Part I – Saturday, April 17, 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM
Part II – Saturday, May 8, 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM
Pre-registration is required and includes instructor, materials, and administration fees. Registration is open through April 16th and is on a first-come, first-served basis. The class is for adults only (age 18 and over) and requires a minimum of 5 participants to hold.
(HOUSTON, TX) December 9, 2020 – In 2021, Houston Center for Contemporary Craft (HCCC) is pleased to present a solo exhibition by outstanding Lubbock ceramicist and educator, James C. Watkins, who was recently named a Texas Master by HCCC. Watkins joins an impressive roster of other Texas Master awardees—including curator Clint Willour (Houston) and artists Harlan Butt (Denton), Cindy Hickok (Houston), Rachelle Thiewes (El Paso), Piero Fenci (Nacogdoches), and Sandie Zilker (Houston)—recognized for their roles as career artists, professionals, or educators who have made a significant impact on the field of craft in Texas.
James C. Watkins has built an extraordinary career as a ceramicist and an educator. He received his MFA from Indiana University and a BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute. His work has been featured in 40 solo exhibitions and 164 group exhibitions around the world, and he has pieces in 23 permanent collections, including the White House Collection of American Crafts at the Clinton Library (Little Rock, AR), the Shigaraki Institute of Ceramic Studies (Shigaraki, Japan), the Everson Museum (Syracuse, NY), and, most recently, the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington, D.C.) and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (Houston, TX). Continue reading.
Shiyuan Xu, “Through the Lens #4,” 2016. Photo courtesy of Lisa Hardaway.
The following interview is the first in a summer series of Q&A sessions with current resident artists. HCCC Intern Claire Alderson recently spoke with Shiyuan Xu, a ceramicist inspired by a microscopic view of our world. Continue Reading »
Christina Carfora, “The Grass is Always Greener.” Stoneware. 2013. Life size, 36″ x 24″ x 24″ each. Photo courtesy of Christina Carfora.
Ashley Powell, HCCC Curatorial Assistant, and Kathryn Hall, HCCC Curatorial Fellow, recently interviewed former resident artist, Christina Carfora, at the end of her residency. Christina is currently living in Denton, Texas, teaching ceramics at Texas Women’s University, working in her studio, and taking graduate classes.
Ashley Powell: We’ve noticed a relationship between your drawings and your ceramic sculptures. Can you tell us how they work together and inform each other?
Yes, the two are definitely very integrally tied together, and, often, when I’m working on a piece, I’ll start with a sketch. However, I sort of vacillate back and forth, and, as I’m working on a drawing, it often inspires other concepts and other pieces. When I’m working on my sculptures, I think of other ideas for drawings. I like this aspect of the drawings because you don’t have to deal with gravity like you do in the very structural ways when making sculptural work. When working on the sculptures, I really like getting the clay in my hands and being able to feel the tactile-ness. I also like the way people emotionally interact with the sculptural work on a different level. Continue Reading »
Chanda Glendinning in her studio at Houston Center for Contemporary Craft. Photo by Kim Coffman.
This week, we interviewed HCCC current resident artist, Chanda Glendinning, a ceramic sculptor whose work draws from her interest in the virtual communication networks that enable people to share and acquire information on a global level. Chanda is from rural western New York, where she received her BFA from Buffalo State College. She received her MFA in ceramics from Kansas State University. Continue Reading »
A view of Shikha Joshi’s Round Rock studio. Photo courtesy of the artist.
Shikha Joshi talks about how she found her calling as a clay artist, being part of a larger artist community in Austin, and the influences behind her work. Her piece, “Following in the Footsteps. . . “ is featured in CraftTexas 2012, currently on view at HCCC through December 30, 2012.
I am a studio potter currently working out of my home studio in Round Rock, TX, a suburb of Austin. We moved to this city in 2003, when my husband took up a job with Dell. Though we call Texas our home now, I am originally from India—a country richly steeped in the tradition of arts and craft, which has strongly informed my aesthetics. Continue Reading »
Clay artist Jessica Kreuter in her studio at HCCC. Photo by Kim Coffman.
This week, we interviewed Jessica Kreutter, a clay artist who works with discarded objects. She received an MFA from The University of Tennessee in 2010. For 10 years previous to graduate school, she worked as an artist, art teacher and social worker in Portland, Oregon. Recently, she has exhibited at Pirate: Contemporary Art, Mütter Museum, Seattle Design Center, and the Fort Collins Museum of Art, as well as in group exhibitions in Philadelphia, Washington, Florida, Kentucky, North Carolina, and Colorado. She has been a resident artist at ART342, Vermont Studio Center, Anderson Ranch and Platte Forum and is in residence at HCCC through August 15, 2012. Continue Reading »
The morning after the opening of his exhibition, Texas Masters Series: Piero Fenci—Battlement, Piero Fenci revealed the magic behind how he made his bold ceramic pieces during a public demonstration at the Glassell School of Art. The event was co-presented by the Glassell School and ClayHouston. An incredibly charismatic, likeable and humble artist, Fenci spent the next four hours making a new piece from start to finish and firing an already glazed example. Continue Reading »
John Zimmerman. “Stratified Helmet.” Glazed Ceramic. 2012.
Photo courtesy the artist.
This week, we interviewed John Zimmerman, a ceramist and Assistant Professor of Fine Art at the University of New Mexico-Gallup. Last summer, John took a 12-month leave of absence to complete his artist residency at HCCC and will return to teaching this fall. Make sure you stop by his studio before he leaves on August 8!
Sculptor, David Katz, working on Systemic Expansion.
Last Friday, we celebrated the opening of Systemic Expansion, David Katz’s large-scale, site-specific installation on view in the Artist Hall at Houston Center for Contemporary Craft. Throughout the evening, Katz shared the ideas behind his fired and unfired ceramic work with museum visitors who, in turn, where able to experience the space in a whole new way. Continue Reading »
