge the lenders to the exhibition, support from Museum Members and the Harry W. and Mary Margaret Anderson Charitable Foundation, and an in-kind donation from Farrow & Ball. This brochure is published on the occasion of Formed and Fired: Contemporary American Ceramics at the Anderson Collection at Stanford University March 2020-February 2021.
This exhibition presents the work of four groundbreaking contemporary American artists whose practices emerge from the history of ceramics and provide both insight into the past and ideas for the future. Kathy Butterly, Kahlil Robert Irving, Simone Leigh, and Brie Ruais are pushing the boundaries of fired clay, building on the work of stalwarts from the past and exploring new questions. While these contemporary artists have distinct visions, they share a reverence for ceramics and its rich, sometimes complicated history. Together, they provide extraordinary insights into the medium’s capacity for individual expression.
This exhibition is curated by Jason Linetzky, Director of the Anderson Collection at Stanford University and organized by the Anderson Collection at Stanford University. We gratefully acknowledge the lenders to the exhibition, support from Museum Members and the Harry W. and Mary Margaret Anderson Charitable Foundation, and an in-kind donation from Farrow & Ball.
This brochure is published on the occasion of Formed and Fired: Contemporary American Ceramics
at the Anderson Collection at Stanford University March 2020-February 2021.
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KAHLIL ROBERT IRVING<br />
<strong>American</strong>, b. 1992<br />
Irving’s sculptures emerge from a long history of ceramics <strong>and</strong><br />
decorative arts—one complicated by colonialism, unbalanced trade<br />
practices, <strong>and</strong> industrial production. He uses his art to address<br />
contemporary issues of race, community <strong>and</strong> police relations,<br />
violence against Black <strong>American</strong>s, gentrification, waste, <strong>and</strong><br />
upcycling. By featuring digital news clips, discarded materials, <strong>and</strong><br />
lost lives, Irving brings renewed awareness <strong>and</strong> permanence to the<br />
forgotten. His work levels our view <strong>and</strong> turns it downward,<br />
encouraging a reinterpretation of <strong>and</strong> reengagement with the<br />
street, as well as the objects we find upon it.<br />
The labor, knowledge, <strong>and</strong> drive that shape Irving’s h<strong>and</strong>made<br />
pieces serve as homages to the tradespeople of past generations<br />
whose h<strong>and</strong>s formed bricks, concrete, <strong>and</strong> stoneware. While his<br />
sculptures appear to be built of found objects, each element is<br />
faithfully fabricated <strong>and</strong> assembled by the artist in his studio using<br />
traditional methods of extrusion, slip casting, <strong>and</strong> sprig (or press)<br />
molds. Many of the surface images are sourced from the Internet,<br />
captured as screenshots <strong>and</strong> printed as custom decals. The works<br />
are typically fired twelve to sixteen times, accumulating character<br />
through layering of forms <strong>and</strong> material <strong>and</strong> hinting at<br />
contemporary lived experience. “Finding a place for myself to be a<br />
part of the conversation is also a part of what I am trying to do,” he<br />
says, “[to] readjust <strong>and</strong> rearrange how we see histories, to make a<br />
better future.”<br />
Kahlil Robert Irving, Street Mass, 2017, glazed <strong>and</strong> unglazed stoneware, enamel, <strong>and</strong> luster, 13 x 9 x 8 in. Collection of Marcie <strong>and</strong> Michael Roosevelt
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