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Jul 15, 2023

Mendocino Art Center presents The Wall of Cups

MENDOCINO, CA – The Mendocino Art Center’s (MAC) “Earth, Fire and Ash” exhibition, a celebration of woodfired ceramics in Mendocino County, continues through December 30. The showing will continue to

MENDOCINO, CA – The Mendocino Art Center’s (MAC) “Earth, Fire and Ash” exhibition, a celebration of woodfired ceramics in Mendocino County, continues through December 30. The showing will continue to change and expand with the November 4 opening of “The Wall of Cups.”

The walls of MAC’s Nichols Gallery will be lined with shelving displaying hundreds of one-of-a-kind artful cups crafted by 20 ceramic artists, woodfired in local kilns. The public is encouraged to handle these functional objects and buy them right off the shelves. The artists will continue to create new works and replace sold mugs through December 30, offering new treasures to be seen on repeat visits to the gallery.

Earth, fire, and ash are the necessary ingredients for woodfired ceramics. Like all simple recipes, the quality of the ingredients is especially important, but the art is in the way these ingredients are combined and transformed together. Every piece that has ever come out of a wood kiln is completely unique; an expression of its material nature and the specific confluence circumstances in which it was made.

The “Earth, Fire and Ash” exhibition is presented in two chapters and showcases the growing community of woodfired ceramic artists in the Mendocino area. Woodfiring is a unique approach to ceramics that requires teamwork and dedication, encourages community, and celebrates unpredictability and surprises. Utilizing high-temperature kilns and multi-day firings these artists transform their clay creations into dynamic, unique works of art; painted by the flames, glazed by the melted deposits of wood ash, and imbued with the spirit of a community creating art, and navigating the difficulties of working together.

Chapter one, continuing through November 17, focuses on four kilns in the area, with several pieces from each kiln on exhibition. Participating are Mendocino Art Center’s Ian Hazard-Bill and Miles McCreary; Cider Creek Collective’s (Albion) Nick Schwartz, Jessica R Thompson, Doug Browe, and Danny “G”; Rock Rose Studio’s (Philo) Nakona MacDonald and Andrew M. Kontrabecki; and Aum Kiln’s (Albion) Leslie Campbell, Jason Sanovich, Cliff Glover and Margi Gomez.

Chapter two, November 25 to December 30, will feature work straight out of the kilns fired in Mendocino during the Mendocino Art Center’s November Second Saturday reception and in other participating kilns during the fall. The exhibition will display the bounty and variation created from a single firing as well as celebrate the start of wood firing season in the fall. For artists who practice wood firing, the arrival of fall rains signals the beginning of the firing season and brings excitement to return to the kiln and the joy of community that it creates.

The Mendocino Art Center hosts a free Second Saturday Gallery Reception, on November 12, from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. From 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., there will be a special opportunity to witness and participate in the kiln shutdown ceremony, a final stoke and blessing of the firing and works in the kiln. The shutting down of the kiln is one of the single most critical parts of the wood firing process, and the artists will be conducting the final stages of the wood firing during the reception, providing visitors the opportunity to see the kiln in its most active and dramatic state.

Admission to the gallery is free. For more information please call 707-937-5818 or visit MendocinoArtCenter.org. The Mendocino Art Center is located at 45200 Little Lake Street (at Kasten Street) in Mendocino. The gallery is open daily, from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

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