~SATAN CERAMICS . . OPENING PIX
WICKED GOOD !!!
KNOCK-DOWN SKILLZ !!!
OVER-TURNED CONVENTIONS !!!
ELECTRIFIED OPENING !!!
TONS OF EXCITEMENT, CONTRAST, CONTAINMENT & GLAZES !!!
SHINY BRILLIANT WHITE & MATTE BLACK SURFACES.
EVERY-BODIES WORK – was on FIRE !!!
this show is just way off the CHARTS.
“BRAIN TO HAND TO OBJECT (CLAY)” – JJ PEET, MANIFESTO
SATAN CERAMICS
OPENED SUN SEPT 7, 2014
the show runs thru OCT 25, 2014
and features ceramic work by: MARY FREY, PAT McCARTHY, JJ PEET & TOM SACHS
SALON 94 FREEMANS– FREEMANS ALLEY, LOWER EAST SIDE, NYC
omg – the opening was HUGE !! just like the good ole days !!
on the left: SALON 94 founder, JEANNE GREENBERG ROHATYN, with pal ERIN.
JEANNE looking g-o-o-d, but esp like they always do – when they have connected hard.
damn, did she just score . . and, opening game of the season.
relevancy, skills, future vision, in-your-face-punk. 3D ceramics ?!!!
pottery.
yep.
death metal black glaze ? check.
everybody needs a little downtown street creed, now and then – even Salon 94.
even big daddy himself, JULIAN SCHNABEL was there, and looking spiffy, or what !!
mega-collector ALBERTO MUGRABI, keeping it on the down-low, don’t be fooled.
caught him seriously engaged with the PATRICK McCARTHY tablet wall.
we’ll let comic book artist DREW MILLER . . represent all the new kids, the electric new wave of young talent that has recently stormed onto the scene, just waiting for their next big move – to make their own big burning mark !! about to tip the island, watch out.
ever heard of ‘POOR THING – NUMBER ONE’ ?
well, now you HAVE !!
JJ PEET, apparently the master of cutting-edge clay and zen-like glazes – the SATAN CERAMICS guru himself.
what could be better, than a natural born trouble maker, basking in the limelight of achievement ?
he was sipping from a (his) tiny hand-made tea cup.
this is so . . what we mean by great art has – juice . .
though this guy looked to have a very dry, and tres sly !! sense of humor.
contrarian or what. form follows function – !! not.
I guess that’s the satanic part – stepping out.
anybody who says that contemporary art doesn’t involve skills – get outta my way.
JJ PEET, stoneware.
note . . the BIG RED BRICK.
X marks the spot.
JJ PEET, ‘BRICKVACE_3’, 2014, Porcelain, 3 x 3 x 3 in.
Clay makes bricks, bricks make houses.
when a vase has a (design) face – clay makes a brickvace !!
JJ PEET, ‘BRICKVACE_19’, 2014. Porcelain, 3 x 3 x 3 in.
really . . through the LOOKING GLASS !! ALICE et al.
note: the shadows, very magical installation. something the gallery website, which is very staid and formula uptown – did not catch.
except for that logo – the SATAN CERAMICS logo was GREAT. the T shirts were selling like hot cakes, $20 a pop.
we got it. we got 3.
JJ PEET, ‘BRICKVACE_VIEWER’, 2014.
Porcelain, aluminum, electronics, rubber. 6 x 12 x 8 in.
don’t tell me contemporary art isn’t . . relevant.
tribal knowledge meets modern technology . . head-on.
capital C – for communication. and, creativity.
artists and scientists, rule.
including skilled, and witty – ceramists . . who are both.
MARY FREY
MARY FREY, ‘Catcher’, 2014.
stoneware/underglaze/carbon fiber. 5 x 5 x 5 in.
that orange, with all that black and white, in the room – is to die for.
just gorgeous. fab fab fab.
looking at MARY FREY’S . . ‘FRUIT BOWL’, 2014.
Porcelain/death metal black underglaze. 10 x 10 x 10.5 in.
MARY FREY, ‘KEY PARTY’, 2014.
Porcelain, death metal black underglaze. 8.5 x 6.5 x .5 in.
TOM SACHS, now there’s a story.
