SPECIAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR ACC MEMBERS
Link to Eventbrite to RSVP for special events on Saturday, July 27th.
American Ceramics Circle and their guests are invited to gather at Project Art to enjoy a casual lunch with friends, meet other members, compare notes and explore the former mill building, now the home of Ferrin Contemporary, gallery, library and archives.
The gallery offers works for sale and study by resident & visiting artists including:
Russell Biles, Sergei Isupov, Kadri Parnamets, Paul Scott, and Mara Superior.
Also on view are selected works from Ferrin’s collection of souvenir plates, figurines and commemorative ceramics recently featured in Our America/Whose America? recently presented as an activation in the Wickham House at The Valentine Museum in Richmond, VA.
Sandwiches, beverage and dessert – sandwiches can be selected in advance from the Old Creamery – download menu HERE.
In 2006, Sergei Isupov moved to Cummington, MA to establish Project Art with Leslie Ferrin, director of Ferrin Contemporary. Arriving in the USA in 1994 from Estonia, he lived in Kentucky, Virginia and now, for 17 years in Cummington. Isupov was joined by his wife, Kadri Pärnamets from Estonia in 2008. