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Indepth Arts News:
"Breaking the Mold: Julie York, Kris Lyons, Alex Hibbitt"
2005-11-05 until 2005-11-26
Ohio Art League
Columbus, OH,
USA United States of America
“Breaking the Mold” is an exhibition curated on a simple premise, that of a common material choice – clay, and a specific forming process – the semi industrial process of slipcasting. Kris Lyons, Julie York and Alex Hibbitt use a technique that has, in the vernacular, been linked to the Craft Store ”paint your own ceramics” subgenre, whilst elevating the medium in an intelligent, thoughtful and often witty manner. Each artist relates to the history of both Ceramics and Fine Art through the process that enabled mass production, and the industrialization of the Ceramic industry in their own unique approach – Through appropriation, re-contextualization and refinement.
Kris Lyons draws directly from a library of found objects re-made in Clay to create a hybrid art object that has been described as “Monsanto meets Mattel”. Her work is playful, yet thought provoking, and often informed by the world around her. Julie York also works from the found object, but distorts and re-codifies objects in arrangements that suggest linguistic or visual puzzles, and relationships that have to do paradoxically with clarity, perception and complexity. Alex Hibbitt uses forms reminiscent of the vacuum tube TV in order to discuss the mediation of experience through Technology. Memory, Nostalgia and Romanticism are explored through reductive form and allusions to landscape, pattern and decoration.
The three artists met whilst studying Ceramics at The New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, Alfred, NY.
Alex Hibbitt, originally from London England, was newly arrived in the US to study for an MFA (2001) after living and working as an artist for 8 years in The Netherlands. Prior to that, she had gained her BA (HONS) from Camberwell College of Art in London, and a Higher Diploma from The Gerrit Rietveld Academy of Art in Amsterdam. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Art at Ohio University. Selected exhibitions include “Het Bos 2005” at The Soap Factory, Minneapolis, MN, Environments Contained, Denison University, 2003, From the Midwest to the Midland Grand, St. Pancras Chambers, London 2003, Goede Vaart, at The Consortium in Amsterdam in 1997, and Ceramic Contemporaries at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London in 1993.
Julie York, born in Toronto, Canada, now lives and works in Philadelphia. She is an Assistant Professor of Art at Tyler School of Art. She studied Ceramics at the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, in Vancouver, BC, where she gained her BFA in 1996. She has worked and exhibited both in Canada and the US. She gained her MFA from Alfred University in 2000. Selected exhibitions include The Samuel S Fleisher Memorial Challenge Exhibition 3, 2005, Philadelphia, PA, Julie York, The Garth Clark Gallery, New York, NY, 2004, The Clay Studio Resident Artist Show, Wheaton Village Gallery of Fine Craft, Millville NJ, 2002, and the Holter Museum of Art, Helena MT, 2000.
Kris Lyons currently lives in Oakland California. She was a Professional Clown from 1994 to 1999, when she decided to study for a BFA in Ceramics, having realized a passion for clay whilst taking classes at UC Hayward. She graduated Summa Cum Laude from Alfred University, and gained her MFA form the University of Washington in Seattle. She currently teaches at Ohlone College, Fremont, California and The Academy Art University in San Francisco. Selected exhibitions include The NCECA National, Center for Art and Visual Culture, University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD, 2005. Visions in Clay 2004, Reynolds Gallery at the University of the Pacific, Stockton, CA, Craft Art, Western New York 2004, Birchfield Penny Art Center at Buffalo State College, Buffalo, NY, and Four Frequencies, CMA Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
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