The Gallery

The Gallery at PNW has seen tons of clay---tons of clay transformed by the hands of students, resident artists, guest artists and even an occasional anonymous potter in the guise of a historical piece of great beauty. The Gallery exists for those who “collect”, and for those who simply enjoy the immense pleasure of using a handmade object on daily basis.

We are committed to helping you find that favorite cup, or the wall piece that you cannot explain your fascination with to anyone else, but nonetheless it speaks to you. The cup, the teapot, a figurative work, a mixed media installation, and even that archetypal pot, the bowl, all have relevance both for the field, and for its supporters. We have them and we look forward to sharing them with you.

In the next year we have scheduled a number of shows that will cover a wide range of work from people both within and without our studio. Please come and explore for yourself.

The Potter Northwest Gallery is open 11 am-5 pm Tuesday through Friday and by appointment.

Call 206-285-4421.

Programs at Pottery Northwest are made possible in part through the generous support of:

End of the Trail — George Rodriguez

May 5- 26
OPENING Reception and Artist Talk: Saturday, May 5, 6- 8 PM

Pottery Northwest – the Pacific Northwest’s premier ceramics studio and a community of artists at many levels – is pleased to present “End of the Trail,” a solo exhibition of work by George Rodriguez.  The show will run from May 5th  through May 26th, 2012 in the Gallery of Pottery Northwest’s historic home at 226 First Avenue North (between Thomas and John), just one block south of the Key Arena at the Seattle Center.  An Opening Reception with the artist will be held on Saturday, May 5th, from 6-8 pm with an artist talk beginning at 7pm.  The public is cordially invited to join this celebration of friends, years passed and new horizons. Please join us dressed in your favorite floral attire – 5 flower minimum!

A masterful sculptor and ceramicist represented by Seattle’s Foster White Gallery, George Rodriguez has exhibited throughout Washington, New Mexico and Texas as well as most recently in storefront window displays throughout Seattle. He earned his BFA from the University of Texas, El Paso in 2006 and his MFA from the University of Washington Ceramics program in 2009.  In addition to the 2010 Bonderman Travel Fellowship which took him to 26 countries in 10.5 months, he has been the recipient of many awards including most recently the 2011 Artist Trust GAP Grant and the Pottery Northwest RAP (Resident Artist Project) Grant.

Rodriguez has been a warm and generous member of the Pottery Northwest community since 2009. He is celebrating the conclusion of his artist-in-residency at Pottery Northwest with a commemorative fiesta and solo show.

End of the Trail - Standing in Place. The sunrise brings the new day and with each new day a clean slate. Exhausted but excited I am perched on a wooden horse waiting for the next burst of energy to propel me forward. The sky is uncertain but the ground is stable. Then end of the trail is actually a bend in the trail.

Gallery hours are Tuesday through Friday from 10 am to 5 pm. For further information and high-resolution images, please contact Nana Kuo at nana@potterynorthwest.org.  Additional information about the artist is also available at http://www.gfrodriguez.com/bio/.

Founded in 1966 as a non-profits arts organization, Pottery Northwest is a long time and vibrant source of programming in the Seattle arts community. Artists from around the world come to Pottery Northwest in the spirit of artistic dialog and as a formative step in their professional career. World class professional artist residencies,  exhibitions featuring traditional and contemporary work, community classes and an engaging lecture series spanning many years are all features of this fixture at Seattle Center.

Down Under / Over There — Gail Nichols & Walter Keeler

March 23- 31. Daily 10 am-6 pm.
RECEPTION with the artists: Thursday, March 29, 6- 8 PM

We are fortunate to have two of the leading international artists in vapor firing in person at Pottery Northwest in conjunction with the NCECA conference. In addition to being workshop presenters, we are pleased to have some of their recent work here in this showing.

Gail, a US citizen now lives and works Down Under. Gail has lectured and lead workshops at PNW in the past. She is a generous workshop leader and we are fortunate to have here again but our first introduction to Gail was through her work. “Painting with  fire” is how she describes her process and it is wholly accurate. Influenced by the landscape and surroundings of her adopted homeland she has turned a scientist’s mind toward an artist’s sensitivity. Like the Australian landscape her work is dramatic and full of contrasts in texture and color. It is unusual for a vessel, and Gail is a vessel maker, to possess so much presence without a narrative or imagery depicted on the surface. Yet here they are, and it is simply because she wield a painter’s fiery brush. 

