Variations on the ancient form
In 2016 Galerie Terra Delft will be 30 years old and this anniversary, Terra 30!, is a good opportunity to reflect back and look forward.
The kick-off of Terra 30! will take place with a group exhibition with ‘the bowl’ as its theme, an exhibition of works by six internationally celebrated artists. The bowl is the most primitive form of ceramics, universal and as old as humankind: a good subject for the start of this celebration year!
There are bowls by familiar friends such as the Belgians Ann van Hoey and Guy van Leemput and the Englishman Duncan Ross. They will be joined by some new additions to Terra’s artist lineup: Arne Åse from Norway, Anne-Soline Barbaux from France, and Claire Verkoyen from Amsterdam. This configuration of old and new sets the tone for the exhibitions for the coming year.
Arne Åse, the first professor of ceramics at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts, makes porcelain bowls with bas-relief in a technique which he developed himself: he paints the unfired pot with shellac and then washes the uncovered surface with water, leaving some areas thinner and more transparent. Anne-Soline Barbaux strives for a perfect, elegant form. As if to interrupt that perfection, she adds contrast in the form of notches at the border of interior and exterior. Claire Verkoyen also aims for perfection in her poured porcelain bowls, which are decorated with silkscreen images created with a computer 3D program, in eggshell porcelain.
Ann van Hoey, inspired by the Japanese art of paper folding, displays bowls in the natural shades of clay, and also a number of brightly colored bowls sprayed with automotive paint, a reference to the refinement of Japanese lacquerware. Guy van Leemput, who finds inspiration in the architecture of the natural world, adds color to his wafer-thin bowls, a development which commenced during his stay in China. The perfect bowls of Duncan Ross, with their beautiful surfaces created through the use of terra sigillata and their lovely play of lines, can now be enjoyed in a distinguished grey-black as well as deep orange.
