Exhibition at the Maison des Arts de Chatillon (Hauts-de-Seine, France)

Erna Aaltonen, Claire Lindner,
Ursula Morley-Price, Ann Van Hoey

November 12 - December 14, 2019

Claire Lindner and Erna Aaltonen

Visit House of Arts has chosen to showcase the work of four ceramists of different generations and geographical origins, each demonstrating a specific mastery that transcends the material. While some produce pieces reminiscent of utilitarian forms and are part of a pottery tradition, others break away from it completely.

With its high degree of sensoriality, could ceramics, like other so-called craft techniques, be one of the ways of decompartmentalizing two worlds that are often artificially separated? Today, it would seem more accurate to consider ceramics as a plastic art in its own right, on a par with painting and sculpture.

Inspired by nature, Erna Aaltonen creates pure forms, often spherical, with finely worked, sober and graphic surfaces that captivate the eye.
Claire Lindner assembles colombins evoking an organic, vegetal or underwater world. Softness, strangeness and apparent suppleness are expressed beneath a granular surface and in sharp colors applied with a spray gun.
Ann Van Hoey develops a novel technique for folding materials, in search of absolute formal perfection. Often combined with pop colors, his works come close to design. Regular returns to a mineral chromaticism nevertheless affirm his attachment to the original material.
Sculptures byUrsula Morley-PriceWith their jagged profiles and layered architectures, these works capture the light and come alive under its fluctuating effects. The quest for lightness and movement are the driving forces behind a body of work whose complexity of execution defies comprehension.