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September Issue 2007
North Carolina Pottery Center in Seagrove, NC, Offers Fall Exhibitions
This Fall, the North Carolina Pottery Center in Seagrove, NC, is featuring the work of three dynamic young potters who each explore a North Carolina perspective as well as an international perspective in their work. Two Roads Diverged: work by Daniel Johnston, Seagrove, NC and Matt Jones, Leicester, NC will be on exhibit in Galleries I & II, and in Gallery III, Hitomi's Farewell: work by Hitomi Shibata, North Carolina Pottery Center's 2005-2007 Artist-in-Residence will be on display. The exhibitions will be on view through Nov. 24, 2007.
Daniel Johnston
Daniel Johnston, one of twelve individuals selected for Focus/Emerging Artists in the May 2006 Ceramics Monthly's annual competition, began his studies in 1997 as an apprentice with Mark Hewitt, Pittsboro, NC. He also studied in England with Clive Bowen at Shebbear Pottery, and in 2003 apprenticed with Sawein Silakhom in Thailand. While working with clays and minerals from his native North Carolina Piedmont, he creates forms which embrace the southeastern United States and southeast Asia. His work will also be on exhibit this fall at Texas A&M University in Corpus Christi, TX. Selected public collections include the Mint Museum of Art, North Carolina State University, the School of Government at UNC-Chapel Hill, and the North Carolina Pottery Center.
Matt Jones
Matt Jones opened his studio in Sandy Mush, NC, in 1998. Following his graduation from Earlham College in Indiana in 1994, he apprenticed with Todd Piker in Connecticut for three years before apprenticing with Mark Hewitt in North Carolina. Jones was featured in the documentary film Celebrating the Cycle which was released in 2001. He considers himself, first and foremost, a maker of functional pottery, grounded in the North Carolina traditions. However, he embraces a wide range of cultural influences including those of the Mediterranean, China, Africa and England, in his surface decoration and brushwork and in the large scale pieces he produces. Jones has exhibited nationally and is represented in the permanent collection of the Mint Museum.
The potter's path is often circuitous. Johnston and Jones were mentored as apprentices by Mark Hewitt, who apprenticed with Todd Piker, just as Jones did years later. Each has absorbed the influences of all those they have studied with, both challenged and tempered by their experiences. The two have now moved on to travel distinct and separate creative roads.
Hitomi Shibata
Hitomi Shibata is completing a two-year artist-in-residence at the North Carolina Pottery Center. During her tenure at NCPC, she managed the Seagrove Elementary School after school program in Traditional Arts. Utilizing the Center's traditional North Carolina groundhog kiln, Shibata worked with locally dug clays and glaze materials and subtle brushwork to produce an inspiring body of work. She received her Master of Education in Ceramics from Okayama University in Japan and was an artist-in-residence at the internationally respected Shigaraki Ceramic Research Institute in Shiga, Japan. A number of Seagrove potters have visited Shigaraki. Potters from both countries are constantly reminded of the techniques, materials and love of clay they share in common.
For further information check our NC Institutional
Gallery listings, call the Center at 336/873-8430 or visit (www.ncpotterycenter.com).
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