Tyler School of Art Ceramics

Come check out Tyler Ceramics MFA alum Matt Ziemke’s solo show at Napoleon tomorrow night for First Friday.

Opening Reception: First Friday, November 2nd, 2012, 5 – 10 PM. The exhibition runs November 2 – 25, 2012. More info at www.mattziemke.com or napoleon.philadlephia@gmail.com

Congratulations Matt!

From his press release:

CADILLAC DESERT
SOLO EXHIBITION BY MATT ZIEMKE
November 2 – 25, 2012
Opening Reception First Friday, November 2nd 2012, 5 – 10 PM

Napoleon – a collectively run focal space in Philadelphia – is pleased to present a solo exhibition by sculptor and ceramic artist Matt Ziemke. Cadillac Desert, loosely inspired by Marc Reisner’s 1993 nonfiction novel Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water, features a series of precarious multi-parted works that sensitively explore the political and environmental battles surrounding Middle America’s limited resources.

Reisner’s book Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water is an extensive historical account of the American West’s relationship to water. The redirection and accumulation of water significantly shaped the western region both geographically and politically. Engineering feats ultimately veiled the negative results and long-term effects of subsidized water use in arid regions, undesirable salinized ground water, and pillaged ecosystems.

Both concerned with and inspired by Reisner’s subject matter, Matt Ziemke’s Cadillac Desert is a conglomerate of forms, structures, and intricate surface treatments that are likewise conflicted yet beautiful. The locations, conditions, and terrains noted within Ziemke’s research materialize through his inclusion of maps and diagrams, each serving as visual sources of his subject matter. The work offers perspective and mines the territory of locating, extracting, and consuming resources, but in no way does it pretend to offer any solutions to these burdens that have spanned generations.

By definition, Cadillac (noun) is “something that is an outstanding example of its kind, especially in luxury, quality, or size.” While the size – or scale – of impact created by the establishment of particular water policies in Middle America was, and is, monumentally detrimental, Ziemke toys with and contradicts this notion, creating intimate and pristine works shown in Napoleon’s intimately sized exhibition space.

Matt Ziemke received his MFA in Ceramics from Tyler School of Art, Temple University and is currently an Artist in Residence at The Clay Studio in Philadelphia, PA. He has recently shown at the Ann Street Gallery in Newburgh, NY and was featured in Vox XIII at Vox Polpuli in Philadelphia. For more information on the artist please go to www.mattziemke.com.

Napoleon’s gallery hours are First Fridays, most Saturday and Sundays from 2-6 PM, and by appointment. For further information, or to contact the gallery, please email napoleon.philadlephia@gmail.com.

Congratulations to Tyler Ceramics faculty, Nicholas Kripal, on his exhibition at the Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts! The exhibition is open from Sep 22, 2012 – Jan 6, 2013. More information is available at: http://www.thedcca.org/exhibit/nicholas-kripal-contrivance

From the DCCA website:

Nicholas Kripal’s concentrated, pyramid-shaped installation of elegant geometric forms recalls both a city and an obsessively organized archive. The body of work on display at the DCCA grew out of a project the artist completed for the Philadelphia International Airport, which featured objects inspired by the low relief, ornamental terra cotta tiles visible throughout Philadelphia. For his DCCA exhibition, the artist references past architectural decoration and contemporary disposable culture in conceptually hybrid ceramic sculptures made from molds of throwaway food containers from the 1920s to the present. Although evocative of jello, pudding, and cake, Kripal’s work most notably acknowledges the history of architecture and design. Inspired by Art Deco and Art Nouveau, Kripal also pays homage to the Beaux Arts architectural tradition of sculptural decoration that employs French, Italian Baroque and Rococo styles and realism. The black glazing alludes to stonewear clay of the 20th Century and Ancient Greek vases.

Approximately 70 forms make up his bi-laterally symmetrical installation. The artist’s method of presentation alludes to banquet structures, centerpieces, and elaborate formal gardens. His custom-built table allows for a two-foot walk space around the gallery. “Over the past ten years one aspect of my studio practice has been an investigation of site-related/site-specific installations. Specifically, but not exclusively, I have placed sculptural installations within sacred spaces. I am interested in the history of the site, the religious rites that take place within the site, and the architectural iconography of the site.” Situated in a white cube gallery such as that of the DCCA’s Draper, Kripal’s ceramic forms seemingly resignify the art museum as a ritualistic space.

-Maiza Hixson

Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts 

Come see Dennis Ritter’s BFA Exhibition tonight from 6:00-9:00 p.m. in the lower atrium at Tyler school of Art, Temple University. And, if you can’t make it tonight, come tomorrow night during the MFA receptions. Dennis has promised a cameo appearance.

Congratulations Dennis!