Continuous Clay: Trends and Innovations

Opening Reception

Saturday, July 24, 5-7pm

On July 24, the Marin Museum of Contemporary Art opens Continuous Clay: Trends & Innovations featuring nine inventive Bay Area artists working in ceramics today. Following in the footsteps of such pioneering Bay Area artists as Robert Arneson, Viola Frey, and Ron Nagle, who championed the materiality of clay and elevated the medium beyond the realm of craft, the nine artists presented here build on this legacy by taking unconventional approaches to traditional techniques. For example, Michelle Gregor, a San Francisco-based contemporary figurative artist–one of the most highly regarded second-generation sculptors of the Bay Area Figurative Movement working today–employs a painterly approach to glaze application. Her work displays her masterful, intuitive sense of color. Also on view is work by Marin-based artist Brett Crawford. Crawford, a skilled potter, juxtaposes traditional vessel forms with experimental surface treatments as seen in Sperry Fingerprint. Curated by Jeff Downing, the exhibition includes Brett Crawford, Shenny Cruces, Michelle Gregor, Jeannie Ichimura, Pancho Jiménez, Mark Messenger, Maria Paz, Tiffany Schmierer and Tiffany Tang. Taken as a whole, these artists are creating something entirely new and exciting!

Though all the work varies greatly in style through a broad range of conceptual processes, distinctive materials, and evolved techniques, the artists share one thing in common: an immense passion for the deeply primordial and unforgiving nature of the magnificent medium of clay. Visitors of all ages will experience an imaginative, engaging display of the limitless possibilities of clay.