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DESIGNER CRAFTSMEN SHOW OF PHILADELPHIA JANUARY 28-30

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 KING OF PRUSSIA, PENN. — Goodrich Promotions presents the Designer Craftsmen Show of Philadelphia, January 28–30 at the Valley Forge Convention Center, 1160 First Avenue. This show embodies the most honored American craftsmanship traditions — museum quality furniture and pottery, painting and textiles, glass and brass and iron; at the same time it showcases new creative approaches only skilled craftsmen can bring to their art.

Ohio dealer Moe Dallas specializes in Noah’s Arks which are one-of-a-kind pieces, with some having up to 80 passengers, carved architectural details, 30 to 40 windows and painted in a highly individual style. They cost between $300 and $6,000 each. A Dallas Noah’s Ark was in the window of the Museum of American Folk Art in New York City for Christmas.

Larry Crossan of Lyndell, Penn., has been making fine reproductions of Eighteenth Century furniture since 1982. Classic American desks, stately tall clocks, cupboards, tables, chests of drawers with details such as inlay, reeding, paneling and carving, as well as smaller accent pieces like wall cupboards, spice chests and mirrors, are all in Crossan’s repertoire. “I make some pieces because I love them,” he says. “but most are by request.” 

Will Kautz of Hartland, Vt., creates woodcarvings. Some look like the shop figures of more than a century ago, like the sailor with a flag or a woman in an 1840s gown, a classic beauty, three-quarter life size; his weathervanes are traditional styles — a single gilded carved feather to point the wind.

These are only three woodworkers out of a hundred fine craftsmen in many media whose work will be on display at the Designer Craftsmen Show of Philadelphia, which runs concurrently with the Greater Philadelphia Historic Home Show, also at the Convention Center with 75 exhibitors displaying everything from roofing materials to cabinet hardware.

On Friday, January 28, the early buying opportunity is from 6 to 9 pm; admission is $35. Saturday, January 29, the show is open from 10 am to 5 pm; admission is $12. On Sunday, January 30, hours are from 11 am until 4 pm; admission is also $12. Admission is good for all three days.

 For information, www.GoodrichPromotions.com or 717-796-2380.

1-7 TERRA NOVA – MUSEUM OF ARTS DESIGN

FOR JANUARY 7 –

TERRA NOVA, SCULPTURE & VESSELS IN CLAY AT MUSEUM OF ARTS & DESIGN JAN 13 – April 3

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NEW YORK CITY — The Museum of Arts and Design’s superb collection of ceramics, which has grown extensively in recent years, will be celebrated in the new exhibition “Terra Nova, Sculptures and Vessels in Clay,” January 13–April 3, presenting more than 30 of the ceramic masterworks the museum has acquired since 1999.

Created by internationally renowned artists, these pieces illustrate the sculptural potential of clay and demonstrate new concepts and technical approaches that are shaping studio ceramics today. There are 26 artists represented and every piece conveys technical mastery. Among the highlights are Marilyn Levine’s “Anne’s Jacket, 1990, which takes the art of trompe l’oeil to new levels, and Ralph Bacerra’s gigantic untitled vessel, with its spectacular, brightly colored glaze patterns.

“Transforming earth, water and fire into ceramics is one of the oldest arts, dating back millennia to the earliest civilizations,” says Ursula Ilse-Neuman, curator of the museum’s collection and organizer of the exhibition. “The audacious explorations on display in ‘Terra Nova’ explore new territory in this ancient and ever-changing art form.”

The ideas advanced in these new acquisitions are provocative and wide-ranging. Harumi Nakashima, explores the relationship between an object and the space it defines in “Struggling Form,” 2002. Eva Hild experiments with positive/negative space in her delicately pierced stoneware “Complex 1,” 2004; and Geert Lap almost denies the potter’s hand in his finely turned stoneware vessels, “Mocha Low Bowl,” 1987 and “Yellow Vessel,” 1986.

Other artists take their cues from the human body: Louise Bourgeois transcends the division between the highly personal and universal in intensely symbolic shapes of her “Fallen Women,” 1996-1997; while Cindy Sherman explores the nature of personal identity by presenting herself as Louis XV’s notorious mistress in her pink Limoges “Madame Pompadour Breakfast Service,” 1990.

The connection between ceramics and nature appears in many guises, including Koike Shoko’s untitled 2003 erupted stoneware sculpture; the ambiguous rock formations of Charles Simonds’s “Priapus,” 1982-1983; the sinister beauty of Keisuke Mizuno’s “Forbidden Flower,” Dark Orange, 2001; and the exuberant, sgraffito-carved tableau of David Regan’s “Fisherman’s Daydreams,” 2003.

The Museum of Arts and Design is in midtown Manhattan at 40 West 53rd Street. Hours are Monday –Friday, 10 am to 6 pm, Thursdays until 8 pm. For information, 212-956-2535 or www.madmuseum.org.