| Contained presents the art of two ceramic artists; working in clay is an ancient craft, hand worked to create vessels or containers for foods and liquids. Maria Porges and Nancy Selvin, friends and colleagues as professors at the California College of Art, (CCA) chose the title "Contained" in recognition of the earliest function of their chosen medium. Their work is inspired by traditional forms from many countries and periods in history, as well as the personal lived experiences of the artists.
In her statement for the exhibition, Maria Porges reflects that, "Like many artists who reach a certain age, I've come to realize that certain ideas-- semi-disguised by their presentation in different forms and materials, but identifiable nonetheless-- have recurred periodically since my career began. These themes are more like relatives than friends, in that you don't choose them, but rather, you are born into your relationship with them."
Porges continues, "For me, vessels have pretty much always functioned as gendered stand-ins, serving as surrogates, making their way across the minefield of childhood (both my own, and my daughters'). By animating the inanimate, making jokes as I go about what isn't funny, I have tried to address the struggle of being a woman: of being seen."
Porges, a Berkeley native, spent her early years in Evanston, Illinois. She studied briefly at Grinell College in Iowa, moving on to Yale to study printmaking. Additional studies at the San Francisco Art Institute led to graduate studies at the University of Chicago. Seeking a printing studio in Japan to further her education, she happened upon a ceramics studio that changed her artistic interests to ceramics. Returning to the Bay Area in 1979, she established a studio and began writing art criticism for ArtWeek, leading to writing assignments with over two dozen national and international art journals. Her artwork was exhibited in several national venues; in 1992 she won the SECA Award presented by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. She continued to exhibit her work at the John Berggruen Gallery in San Francisco and venues in New York, Chicago and Seattle. In 2004, she received an appointment to the California College of the Arts (CCA) to conduct graduate seminars and currently serves as chair of the Visual and Critical Studies Department at CCA.
Maria Porges
Nancy Selvin is an American sculptor, recognized for ceramic works and tableaux that explore the vessel form and balance an interplay of materials, minimal forms, and expressive processes. She emerged in the late 1960s among a "second generation" of Bay Area ceramic artists who followed the California Clay Movement and continued challenging ceramic traditions involving expression, form and function, and an art-world that placed the medium outside its established hierarchy.
Critic David Roth has written, "Selvin's position in the top rank of ceramic artists has come through a process of rigorous self-examination … what differentiates [her] is that she eschews realism and functionality, indicating a level of intellectual engagement not always found among ceramicists." Writer and curator Jo Lauria described Selvin's tableaux as "elegiac and stylistically unified" works that serve as "forceful essays on the relationship between realism and abstraction, object and subject, decoration and use."
Selvin, born and raised in Los Angeles, enrolled at the University of California, Riverside, to study sociology. There she met her husband Steve, and eventually the couple moved to Ames, Iowa, where he had a one-year teaching appointment. Seeking some interesting activity, she saw a flyer advertising "5 Ceramic Lessons for $3.00" and made a life-changing decision. By the end of Steve's teaching year Nancy's ceramic works were on exhibit at the Story, Iowa Country Fair. Moving to Berkeley, she enrolled in classes at UCB, studying with Peter Voulkos, Robert Hudson and Ron Nagle. She undertook graduate studies at State University New York (S.U.N.Y.) in Albany, earning her MFA degree in two years. Back in Berkeley she rented studio space, producing many ceramic pieces that were exhibited in several California museums and galleries. She has served as an Adjunct Professor at CAC for many years, and is active in the national ceramic art community.
Porges and Selvin will be in conversation with exhibition curator Philip E. Linhares on the last day of the exhibition, Sunday, June 29, beginning at 3:30 pm in the Main Gallery.
Sanchez Art Center is located at 1220 Linda Mar Blvd in Pacifica, about a mile east of Highway 1. Following opening night, the galleries are open Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, 1–5 pm, and by appointment, through June 29.
The opening, talks, and gallery visits are free as part of the Center's focus on "Creating Community through Art".
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