Gallery Closing Reception: Friday, September 29, 2023 from 5-7 pm MT
Exhibition Posted Online: Monday, September 4, 2023 at 10 am MT
Red Lodge Clay Center’s biennial Juried National VI extends our mission by showcasing current relevant and diverse practices in the field of ceramics. This exhibition provides a spotlight on the breadth of work currently being made that utilizes clay as a featured material. It is our hope that the Juried National will bridge emergent and established makers, and will include some of the best utilitarian, sculptural, traditional and/or experimental work being created today.
Juror: Steven Young Lee
Steven Young Lee is an independent studio artist in Helena, MT. From 2006-2022, he was the Resident Artist Director of the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts in Helena, Montana where he maintained an active studio practice while orchestrating an organization devoted to excellence in ceramics. In 2004-05, he lectured and taught at numerous universities throughout China as part of a cultural and educational exchange in Jingdezhen, Shanghai and Beijing and spent two months in Seoul, South Korea studying ceramic tradition and history. In 2005-6 he was a visiting professor at Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Vancouver, B.C.
Lee has lectured extensively in North America and Asia. In the Fall of 2016 he was one of four artists featured as part of the Renwick Invitational at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C. In March 2013 he participated on a panel, “Americans in the Porcelain City,” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Also in 2013, he was one of several international artists invited to participate in “New Blue and White,” an exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, MA featuring contemporary artists working in the blue-and-white tradition. In 2019, he had a solo exhibition at the Portland Art Museum. In 2021, his work was included in “Crafting America”, a survey of contemporary craft at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and OBJECTS:USA 2020 curated by Glenn Adamson in partnership with R&Co in New York, NY.
His work has been collected by the Smithsonian Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Crystal Bridges Museum of Art, the Portland Art Museum, the Newark Museum of Art, the Daum Museum of Contemporary Art, the Everson Museum of Art, the Four Seasons Hotel in Seoul, Korea, and many private and public collections.
Lee earned his BFA and MFA in Ceramics from Alfred University.
Juror Statement:
I want to thank all of the artists who submitted an application to the 2023 Red Lodge Clay Center Juried National Exhibition. It was fascinating to see the breadth and depth of work which made the jurying process enjoyable but extremely difficult. Unfortunately, with any exhibition, there are a limited number of pieces that are able to be included which should not reflect poorly on those that were not selected. Hopefully, this will not be the last time you will apply for an exhibition and some of you may jury exhibitions of your own in the future. In light of that, I thought it might be helpful to share some insight of the process for future reference.
I was tasked with reviewing a record number 246 applications, each with an average of 4 images per application which ended up being close to 1000 images. Each application was rated which took many hours over a series of days. To be honest, it can be exhausting looking at so many images in one sitting because your ability to assess the work can change over time. To offset this and maintain balanced judgement, I went through the pool multiple times to see if anything was passed over the first time through and in a number of instances, found some pieces that were overlooked. This provided for a thorough and comprehensive process. It is always challenging to assess three-dimensional objects based on photographs, but having looked at so many images over the years, I was hopefully able to ascertain the quality of the work through the images provided. On the other hand, the images needed to include enough information to be accurately reviewed, or to put it more bluntly- the quality of the photographs makes a difference.
There was no theme set for this exhibition and I did not have one of my own, so I found myself gravitating to pieces that were compelling in their conceptual development, craftsmanship, ambition, simplicity, design, relevance, and utility among other things. There were many excellent pieces that didn’t make it into the exhibition, often with a small margin of separation. I also considered an overall balance to the types of work, trying to have a fair representation of sculptural, utilitarian, installation, figurative, vessel, abstract, etc. Lastly, there were more practical elements such as the size of the pieces in relation to how much space is available at the venue and how many to include overall.
Congratulations to those whose pieces were selected. It was exciting to see the work of so many artists who display strong concept, innovation and techniques. The outcome could very easily change with a different juror, another year or a new group of applicants, so please do not be discouraged if your work was not selected. Rather, I encourage you to be persistent and to keep working hard in the studio for the next opportunity. Thank you to the Red Lodge Clay Center for this opportunity and support throughout the process.
Steve reviewed almost 1000 images, from 246 applicants, and selected 61 pieces from 54 artists.
Participating artists include: Balsam Abo Zour, Grant Akiyama, Jesse Albrecht, Alejandra Almuelle, Brooke Armstrong, Kate Bosley Sabin, Yael Braha, Jake Brodsky, Jackie Brown, Annakatrin Burnham, Michael Cannata, Sara Catapano, Victoria Christen, Pin Hsin Chu, Ali Della Bitta, Nate Ditzler, Jaden Estes Carlson, Dan Falby, Linda Ge, Krista Grecco, Danielle Hawk, Jason Hess, Matt Hiller, Yve Holtzclaw, Lori Katz, Ashton Keen, Faith Ku, Stacy Larson, Kimberly LaVonne, Huey Lee, Harrison Levenstein, Jeffrey Lipton, Claire McCauley, Ken McCollum, Taylor Mezo, Charlotte Middleton, Jeremie Miller, Megumi Naitoh, Grace Orwen, Yesha Panchal, Carter Pasma, Grace Potter, Mary Rhein, Jennifer Rosseter, Ellen Schön, Jack Schwarze, Joshua Scott, Hayun Surl, Kate Sutter, Benjamin Teague, Jessica Teckemeyer, Anna Valenti, Asma Waheed, and Addison Wolff
Merit Awards (to be awarded at the exhibition Closing Reception, September 29, 2023)
- Juror’s Choice Award: $1000
- Director’s Choice Award: $500
- Gallery Curator’s Choice Award: $300