Betty Woodman has two shows running in New York concurently. The first is at her gallery, Max Protetch Gallery, until May 27th, called “Betty Woodman: New Works.” According to text on the Protetch site: “BettyWoodman is recognised internationally as one of the world’s premier living ceramicists. She has pushed the traditional limits of the vessel and continues to challenge them through her unique combination of hand-built and wheel-thrown forms, painting, and installation. Since she began developing these hybrid works in the late 1970s, they have been exhibited in museum exhibitions around the world, including the Aspen Museum (1984), Denver Art Museum (1988), Wadsworth Atheneum (1992), the Musee des Arts Decoratifs in Paris (1993 and 1994), the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam (1996), and at the Fundacao Calouste Gulbenkian in Lisbon, Portugal (1997).”

The second is a retrospective of her work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art titled “The Art of Betty Woodman” which runs until July 30. Announcing the exhibition was a full-page article in the Sunday, April 23rd edition of the New York Times in the Arts section. (You can still access the article on the Times website for free for a while before it goes into a pay to read mode.) The article touches on many ideas of interest like whether we’re discussing ceramics or sculpture, although the Times doesn’t touch on them too deeply. The exhibit also has a catalog.

Jim Kraft, Foster/White Gallery, Seattle WA, May 17-June 4.

Akio Takamori, Marylhurt University, Marylhurst OR, to May 3.

Walter B. Stephen: Potter of Distinction, Asheville Art Museum, Asheville NC, to June 11.

Great Pots: The Vessel as Art, 1900-2000, The UBS Art Gallery, New York NY, to May 19, ceramic works from the collection of The Newark Museum.

Bennett Bean and Cheryl Ann Thomas, Thirteen Moons Gallery, Santa Fe NM, to May 8.

Steven Montgomery, Daum Museum of Contemporary Art, Sedalia, MO, to May 21.

Richard Bresnahan, Chuck Hindes, Ron Myers, Grand Hand Gallery, St. Paul MN, May 9-June 17, 2006.

Landscape: Allusions in Clay, Pewabic Pottery, Detroit MI, to May 12.

Casas Grandes and the Ceramic Art of the Ancient Southwest, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, April 22-August 13, 2006.

Tales from the Kiln: Contemporary Ceramics, San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose CA, to July 9.

A Ceramic Legacy: Selections from the Stéphane Janssen and R. Michael Johns Collection, Arizona State University Art Museum, Tempe AZ, to August 5.

Poetic Expressions of Mortality: Figurative Ceramics from the Porter-Price Collection, Mobile Museum of Art, Mobile AL, April 14-July 23, 2006.

Warren Mackenzie is one of the master potters who will be present at the International Ceramics Symposium to be held at The Hotchkiss School in Lakeville CT from May 12-14, 2006. The potters will “share their expertise, show their work and swap ideas in a weekend-long conference called Clay: The Art of Earth and Fire.” Information on the participants and the schedule can be found on the Hotchkiss website.

The ceramics exhibit will be on display in the Tremaine Gallery from May 5 through June 18, 2006.

There will also be ceramics shows at the other Lakeville galleries, Argazzi Art, Morgan Lehman Gallery and The White Gallery.

The Generational Crossroads show opened Saturday night at Lacoste Gallery to an enthusiastic crowd that numbered several hundred over the two hour plus length of the opening. The Japanese Consul, a Japanese film crew and many collectors and admirers, many of whom drove up from New York and beyond, created a full house at the gallery. As the gallery heated up the only relief was to step outside into a light but cool rain.

Lucy Lacoste took apart her gallery and reinvented it with charcoal gray walls and none of the usual shelving, only pedestals and individual shelves for the work. The effect was stunning and the beautiful colors of Bizen were easily seen. Jeff Shapiro and Tim Rowan had over 15 pieces each and many were sold. (Some similar and smaller pieces can be seen in the Gallery portion of this site.)

It was a coup to have the work of Isezaki Jun and Kakurezaki Ryuichi on display as they are both much sought after in Japan. Isezaki was recently named a Living National Treasure for Bizen and Kakurezaki’s chawan sold recently in Japan amid near panic buying by collectors (see e-yakimono.net for this story). Two of Kakurezaki’s chawan were in the show and an Oribe one was taken by a collector from Brooklyn NY. Each artist had only five or six pieces in the show but they were enough to establish mastery. Either the prices or lack of knowledge left many of these exquisite pieces unsold. Koichiro, Jun’s son, had some 15 pieces and many sold due to their strong design and less agressive pricing.

Since all the artists had worked together at some point, their individual approaches can be studied and one can see the different results in size, firing and regard for function and tradition. Jeff made the point that he is not a Bizen artist since he works without that clay and outside that strong local culture of ceramics. His is a creative response to a uniquely American experience even when influences can be discerned. The same can be said for Tim Rowan whose work is very strong and shows wonderful effects from his firings on unrefined clay.

Photos: top, Lacoste window; center, Lucy introducing Isezaki Jun, Jeff Shapiro and Tim Rowan; bottom, Kakurezaki and Koichiro