Walter Keeler has been making pots for over 40 years Over There. In fact he has been making great pots in the U.K. for over 40 years. One of the first modern potters to truly delve into throwing and altering in an effort to expand the vocabulary of the vessel, he has done so quite successfully. Yet all the time he has kept function in mind and melded function with a playfulness of form. It is seriously playful. He has stretched the phrase “form follows function” to create work that is fluid yet crisp. The surfaces of his large body of salt glazed work are luscious, but no more so than his exploration of whiteware/earthenware with hints of perhaps Tang tri-color ware influence. With the assistance of Wales International we are excited to have Walter’s work here at PNW.

Special thanks to the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation and the Seattle Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs
for their generous support of this exhibition.

Sculpture, objects, pottery, stories.....of imagination, narrative, myth, and beauty. Organized by Wally Bivins

Evidence of the burgeoning artist-in-residence program at Pottery Northwest. Just six years old, this program has already begun to attract artists from across the country. The work is diverse and represents the best of both traditional and contemporary approaches to clay.

Mar 26-31,
Mon-Sat, 9am-5pm.
Receptions Mar 27 & 30, 5-9pm

Body Installation — Sadashi Inuzuka

March 27- April 15. Daily 10am-6pm.
RECEPTION with the artist: Thursday, March 29, 6- 8 PM

Sadashi Inuzuka’s installation is a juried exhibition of the NCECA conference. As a well known and prolific ceramic artist, Sadashi is experiencing the loss of his sight. We are pleased to present this work in our south gallery. This sculpture about experiencing the world from the margins of sight and the line where separate identities meet, and has been created in collaboration with a dancer. The work explores aspects of blindness and visual impairment through ceramic objects that engage visitors‘ touch, hearing and imagination. The interactive dimension of this exhibition represents a return to the fundamentals of clay and its leading edge.

"Body is about my separate identities in the worlds of sight and blindness, art and education and how they overlap."
-Sadashi Inuzuka

When I first encountered clay it was a revelation. I discovered how to use my hands to connect the material world to what is inside of me. When I create my work I recall that powerful memory and this is what I want to share with the viewer in this new project. It is about the aesthetic and conceptual completion of a ceramic object through the body experience of the viewer.

This project will be a series of sculptures inspired by the body and its movement. Visitors are invited to touch the work and once in close physical contact they will be able to hear sounds emanating from inside the sculpture. These may be ambient sounds, a word or a fragment of a story – each a poetic reference to the sculpture’s form and a memory. Like a piece of functional ceramic ware, these sculptures are conceptually and formally completed when they merge with the body’s senses.

Ceramics has such a long connection to the body yet contemporary ceramic sculpture has become detached from that history, positioned more within the gallery/museum experience. This project celebrates the physical nature of ceramics and in this way is an old and new vision of what ceramic sculpture is. I want to bring the human body back into the work and demonstrate that a sculptural form is completed through the senses, ritual and reflection. This project aims to bridge the distance between artist and audience.

This project is significant for me as it will be the first time I directly refer to my experience as a visually impaired person. As this is a collaborative project, I also look forward to the possibilities and challenges of working with a dancer/performer on this work.

Sadashi Inuzuka was born in Kyoto, Japan and received his MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan in 1987. He is known for his large installations that explore the intersection of human society and the natural world, traditional and innovative processes, art and science, ceramics and video. Inuzuka has exhibited, lectured and worked in residencies nationally and internationally. He has received broad recognition for innovation within the field of ceramics and is the recipient of numerous awards and grants including Pollack/Krasner Foundation, Pew Charitable Trusts and The Canada Council for the Arts. Currently, he is Professor at the School of Art and Design, the University of Michigan.

Special thanks to the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation and the Seattle Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs
for their generous support of this exhibition.

Decadence — Jessi Li

January 14 - February 11
OPENING RECEPTION Saturday, January 14, 6- 8 PM

Jessi Li grew up in Jersey City, NJ and graduated from Bard College at Simon’s Rock in Massachusetts in 2009. She moved to Seattle in 2010 as an artist in residence at Pottery Northwest where she has been able to pursue not only her passion for clay, but also kiln cast glass. Jessi was awarded the Resident Artist Project (RAP) grant at Pottery Northwest and the Art Bridge Fellowship through Pratt Fine Arts Center. These grants helped develop a body of work incorporating figures and architecturally inspired forms made from both clay and glass.

Decadence marks the completion of Li’s residency at Pottery Northwest.  In this exhibition, she asks:

“How would we feel if our intimate moments were made public? Would we change our behavior? Sanitize our lives? In one breath the beautiful is transformed to repulsive. Whether divine or amoral, excessive or tasteful, is it not decadent?”