Lawson Oyekan, Northern Clay Center, Minneapolis MN, to July 2

Modern Masters in Clay: Richard Bresnahan, Chuck Hindes, Ron Meyers, The Grand Hand Gallery, St. Paul MN, to June 17

Rudy Autio, Holter Museum of Art, Helena MT, June 12-August 30,2006

Works by Toshiko Takaezu, Hunterdon Museum of Art, Clinton NJ, June 11-August 20, 2006

Ruth Duckworth at 85, August 21 - September 25, 2006
Richard DeVore: About Surviving, June 25 - July 26, 2003
Bellas Artes, Santa Fe NM

The Pottery of Santa Ana Pueblo, The Museum of Indian Arts & Culture, Santa Fe NM, to September 17

James Marshall: Ceramic Sculptures, Winterowd Fine Art, Santa Fe NM, June 2-June 15, 2006

Warren MacKenzie and the Midwest Five, Gallery Gen, New York NY,
June 27-July 29, 2006

Sir Anthony Caro: The Kenwood Series, Garth Clark Gallery, Long Island City NY, to August 11

Norm Schulman: A Life in Clay, Asheville Art Museum, Asheville NC, June 18-October 1, 2006

Bennett Bean: Thirty Years, Lehigh University Art Galleries, Bethlehem PA, to August 13

Shades of Clay: A Multi-cultural Look at Contemporary Clay, Philip and Muriel Berman Museum of Art at Ursinus College, Collegeville PA, July 30- September 24, 2006

Multiplicity: Contemporary Ceramic Sculpture, Stanlee and Gerald Rubin Center for the Visual Arts, University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso TX, June 29-September 23, 2006

The Artful Teapot :Twentieth Century Expressions from the Kamm Collection, Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphs TN, to September 24

Between Clouds of Memory: The Ceramic Art of Akio Takamori, Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma WA, to October 8

Willi Singleton will be offering for sale the results of his Spring firing. On both Saturday, June 3 and Sunday, June 4, his Pine Creek Pottery will be open to the public from 12 noon to 6 pm. Pieces similar to those in our online gallery will be available. Willi also makes a wonderful selection of functional pieces for sale. This is an opportunity to enhance your daily experience by acquiring pieces to use around your home. Pine Creek Pottery is located at 843 Hawk Mountain Road, Kempton PA, 19529; phone, 610.756.6387.

The following article appeared in Ceramics Art and Perception, #63.

Article by Patricia Pelehach

“But that is simply impossible,” sputtered the visitor, a distinguished and accomplished potter.

“Yes, it is,” replied Paul Chaleff. “Almost.” Noticing my gape-mouthed, bug-eyed response to his enormous and marvellous Large Free Form, Chaleff, with his usual self-deprecating charm, told the anecdote above, to let me know that I was not the firstto react to his new work with breathless befuddlement. While I attempted to collect my wits and, more importantly, deflect the artist’s attention away from the fact that I was now caressing the sculpture’s invitingly tactile surface, Chaleff told me that this monumental form – more than 2 m (6 ft) in height and in length – was originally a fist-sized maquette, hacked with a hatchet from a raw lump of clay. Once the artist had a shape that spoke to him, he commenced
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Atsumi Fujita lives in Brooklyn NY and since receiving her Master’s degree from Pratt Institute has been active in the New York art scene, She has organized and curated several shows in and around Manhattan focusing on sculptural ceramics that go beyond traditional concepts of ceramic art.

You’ve been the curator on several ceramics shows in and around New York and recently you had a show during NCECA in Portland. How did that work out?
I thought I would be in Portland for a couple of weeks but I took a job at a gallery in New York so I was in Portland only to set up and take down the show.

The title of the show was “Bodies of Clay: Am I Weird?” How did you pick that title?
At the last minute the gallery for my show canceled. So Nel Bannier, she was my teacher and now friend, asked me to combine my show with hers since my theme addressed weirdness that came from within the body. Nel’s show was “Bodies of Clay” and mine was “Am I Weird?” My original title was “I am Weird”, but some artists and Nel thought it was too strong. So, I switched it to a question and put the “?” in the title. That’s why there are two titles.

Are you weird?
Maybe. I think everybody is a little weird. Weirdness makes people more interesting. So, on some level, I think I’m weird.

You’re from Japan where there is a rich tradition of functional ceramics but little figurative and pure sculptural ceramics since maybe the haniwa. Where did your interest in figurative and pure sculptural work come from?
I spent most of my youth in Iga, one of the old kiln communities in Japan, and was raised in a ceramics environment. My father is an art dealer focusing on Japanese ceramic wares and my
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