CURSIVE and CLAY

November 9 – December 10, 2023

Opening Reception:  November 9, 5:00 – 7:00 p.m.

Gallery Talk with the Artists:  November 9, 6:00 – 6:30 p.m.

The Dorrance H. Hamilton Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of Cursive and Clay, an exhibition of new and recent work combining language and clay.  This group exhibition highlights the work of three contemporary ceramic artists and educators from New England: Justin Gerace, Kathy King and Stephanie Lanter.

The union of written text and ceramic form can be traced back to the ancient world.  From the earliest clay tokens and cuneiform tablets, a vast array of “cursive and clay” amalgams has emerged that includes coins, tiles, buttons, pottery and more.  This exhibition reflects on that rich history by exploring the innovative treatment of text, writing, graffiti, pictographs, inscriptions, and other forms of cursive expression in ceramics today.

Justin Gerace injects the grittiness of urban life into functional ceramics.  Drawing inspiration from the lyrical storytelling of hip-hop and the graffitied environments of the city, Gerace depicts a landscape at full boil, one bubbling over with juxtapositions of imagery and text.  His stoneware platters and vases become active receptacles for his lived experience and his observations on social and political unrest.  Gerace is an adjunct Lecturer in Ceramics at Salve Regina University.

Cultural issues and personal narratives enliven the ceramic vessels of Kathy King.  Trained as printmaker, King employs a range of subtractive drawing and carving methods on thrown porcelain.  Her work constructs charged relationships between text and image while navigating the politics and poetics of identity from a feminist point of view.  Kathy King is Director of the Ceramics Program and Visual Arts Initiatives at the Office for the Arts at Harvard.

Stephanie Lanter’s layered ceramic sculptures often spring from her own writing and meditation on a single word or phrase.  Lanter interrogates language to the point of its embodiment.  By contemplating the dimensions of each utterance, she coaxes handwritten liquid clay to deform, coagulate and blossom into new dynamic states of expression and solid form.  Lanter is Associate Professor of Ceramics at the University of Harford Art School.

The Dorrance H. Hamilton Gallery is located in the Antone Academic Center on the campus of Salve Regina.  It is a fully accessible space with parking along Lawrence Avenue and Leroy Avenue.  Cursive and Clay is open to the public Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.; Wednesdays and Fridays from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.; and Saturdays and Sundays from Noon to 4:00 p.m.  The gallery is closed on Mondays and November 22 -27 for the Thanksgiving holiday.