Sculpture Space NYC is proud to present the group exhibition Conflux: Alfred Ceramics MFA 2021.
The MFA class of 2021 in the Division of Ceramic Art in the School of Art & Design, New York State College of Ceramics Alfred University will exhibit a curated selection of work from their thesis exhibitions in the gallery at Sculpture Space NYC as part of SSNYC Curatorial Program 2021
Conflux: Alfred Ceramics MFA 2021
Group Exhibition at Sculpture Space NYC, featuring Uriel Caspi, Marianne Chenard, Justin Donofrio, Lukas Easton, Shauna Fahley, Erin Smith, Sami Tsang
June 11 - July 24 2021
Tuesday-Saturday: 2pm-8pm & Sunday by appointment. To schedule an appointment please email info@sculpturespacenyc.com (masks are required).
Conflux: Alfred Ceramics MFA 2021
By Graham Marks
In 1973, I was a 22-year-old undergraduate student visiting The New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University as a prospective graduate student applicant. I walked into the kiln room for the first time and marveled at the scale and drama of that space that held more kilns and larger kilns than I had imagined could exist in one spot. It is a feeling I will never forget. Luckily, I was accepted.
Flash forward 45 years to 2018. After a 20-year career in ceramics, as a maker and teacher, I made a shift in my life and became an acupuncturist in private practice for 25 years. I am now retired, living in Brooklyn, and followed a desire to work in clay again. Feeling a bit like Rip Van Winkle, I began to visit ceramic facilities in the metropolitan area, but nothing was quite what I was looking for until, walking into Sculpture Space NYC for the first time, I experienced a familiar sensation from my past. Once again, taking in the scale and drama of the facility I felt a visceral sense of awe. I also sensed a strong community there as well. I applied to work in the facility and luckily, I was accepted.
Let us mark the years 2020 and 2021 as critical years none of us will ever forget. The American election, the resultant insurrection, a global viral pandemic, killing three and a half million people to date. The tragic murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and many others, further exposed the ongoing crisis of racial justice and structural inequity, and meanwhile, climate change rages on.
The pandemic and the accompanying lockdown universally transformed lives and habits, and what has always been assumed, can no longer be counted on. What is true is a constant question. In the ceramic universe, the artists from Alfred University currently exhibiting their work at Sculpture Space NYC were ejected by the State of New York practically overnight from their studios and became graduate student orphans, dispersed, some in Alfred, some in their hometowns, and home countries. Because of the lockdown, the members of Sculpture Space NYC were similarly dispersed and the facility stood dark and silent, tables empty and kilns cold.
Zoom became the solution to isolation for many, and the Alfred Graduate students began virtual critiques as they improvised working situations for themselves. Zoom as we have come to know it, has the potential to create a kind of sensual depletion, removed from the elemental intimacy involved in working with ceramic materials and processes. Lacking that sensory element, Zoom can be exhausting, but happily, here we stand once again, thanks to the vaccines, with actual material objects for our bodies and minds to engage with.
In spite of the grief and loss experienced in this pandemic, a shift can now be felt as we collectively emerge into a new optimism. Let this show be a marker of this moment, a reemergence and rebirth, that speaks of persistence and the value of art making. The two ceramic centers, Alfred University and Sculpture Space NYC, once again can mark their continued vitality through this exhibition in a newly expanded gallery, and look to a future of collaboration by imagining what is possible through workshops, residencies, exhibitions and continued collegial dialogue.
Thank you to Nicolas Touron of Sculpture Space NYC; Johnathan Hopp, Walter McConnell, Corwyn L. Lund and Caitlin Brown of Alfred; and most of all the artists exhibiting their work who are an example of resilience. They have made something extraordinary in extraordinarily challenging times.
Special Thanks to the Division of Ceramic Art at Alfred University and the Alfred Ceramic Art Museum for their supportive grant to the artists. Division of Ceramic Art in the School of Art & Design, New York State College of Ceramics Alfred University
About the artists:
Uriel H. Caspi Jr.:
https://www.caspiceramics.com/
https://www.instagram.com/caspiceramics/
Born in Haifa, Israel (1994). MFA in ceramic art from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, USA. In 2018, graduated magna cum laude from the ceramics department, Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem. Studies at the Rhode Island School of Design and Cranbrook Ceramics, MI. Works and installations have been showcased nationally and abroad. In 2019, awarded an emerging artist prize of the Hecht Museum Foundation.
