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Eden Revisited: The Ceramic Art of Kurt Weiser
One of the world’s most acclaimed contemporary artists working in ceramics will be featured in a mid-career retrospective exhibition opening at the Southwest School of Art & Craft on April 29, and on display through June 27.
Eden Revisited: The Ceramic Art of Kurt Weiser brings the artist’s enigmatic, beautifully rendered images, which wrap around porcelain vessel forms, to San Antonio for the first time. His technical virtuosity evokes Eden-like images, often both innocent and sensual.
While in San Antonio, Weiser will share his thoughts about his work and the state of contemporary ceramics in a free public talk, open to all, at the Southwest School’s Russell Hill Rogers Lecture Hall, Friday evening April 30, at 6:30P. He will also teach a special one-day class on china paint at the art school on Saturday, May 1st.
The exhibition is comprised of approximately forty ceramic sculptures and several drawings that illustrate Weiser's signature style. His porcelain vessels range from classically-inspired lidded jars and teapots, to unique mounted globes full of allegorical and mythological references and lush landscapes.
Organized by the Arizona State University Art Museum Ceramic Research Center, the exhibition examines Weiser’s work from the 1970s to the present. Curator Peter Held included works acquired from the artist’s own personal collection, the Ceramic Research Center’s collection, and public and private collections around the country. The exhibition in San Antonio is the final stop on a national tour.
Weiser was the director of the ceramics-focused Archie Bray Foundation from 1979-1988, and in 1989 became head of the ceramics program at Arizona State University where he has been the distinguished Regent’s Professor of Art since 2000. He studied under the iconic ceramicist Ken Ferguson, at Kansas City Art Institute from 1964-1966, earned his BFA there, then went on to receive an MFA at University of Michigan.
The artist’s work is featured in numerous international collections including: The Mint Museum of Craft + Design; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Carnegie Institute Museum of Art; National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution; Victoria & Albert Museum, London; Museum of Contemporary Ceramics, Shiragaki, Japan; Helsinki Museum of Applied Arts, Finland; and the National Museum of History, Taipei, among many others. Weiser has received numerous awards, including two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Aileen Osborn Webb Award from the American Craft Council.
Accompanying the exhibition is a 96-page catalog, with essays by Ulysses Grant Dietz, Edward Lebow and exhibition curator Peter Held, biographical information, and images of the included works.
Eden Revisited: The Ceramic Art of Kurt Weiser was organized by the Arizona State University Art Museum Ceramics Research Center, Tempe, Arizona, curated by Curator of Ceramics Peter Held, and funded by a grant from the Windgate Charitable Foundation.
EXHIBITION | Apr 29 – June 27
Kurt Weiser: Eden Revisited
One of the world’s leading contemporary artists working in clay, Weiser is the former Director of the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena MT, and is the Regents’ Professor of Art at Arizona State University. Exhibit organized by Arizona State University Art Museum Ceramic Research Center; Peter Held, Curator. Public reception: April 29, 5:30 – 7:30. Russell Hill Rogers Gallery, Navarro Campus
ARTIST TALK | April 30 | 6:30P
Kurt Weiser: Eden Revisited
A rare opportunity to meet and hear one of the country’s most respected, and collected, ceramic artists. Free and open to the public. Russell Hill Rogers Lecture Hall, Navarro Campus
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January 24th was the 40th birthday of a special San Antonio arts tradition – one that has impacted about 25,000 San Antonio families and kids during its years. 