Curatorial Statement
Exhibition Posted Online: Monday, May 6, 2024 at 10 am MT
Artist Reception with guest curator Chotsani Elaine Dean on Friday, May 17, from 5-6pm MT
This show coincides with one of RLCC’s favorite programs, our ASPN residency, and the exhibition will directly contribute to that programming. Our May 2024 ASPN mentor will be Chotsani Elaine Dean. Chotsani has guest curated this May exhibition with artists who have been important to both her and the field of ceramics.
Participating artists include Kathryn Baczeski, Mary Barringer, Monica Bock, Chotsani Elaine Dean, Ron Fondaw, Cindy Leung, Sana Musasama, Kimberlee Roth, Bobby Scroggins, Janathel Shaw, Lisa Stinson, Lydia C. Thompson, Matthew Towers, and Paul Andrew Wandless.
From Chotsani:
As the exhibition title implies, Interrelation: Peers, Mentors & Friends is a gathering of artists with whom I have diverse relationships and connections through the ceramic community. Some relationships span over two decades, while some are newer, emerging from collaboration and generosity of including me in their meaningful relationships and connections. In the exhibition is a community of artists who have mentored me, friends who have supported me, and trailblazers who have paved the way for others. Relationships that uplift and model the power of encouragement, community, endurance, and a culture of support and mutual respect.
To my mentors, peers, and friends in this exhibition, your guidance, support, and collaboration have enriched my artistic practice and illuminated the profound beauty of our collective journey as artists. To my new students in the ASPN program, I am excited and grateful to be able to share with you all the beautiful community of artists I have learned from, been encouraged by, and collaborated with in our time together. Lastly, as the gallery does not have enough space to include all the artists, mentors, peers, teachers, and friends who have enriched my creative journey, fortunately, there are many makers; part of the Red Lodge gallery who are part of my creative community, sharing the space near the exhibitions gallery, extending and amplifying the Venn diagram exhibiting artist, Mary Barringer stated, of my creative community.
Chotsani Elaine Dean is an Artist and Assistant Professor of Ceramics at the University of Minnesota. Born in Hartford, CT, Chotsani received her BFA in Ceramics from Hartford Art School and MFA from Sam Fox School of Art at Washington University in St. Louis.
In the summer of 2021, Chotsani was in residence at the John Michael Kohler Artist Residency, Pottery. In 2014, Dean was the inaugural MJ DO Good resident at Red Lodge Clay Center in Montana. Also, Chotsani was awarded a 9-month Teaching/Research Fulbright Scholar grant in India 2012-13, host institution Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi, India. During this time Chotsani, traveled throughout India conducting workshops at Sanskriti Kendra in New Delhi, Krishnamurti Foundation/Raj Ghat Besant School, Varanasi, Kriti Gallery, Varanasi, lectures at Faculty of Art History, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi and Faculty of Visual Arts University of Baroda, Baroda and artist-in-residence at Clayfingers Pottery, Thrissur, Kerala.
Chotsani has lectured and exhibited widely. In 2010, Dean was awarded a Connecticut Arts Grant from the state of Connecticut. Dean has taught at various institutions, Three Rivers Community College, University of Connecticut, Connecticut College, Quinnipiac University, Hartford Art School and was Studio Manager at Wesleyan Potters in Middletown, CT.