I would just like to toot my horn here a moment and let everyone know that the exhibition I co-curated with Jill Foote Hutton, Gallery Coordinator from Red lodge Clay Center, made it to the "Exposure" section of Ceramics Monthly. It appears in the February edition... hey, its not much but there is a picture and caption and it seems like its in good company. The exhibition "The Lowdown: Tales from the Margin" will be showing at the Red Lodge Clay Center the month of February as well.
As thrilled as I am that we were mentioned, let me add the names that were left out of the caption...Julie Guyot, Jason Bige Burnett, Carole Epp and Max Lehman...these names are in addition to those that appeared in the magazine...Nick Ramey, Alex Kraft and Melissa Mytty.
Also included in February's edition is a full article on Lowdown exhibiting artist Jason Bige Burnett...included in the article are pieces that are currently on view in our exhibition..."Static Platter" and "Bang -O-Rang Bowls".
It was actually my first look at Ceramics Monthly since they changed their format...for shame Mr. homefry...I know. But as chocked full of cool stuff as this edition was I didn't think it was all that different from the previous format. It seemed to me that CM changed up their direction sometime in the mid-2000's to better reflect a more academic pursuit of ceramics instead of the sort of "technical heavy" path they had been on. I, for one, was happy about this. I was writing my thesis for my M.F.A. about that time and was in need of philosophical/theoretical back up to better support my graduate school pursuits and I was happy to find it in my friendly and familiar CM. Now, I know that the articles were not always the best but they had gotten better and the good writing was not just limited to Glen R. Brown. My return to CM at a glance finds a fancy new semi-gloss/matte cover, new graphics but an abbreviated "Call for Entries" page as well as shorter classifieds...less pottery studio real estate to dream about. Maybe that's not such a big deal but the tightly packed text from the "Exposure" section left me wanting to go back to the days where there was a little more content that explained what the image was about...although more visually modern, it is a bit of a cluster-fuck of a design. Also, in the meat of the magazine, I read what I thought was an article on Justin Rothshank which turned out to be a not altogether favorable review of a recent exhibition...going as far as saying "the handling of the material seemed awkward". I don't fault the alliteration loving author as much as the editor here but perhaps a "review" of this nature would be better suited in a separate section of the magazine...like the "Exposure" section... Exhibition + Pictures + Review... now that = "Exposure".
Anyways, I mean it when I say I am thrilled that "The Lowdown: Tales from the Margin" found its way on to the CM radar...it deserves to....the wonderful work from these seven artists surpassed my expectations and I hope they gain even greater exposure at the next showing in Red Lodge. And even with my nit-pickings about CM, I am debating about re-upping my subscription. Go figure.
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