Coming October 5th, 2024
Tabula Rasa explores the concept of the blank slate, examining the enormous potential contained within each chunk of the most elemental of art mediums-raw clay. This exhibition brings together the work of five artists pushing the boundaries of possibility in the field of ceramics: Brie Ruais, JJ PEET, Ralph Scala, Sam Harvey, and Robert King, each demonstrating the unique journey their work takes from malleable formlessness to fully realized creation.
At the outset, there is only potential: a universal blank slate, a lump of unshapen clay. Each artist in Tabula Rasa approaches this fundamental state with intent, technique, skill and perspective, guiding the clay through distinct processes that are as individual as their stories, their fingerprints. This exhibition showcases the nearly infinite possibilities when raw material, clay, is shaped by the human hand and mind toward a defined, terminal point in the artists’ respective creative processes.
Brie Ruais engages with clay in a physical dialogue, imprinting her body’s movements onto the material, resulting in work that articulates the relationships among mind, body and earth, and explores the limitations of each. JJ PEET, a multidisciplinary artist, engages in a highly analytical practice wherein he combines clay with found objects, these creations becoming vessels for complex ideas that are at once personal and sociopolitical. Ralph Scala’s work draws from his deep understanding of ceramics history and practice. Combining this knowledge with his unique vision, everyday objects of gaze: dogs, human feet, faces are reimagined and re-presented in a way that challenges how each of us view those same objects in our own lives. Sam Harvey’s approach draws deeply on his personal history and navigates concepts as complicated as how place can linger inside each of us. His skillfully and meticulously coil built pieces are allowed to tell their own origin stories one fingertip-created corrugation at a time. Finally, Robert King’s creations stand as tributes to the way that the natural world can shape us. Utilizing natural materials found near his studio and viewing his work as a collaboration with nature, he utilizes those materials to capture the raw energy of nature, demonstrating the essence of what it is about nature that moves him and has moved humans throughout history.
While each of these ceramic artists start from a unified position, staring at an amorphous ball of clay, their highly individualized processes lead them down paths that are redefining clay art. Tabula Rasa is a demonstration of the nearly endless possibilities that arise when this innate potential of the material is met with the human need for expression, beauty, understanding and connection. Each piece in this exhibition is the result of a conversation between artist and material, a story that begins with a blank slate and ends with the breadth and depth of the work on display.