Fine crafts focus of new Schick Art Gallery exhibition

The Schick Art Gallery at Skidmore will present Craft Matters, an exhibition of work in fibers, metals, ceramics, wood, and glass by 19 internationally renowned artists Nov. 7 to Dec. 19, 2014. An opening reception is scheduled from 5 to 7 p.m. Nov. 7 in the gallery.

The exhibition is organized in conjunction with the 20^th anniversary of the Raab Visiting Artist Lecture, a series endowed by Rosanne Brody Raab, Skidmore alumna, curator, and passionate advocate of the art of craft. Between 1995 and 2014, each of the Craft Matters artists visited Skidmore and delivered a lecture on their work and career.

The art on view in the Craft Matters exhibition attests to the limitless possibilities when robust creative energies are joined with expertise gleaned over a lifetime. Skidmore Art Department Chair David Peterson said, “Rarely has any gallery brought together the work of so esteemed a group of living artists. Represented here are the giants of contemporary craft—the daring, innovative, tenacious masters of their disciplines.”

Participating artists, grouped by medium, include the following: Ceramics—Wayne Higby, Rick Hirsch, Sergei Isupov, Toshiko Takaezu, Kurt Weiser, and Betty Woodman; Fibers—Lia Cook, Joan Livingstone, John McQueen, Warren Seelig, and Anne Wilson; Metals—Albert Paley, Gary Griffin, Myra Mimlitsch-Gray, and Leonard Urso. Sharon Church, a 1970 Skidmore graduate, is best known for her carved jewelry inspired by natural forms, while Jamie Bennett, also a jeweler, predominantly uses enamel. Noted wood-furniture artist Wendell Castle, whose iconic ‘molar chairs’ first made the art and design scene in the 60s,will have work in the exhibition. And glass artist Tom Patti, whose luminous installations grace airports, museums, and other public venues across the country, rounds out this stellar group.

The works of these artists are as varied in form and temperament as are their respective media. Individual pieces range from Bennett’s miniature topographies to Paley’s dynamic metal constructions, and from Wilson’s austere damask cloth, its holes ‘mended’ with sewn hair, to Isupov’s enigmatic and surreal ceramic figures. Peterson said, “Behind the strikingly diverse range of objects in this show is a consistent chord of reverence for the idea of ‘making.’ It is significant that Skidmore College, with its first roots planted deep in the landscape of craft practice, should undertake such an exhibition. Although the art/craft conundrum still provokes angst in some quarters, it barely registers a flutter in our studios, where making and thinking are recognized as wholly inseparable.”

Many Craft Matters artists, as well as Raab herself, will attend the opening reception. A second special event in connection with the show is the 2014 Raab Visiting Artist Lecture, to be presented by Richard Sennett, sociologist and author of The Craftsman. The free lecture is scheduled for 6 p.m. Friday, Nov. 21, in Gannett Auditorium, Palamountain Hall, on the Skidmore campus.

Raab is a 1955 Skidmore graduate who completed graduate work at the Bard Center for the Decorative Arts, Design, and Culture. She co-directed the Craftsman Gallery in Scarsdale, N.Y., in the early 1980s and recognizes that time as “the beginning of an era:  craft was emerging from a period of neglect,” she said. Raab forged a highly successful career as an independent curator lecturer, and writer, organizing exhibitions for such venues as the National Ornamental Metal Museum in Nashville, Tenn., and the American Craft Museum in New York City. Her writing has appeared in Silver Magazine, Metalsmith, and many other publications.

The Schick Art Gallery offers students, the college community, and the public an opportunity to view significant contemporary exhibitions that complement Skidmore’s Studio Art curriculum. Exhibits address a wide range of disciplines and are often accompanied by catalogs, gallery lectures, and discussions. The Schick presents four to six exhibits annually including a selected art faculty exhibition and a juried Skidmore student exhibition. Opened in 1978, named in 1983 to honor an alumna’s family, the Schick Art Gallery plays an integral role as a teaching lab in the Department of Art.

All Schick Art Gallery events are free and open to the public.