February 2010, Philadelphia, PA–Locks Gallery is pleased to present Betty Woodman, an exhibition of new and recent ceramic works. The exhibition will be on view March 23 through April 24, 2010. There will be a reception on Friday, April 2nd, from 5:30 to 7:30 pm.
Internationally-acclaimed artist Betty Woodman (b.1930) creates conceptual vessels in clay, and paintings with sculptural ornamentation that suggest architectural vignettes. Throughout a long and distinguished career, she has repeatedly referenced art history, the decorative arts, and draws from such diverse sources as Greek and Roman vases, Roman frescoes, Matisse, Bonnard and Korean painting.
For her Locks Gallery exhibit, Woodman will be showing two recent bodies of work. In her series, Vases Upon Vases, ceramic vessels sit atop wood constructions that mimic vessels and echo or comment on the actual ceramics. The second series of life-sized ‘Rooms’ are sculptural assemblages that unite painting on canvas with ceramic vessels and ceramic flourishes created in low relief. Together these two series celebrate the implied or latent theatrical aspect of much architecture and sculpture. That spirit mirrors the artist’s philosophical approach to art.
The Locks Gallery exhibition precedes Woodman’s installation at the Philadelphia Museum of Art this spring. At the museum, Woodman will exhibit implied wall and relief constructions inspired by the 18th-century English period room at the museum, the Lansdowne Drawing room.
Woodman’s Philadelphia Museum of Art exhibit is part of Interactions in Clay: Contemporary Explorations of the Collections, on view at the museum March 31–July 11, 2010.
The artist has exhibited internationally for over thirty years and her work has been the subject of several museum retrospectives, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art (2006) and Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (1996). Recently, the artist’s work was shown in a solo exhibit at the Museo delle Porcellane di Palazzo Pitti, Florence and Dirt on Delight (ICA Philadelphia and Walker Art Center). Woodman is represented in over fifty museum collections.
Betty Woodman is one of 95 exhibitions that are part of INDEPENDENCE: The 44th Annual National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) conference taking place in Philadelphia from March 31–April 3, 2010. The Clay Studio, Philadelphia, PA is serving as the onsite liaison and organizing body of the exhibitions program. For a complete list of programmed exhibitions, visit: www.theclaystudio.org
