Amy Fields• Brad Mildrexler • Hiroshi Ogawa
March 8 – April 15, 2017
Following the positive public response to their exhibitions in 2015 and 2016, PRETTY NOT PRETTY showcases the ceramic sculpture of three of Oregon’s most celebrated artists who work with clay and fire as principal media: Amy Fields, Brad Mildrexler and Hiroshi Ogawa. This group exhibition will take the viewing public on a journey through an exploration of beauty in ugliness, and grace in danger.
While many exhibitions generate their impact from the individual works of art that served as diverse ambassadors for the myriad forms of beauty that exist in the world, in landscape and in figuration that are generic to the Northwest art scene. This exhibition PRETTY NOT PRETTY charts a completely different set of visual experiences.
Beauty belongs to the spheres of the simple, the ordinary, whilst ugliness is something extraordinary… Marquis de Sade
Jeffrey Thomas Fine Art is pleased to present PRETTY NOT PRETTY as a challenging addition to this year’s exhibition calendar of thematic group shows. This exhibition asks the question: what are different qualities and meanings within the concept of “beauty” and “ugly”, and emphasizes how one’s interaction with unique works of art are always visual encounters based on personal preference.
These three artists each have use their process working with clay and fire to explore the nature of aesthetics, finding beauty in the imperfect, the unbalanced, the caustic, the primitive:
- Amy Fields builds slab and bowl forms inhabited by spiky multitudes of sea-urchin like spines and blades that are equally dangerous forms to touch.
- Brad Mildrexler builds large lumpy primitive forms fired at volcanic temperatures which give the pieces a rough geological presence.
- Hiroshi Ogawa makes ceramic vessels that look 2000 years old with extraordinary
wood-fired "skins"