Ann Van Hoey
On the edges of design
4 November 2017 – 4 January 2018
Ann Van Hoey, 2017, The Earthenware Ferrari, terre cuite et laque, N°23 h. 22 x 40 x 28 cm & N°10 h. 27 x 44 x 36 cm. Photo Dries Van den Brande.
As a closing event of this year’s programme that marked the 20th anniversary of its creation, the Galerie de l’Ancienne Poste, dedicated to contemporary ceramics, is hosting for the first time Belgian ceramic artist Ann Van Hoey.
First selected as part of the Vallauris International Biennale of Contemporary Ceramics back in 2008, Ann Van Hoey was invited earlier this year to be an artist in residence at the Taipei Yingge Museum in Taïwan, which led to a permanent display at the museum. Throughout the years, the artist has pursued an exemplary career interspersed with new formal proposals that have become her claim to fame. While her early pieces were earth-coloured and devoid of any finishing, her more recent ones are coated with bright-coloured lacquer, including the famous Ferrari red which gave rise to series of works referred to as “The Earthenware Ferrari”. Bringing together the ancestral working of clay and the colour of consumer society’s most luxurious symbol, Ann Van Hoey thus creates unexpected combinations and invites the spectator to reflect upon tradition and modernity.
It took her less than ten years to shine on the international art scene. Upon being noticed in 2008 at the Ceramics Biennale of Vallauris, Belgian artist Ann Van Hoey (born 1956) saw her work displayed in multiple exhibitions and win prize upon prize, all the while joining in the greatest collections, from the New York Museum of Art and Design to the Musée Ariana in Geneva, including the Royal Museums of Art and History in Brussels.
A grand finale of the Galerie de l’Ancienne Poste’s twentieth anniversary celebrations, her exhibition in Toucy mainly focuses on her most recent creations. The twenty-five pieces gathered illustrate what has been the artist’s hallmark since her early career, namely an innovative technique of folding clay liberally inspired from Japanese origami and a pared-down style that places her close to design. […]Guillaume Morel
Journalist, art critic
Extract from the exhibit catalogue.
