Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Demonstration by local potters on Saturday
Contact for more information:
Erika Myers-Bromwell Director of New Harmony Gallery of Comtemporary Art 812/682-3156 Participating artists include Lenny Dowhie, Les Miley, and Beth Mohr. Dowhie is a prolific ceramicist and professor of art at the University of Southern Indiana. Since joining USI in 1973, Dowhie has devoted his life to arts education and culture in the Evansville area and abroad. In 2008, the Arts Council of Southwestern Indiana named him Arts Educator of the Year. His work is in numerous collections, including the Shigaraki Ceramics Cultural Park, The Australian National University, American General Finance, and the Smithsonian Institute of American Art, Renwick Gallery. He has served on the board of the American Crafts Council and is a founder of the Coalition of Creative Organizations (COCO) and SOFA Chicago and New York. Dowhie works with clay and pastels, creating platters and teapots. Regardless of the forms he chooses, the work carries his sense of humor and political satire. While Dowhie teaches more traditional pottery, his work is less focused on functionality. He treats teapots as "a vehicle upon which I tell stories and bring my observations not only of beauty but also of the uncomfortable." Dowhie also creates colorful tableaus on platters, shifting the intent of the work from functionality to wall art. Miley is a professor of art emeritus and former chair of the art department at the University of Evansville. After teaching at UE for over 40 years, he has contributed to the education of local and regional potters and has retained a devoted following for his abilities in teaching and vessel-making. His distinctive style, including tactile textures and ash glazes, makes his work easily recognizable. His work is in permanent collections at several Indiana Universities and museums as well as in private collections. Most recently, his stoneware and porcelain work was featured in the Indiana State Museum's exhibition "Making It in the Midwest: Those Who Chose to Stay." His work has also been featured in a variety of publications, including as Ash Glazes by Phil Rogers (2003, University of Pennsylvania Press), Ceramics Monthly, and Salt-Glaze Ceramics by Jack Troy. An artist sensitive to his surroundings in southern Indiana, Miley said, "The wheel-thrown vessel remains the stable element in my work, whereas the surface treatment reflects my varied emotional reactions to the personal situations associated with specific locations in the landscape or with certain atmospheric conditions encountered in it." Mohr, one of the region's newest talents, creates functional, wheel-thrown, and altered pottery. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at Millikin University and continued her fine arts education at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville. She has been a part-time studio potter in Posey County for the last five years. Exhibiting primarily in the region, Mohr's work has received recognition at the Evansville Museum of Arts, History, and Science, and the Bower-Suhrheinrich Foundation Gallery. Her work is also featured in the publication 500 Pitchers: Contemporary Expressions of a Classic Form Lark Ceramics Books). Mohr's pieces have a distinctive style that is sleek, delicate, and feminine. Referencing days spent with her mother as a child, Mohr said, "Day in and day out, food preparation, sewing, laundry, cleaning, and gardening were woven together in a daily rhythm that passed through my mother's hands." By making art that seeks a function in people's day-to-day lives, Mohr meditates on the simple pleasures of domestic life through her vessels and plates, decorated with neutral glazes and organic shapes. The gallery is located at 506 Main Street in New Harmony, Indiana, and and is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. For more information, call 812/682-3156 or visit www.nhgallery.com. This event was made possible through the generous support of the University of Southern Indiana. |
Copyright © 2013 University of Southern Indiana. All rights reserved.