TOM SACHS, ‘CONEJO’, 2013.
English porcelain, temple white glaze, NASA red engobe, reduction fired. 3.75 x 4.75 x 5 in.
TOM SACHS . .
he is SO ambitious, and he is such an easy target – sometimes we all gang-up and go a little rough on him, but if he was ever born to make art, he was born to make this piece !!
doesn’t matter what he did in the past, doesn’t matter what he does . . in the future. as far as I’m concerned – I am giving him one big pass to last a lifetime – to the genuine art strivers Hall of Fame – with this one. he has finally lived up to his future vision, pseudo fabrication dreams. what was it I read about his wedding, “ALBERT EINSTEIN meets Bart Simpson.” hmmm. yep.
absolutely BRILLIANT. beautifully rendered, perfect scale.
he should make a whole dinner set of these and send them to the President of the United States. they should make at least one of these mandatory equipment on space ships. art + science – the future of the world – in your hands.
and don’t forget the . . past. the skills, the human bio-ness of the race. the great achievements, the uneven lurches forward.
function, color red, code logo, all in the palm of your hand.
TOM SACHS, ‘HOT NUT BOWL’, 2013.
porcelain, 2.5 x 4.375 x 4 in.
speechless, who knew the guy could hand-build ?
beautiful balance, and I don’t mean just the hand-built vessel, exquisite balancing act. the imbedded branding, the fab glaze etc, etc.
I mean the whole installation itself, the wooden raw edges of the display shelves, the lighting – which threw graceful, lingering, defining and dancing delicate shadows on the 3D objects, 3D !! – after-all.
they should have posted the exhibit pix with the installation accents, not stripped them down to be so bland and bare – on white sheet backgrounds.
BUT,
I mean, all the better for me !!
ace photog that I am.
I mean where would I be – in a perfect – world ?
where would any of us be – in a perfect world. hoo-ray for hand built pottery.
and zen-like glazes, tiny scales, and nonsensical form.
all inter-relating like a roomful of swaying Tibetan prayer bells.
which brings us to . . .
PAT McCARTHY.
aka the Pigeoneer of BUSHWICK !!
the last time I saw him was in this tiny show in a tiny, but concept-wise immense !! – storefront gallery in Brooklyn called MUDDGUTS, and deservedly, so.
MUDDGUTTS to . . SALON 94, even FREEMANS ALLEY – now that’s what I call an . . ‘ascent’.
Pat, he must have been watching his birds in flight, take off. or what. we outta here.
we out.
PAT McCARTHY, porcelain hi-rise pigeons perches.
Pat told me he had made all new work for this show – in the 2 weeks since I had swung by that classic underground moment of a show, PAT’S PIGEON CLUB. ROOF SUPPLYS, FANZINES, BIRD TALK !!
we had had a huge Pigeon club talk on his, then, all-white glazed, with very zen touches – porcelain hi-rise perches, about pigeons and their amazing eye sight, all the better to soar.
and, here were Pat’s pigeon perches v.2 – accessorized with little ‘stripes’ of nicely ‘keyed’ glaze color – all the better to get back home to your own special perch. apparently it’s not just us humans that are – deathly . . territorial.
Pat told me .. “I found my color.”
we outta here – or what ?
PAT McCARTHY – mini coop !!
if you peered inside – you could just make out a miniature set of his signature porcelain hi-rise pigeon
perches.
see ’em ?
I don’t know if this was an ode to a long lost hero of the Lower East Side mean streets, or if this signaled this mini coop – was actually home to a special dude pigeon – named . . Joey, of course.
the mini coop – from the back, note that concrete block – extreme left bottom corner.
yeah, sweet. satanic !!
tongue-in-cheek sweet.
a mini concrete brick.
holding everything down. holding everything . . together.
don’t they say, god is in the details.
and so the wild rush of a Satanic circle – that is SATAN CERAMICS . . that began with a big red brick . . ends with a tiny gray one. what a nice touch, what a nice metaphoric rhyme.
all things come round.
what a nice – throw-down to the mentor, JJ PEET.
just goes to show . . like in science, like in art – like in life.
there’s always truth in real pottery, I mean !! – poetry !!
what comes around, goes around. ancient arts, new minds.
satanic.
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH