| To start the new year in the first floor gallery, ICA is pleased to present Dirt On Delight: Impulses That Form Clay, significant work in clay by 22 artists spanning four generations on view January 16 to June 21. Ranging from modestly scaled pots to large sculptures, these objects cross a spectrum of conventional delineations among fine art, craft, and outsider practices. |  |
Ingrid Schaffner
To start the new year in the first floor gallery, ICA is pleased to present Dirt On Delight: Impulses That Form Clay, significant work in clay by 22 artists spanning four generations on view January 16 to June 21.
Ranging from modestly scaled pots to large sculptures, these objects cross a spectrum of conventional delineations among fine art, craft, and outsider practices. Collectively they suggest that clay appeals to basic impulses (starting with the delight of building form) coupled with the anxiety of completion. All of the works in the exhibition appear to be in some state of flux or growth.
Clay is a base material. From potsherds to porcelain fixtures, clay is synonymous with the building of industries and cultures. At the same time, its very materiality—its tactile malleability, earthen sensuousness, and humidity—make it the medium of more elemental associations and expressions. The immediacy with which clay allows one to construct forms and create ornaments underlies its appeal—especially in relation to current modes that seem to take fabrication increasingly out of artists’ hands. More specifically, this exhibition is an opportunity to examine not only clay’s appeal, but craft in general.
Along with artists from the current generation, Dirt on Delight features work from artists whom came to prominence in the 90s, as well as those who helped establish clay as a critical and respected material in the 60s and 70s. This generational mix points out the common threads between different periods, while simultaneously highlighting the changes that the medium has undergone.
