TeaTime

TeaTime: Annual National Invitational

Opening Reception: Saturday, February 1. 5-7 pm

This exhibition of
functional and sculptural teapots explores the history of tea and its
relevance in our culture. The exhibition will highlight the teapot,
whose form and related ceremonies has inspired artists for centuries and
continues to be a valid form of expression in studios of contemporary
artists today.

Clay Art Center
is pleased to present TeaTime, a national invitational
exhibition in our Gallery, featuring functional and sculptural teapots by invited
artists and an exploration of tea  and
its relevance in a global culture. The exhibit, curated by Caitlin
Applegate and Leigh Taylor Mickelson, will highlight the teapot and its ceremonies which
are found worldwide and will run
from February 1 – April 1, 2014, with an opening reception on Saturday, February
1, from 5-7pm. Admission is free.  In
addition, CAC will be hosting several programs to enrich the exhibition,
including workshops, historical lectures, a panel discussion and several
educational programs. The Shop at CAC will feature handmade works by CAC
Artists and invited guest artists.

 

Featuring 70
contemporary ceramic artists, TeaTime will highlight the teapot
and tea-set, whose forms and related ceremonies have inspired artists for
centuries and continues to be a valid form of expression in studios of
contemporary artists today. Artists will explore tea traditions and redefine
what tea is in contemporary culture. 
What will bring the exhibition together is TEA, its rich history, its
place in our life, and its influence in contemporary ceramics.  

 

In
conjunction with TeaTime, Clay Art
Center will explore clay and its relationship to tea, with its global
pervasiveness in a series of events and educational programs occurring
throughout the duration of exhibition. Semester-long adult and children’s
classes take a look at form and function in relation to tea and its global
culture. Two shorter
workshops will also be presented in conjunction with this exhibition.  South Carolina artist Jim Connell will present a one-day workshop entitled “The Teapot,” on Saturday,
February 8: Fee: $100 members. Keiko
Ashida will present a four week workshop in February in which students will
be immersed in the Japanese tea ceremony: Sunday, February 9, 16, 23, 1pm–4pm
& Saturday, March 1, 1-4 pm Fee: $150 members. On Valentine’s Day, the Clay Art Center will host “date night” a fun filled time for
couples to make their own “tea for two” tea cups on the potters’ wheel and have
their personal tea leaves read by a local tea leaf reader.

 

On
Saturday, March 1 from 1-4pm, CAC will host
Tea Immersion. Three presentations from known authorities will offer their
personal perspective on tea culture. Leslie
Ferrin, Author of Teapots Transformed;
Exploration of an Object, will present an overview of contemporary
ceramic teapots, Ulysses Dietz, Senior Curator at the Newark Museum will offer
an historical survey of the teapot both as a functional form and as an artistic
challenge in the West, and Michael
Harney, VP of Harney & Sons Master Tea Blenders, will speak about tea
tastes and traditions in various tea  growing lands and how that has influenced tea
pots in several countries. A panel
discussion will follow the lectures moderated
by Judith Schwartz, Professor of Art & Art Professions at NYU. Tea tastings
will culminate the event hosted by poured by Harney & Sons. Fee: $25
members.

 

 

 

Each year, CAC hosts a themed national
invitational that showcases the breadth and depth of what is happening in the
realm of functional and decorative ceramics. 
TeaTime and its
concurrent events highlight the invitational to re-imagine and re-position the
exhibition and contextualize the objects within its cultural milieu. The
exhibition combines familiar forms and artistic voices with the results of
those who branched out a bit?? Simultaneous events will allow participants and
community members to become immersed in the narrative of tea and its global
reach. 

 

The participating
artists range from emerging to established in their careers and include:   Sally Aldrich, Dan
Anderson, Peter Arnow, Christa Assad,  Keiko Ashida, Deborah Bedwell, Dalia Berman,
Margaret Bohls, Posey Boucopoulos, Jenni Brant, Kelly Brenner Justice, Cory
Brown, Jeff Campana, Wayne Cardinalli, Jeanne Carreau, Donald Clark,  Bede Clarke, Jane Cohen, Jim Connell, Paula
Cook, Jennifer DePaolo, Kelsey Duncan, Julie Elkins, Karen Ford, Robin
Henschel, Beth Herod, Debra Holiber, Woody Hughes, Natalie Kase, Reena Kashyap,
Elizabeth Kendall, Sarah Koster, Ben Krupka, Jim Lawton, Kazuko Lee, Janet
Lipow, Matt Long, Loren Maron, Andrew Martin, Deborah Mawhinney, Rose
Misanchuk, Sally Ng, Gloria Nixon-Crouch, Kiyomi Noda, Matt Nolen, Richard
Notkin, Chris Pickett, Audrey Rosulek, Shoji Satake, Lily Schor, Roberta
Shapiro, Harold Silverman, Gertrude Graham smith, Amy Smith, Florence Suerig, Mara
Superior,  Hatsumi Suyama, Munemitsu
Taguchi, Georgia Tenore, Susan Thayer, Matthew Towers, Judith Weber, Kurt
Weiser, Susan Wortman.

 

Clay Art Center is a not-for-profit ceramic art
organization offering exhibitions, clay classes for adults and children, studio spaces for clay
artists and outreach programs in the community. 
It is located in the heart of Port Chester at 40 Beech Street, Port Chester,
NY 10573.   Gallery hours are Monday
through Friday, 10am-4pm or by appointment.