Marianne Chenard:
https://www.instagram.com/chenardmarianne/
Marianne’s art practice articulates itself around a site-specific approach to installation art that attempts to illustrate the human perceptual relationship with nature while exhibiting attentiveness to natural environment agency. It questions a notion of responsibility or entanglement, permanence or ephemerality, perception or realism, and is sensitive to the issues of climate change and the pursuit of global environmental sustainability. Her artwork is materialized through performance, video, earth art, sounds, and installations.
Originally from Rimouski Qc Canada, Marianne’s work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions in Québec, Canada and France. She has taken part in several artist residencies, and frequently offers specialized training in image transfer techniques on clay. She holds a BFA from Emily Carr University of Art + Design in Vancouver and an MFA in Ceramics from the New York College of Ceramics at Alfred University NY, USA.
Justin Donofrio:
https://www.instagram.com/just.donofrio/
Justin Donofrio grew up in Santa Cruz, CA. He holds a B.F.A. from Colorado State University, Fort Collins (2016) and received an MFA from NYSCC at Alfred University (2021). Donofrio has been a Windgate Summer Scholar at the Archie Bray Foundation, resident at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, and Anderson Ranch Arts Center. He has been an exhibiting artist and tour co-manager with the Artstream Nomadic Gallery, in addition to being selected as one of Ceramics Monthly’s 2018 Emerging Artists. Donofrio was a participant in The Walter Gropius Master Artist Symposium at the Huntington Museum of Art in Fall of 2020.
Lukas Easton:
https://www.instagram.com/lukaseaston/
This spring, Lukas Easton received his MFA from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University in New York. Easton received his BFA in ceramics, from the University of Alaska Anchorage in 2017. In 2018, Easton completed a Post-Baccalaureate in ceramics at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), in New York. After returning from a three-month residency at Jenggala Keramik in Bali designing commercial tableware, he spent a semester teaching as adjunct faculty at RIT. Easton is a 2020 Ceramics Monthly Emerging Artist and received honorable mention in the International Sculpture Center’s, Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Awards.
Shauna Fahley:
https://www.instagram.com/shaunafahley/
Shauna Fahley is a figurative ceramic sculptor who was born in 1994 and raised in the evergreen landscape of Renton, Washington. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Washington in 2017. She was a 2019 summer resident at The Archie Bray foundation for The Ceramic Arts. She received the National Studio Potter Merit Award in the 2021 NCECA National Student Juried Exhibition. In the Spring of 2021 she graduated with a Masters of Fine Art in ceramics at Alfred University.
Erin Smith:
https://www.esmithworkshop.com/
https://www.instagram.com/erinlynnsmith/
Erin Smith (b.1980) was raised in St. Paul, Minnesota. In 2003 she received her BFA in Product Design from Parsons School of Design and an MFA in ceramics from Alfred University. She has worked in the field of product design, interior design, event coordination, and as a small business owner in Minneapolis for the past 15 years.
Exhibitions include Walker Art Center and Soap Factory, Minneapolis, MN, Concordia University, St. Paul, MN, Cooler Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, and the Center for Contemporary Crafts, Houston, TX.
Sami Tsang:
https://samitsangceramics.com/
https://www.instagram.com/samiclayee/
Sami Tsang is a Canadian-born Chinese, raised in Hong Kong. The most impactful experience there was studying traditional Chinese painting for 7 years. At age 12, Tsang returned to Canada to pursue a passion for art.
From a young age, expressing herself through art felt essential. She decided to move from Hong Kong to Canada for the specialized art program at H. B. Beal Secondary School. Beal introduced her to a wider range of visual arts, including painting and ceramics. In 2015, Tsang continued to study Ceramic Art at Sheridan College. At Sheridan, she was introduced to the clay community, and was given lots of guidance from my professors and peers for the next steps in her career. In 2021, Tsang received a Master of Fine Art - Ceramic Art from Alfred University in New York State.
The online catalog of thesis work is available at the Alfred University website: https://www.alfred.edu/academics/colleges-schools/art-design/thesis-exhibits/spring-2021/mfa/index.cfm
SSNYC Curatorial Program is dedicated to promoting contemporary visual art focusing on the research and exploration of three dimensional work with an emphasis towards ceramics. Sculpture Space NYC's mission is to stimulate creativity, new ideas and collaboration in ceramics-based investigations. Artists, designers and craftspeople of all backgrounds converge in this center to experiment, learn, make, reflect and grow artistically.
Gallery Hours:
Tuesday-Saturday: 2pm-8pm & Sunday by appointment
To schedule an appointment please click here: info@sculpturespacenyc.com
Location: we are located at 47-21 35th Street, Long Island City NY 11101, near the 33rd Street/ Rawson Street stop on the 7 train.
