Surface/Depth
Gallery 3 at the University Co-op, third floor, through Oct. 29
Gallery 3, a new space in the University Co-op, offers year-round exhibitions with a particular interest in giving students in the Department of Art and Art History at UT-Austin opportunities to explore curatorial and exhibition issues as they transition from studio to commercial situations. “Surface/Depth,” the gallery’s second exhibition, is the first solo exhibition in Austin for Chris Campbell, the ceramics lab technician at UT since 2002. Curator Heather Mathews, an art history graduate student, displays 30-odd wood-fired ceramic vessels by Campbell, from large vases to more intimate lidded containers. Campbell draws on the design traditions of East Asian ceramics, especially those of medieval Japanese and Korean pottery, forming and firing some artistically fulfilling vessels. In her curatorial statement, Mathews notes that “as objects, they echo the seamless integration of beauty and functionality represented by those older traditions.” The works are rendered in unadorned graceful shapes that strike an exhilarating balance between form and firing processes.
Wood-firing, an old tradition in ceramics, with humble accidental beginnings probably in camp fires, requires continual care to the fire, coal, heat, and ash by the artist. Knowledge of clay base, which woods burn best, firing cycles, kiln shape, and how long to fire necessitates an adventurous type of ceramist. These complex variables all affect the appearance of the final works. The colors produced in these wood-fired works by Campbell are exciting. The glazes, affected by ash, smoke, and variation of temperature inside the kiln, have created supremely unusual effects. The honeyed colored stripes waving above a sublime nesting of bronze ovals in a warm orange pool on one of the large vases is a painting made by fire. The straightforward familiarity of the forms and the unpredictability of all the variables on the color make these works spectacular.
This is not just a solo exhibition. “Surface/Depth” is a collaboration between an established artist and a novice curator, and with the element of fire, one can imagine the table that once held the ceramics becoming a quiet, if not slightly dusty, dining table for two. Together, Campbell and Mathews have prepared a tantalizing feast.
This article appears in October 21 • 2005.