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The Artisan Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of an exhibit of the ceramic artist Liz Smith .
Friday, April 6 through Sunday, May 20
Opening Reception with the artist during Artwalk: Friday, April 13, 5-8
ARTIST'S STATEMENT
The most intriguing aspect of making functional work
for me is that it is an art form readily accepted into
people's lives. Mine is a commitment to the idea that
art is most effective when it is connected to repeated
daily experience revealing itself through use over
time. This commitment is one that consistently brings
me back to the functional object. Our contemporary
context often finds us less and less connected in a
physical way to experience and to others. I am
compelled to make work that proposes an alternative to
this path and highlights the continuing relevance of
the handcrafted object.
Functional pots both demand and create sensual
experience, they are meant not only to be seen but
touched, used and pondered, their weight felt, their
surfaces pressed against hands and lips. Their
function aids in nourishing the body, the physical act
of their creation links me to the user, and their
references and materials link us both to the long
history of art and ceramics. This complex mix of
physicality, community and history keeps me
continually engaged in the process of making.
Currently I am most interested in 18th and 19th
century European porcelain from factories such as
Meissen and Sevres. It is the idea of the grandiose
celebrations for which these objects were made that I
am so attracted. The objects acted as decadent and
ostentatious displays of wealth but also as markers of
the importance of eating and drinking, of the meal
enjoyed and shared with others. In my work I embrace
the idea of decoration, grandiosity, and ostentation
while infusing these elaborate objects with a
casualness through material, process and surface that
may be more appropriate to our everyday utilitarian
activities. These objects are not meant to be passive
actors in the shared meal but rather defining
characters. They are not meant to be used only during
celebratory occasions but rather to support the notion
that every occasion is celebratory. It is of the
utmost importance to me that people use these objects,
as it is only through use that their purpose can be
fulfilled.
BIOGRAPHY
Liz Smith has been studying ceramics and making
pottery since 1991. She received her undergraduate
degree, a Bachelor of Science in Studio Art, from
Skidmore College in 1994. Upon graduation she worked
for a year as an apprentice to ceramic artist Toshiko
Takaezu. After completing her year there she spent the
next three years working in a variety of venues
related to the field including at a production pottery
in Maine, assistantships at the Arrowmont School of
Arts and Crafts and the Peter's Valley Craft Center,
and as an unclassified graduate student at Southern
Illinois University in Edwardsville. She received her
Master of Fine Art degree in 2000 from Louisiana State
University. Upon completion of her degree she was
given the job as Assistant Professor of Art at the
University of Central Arkansas where she continues to teach.
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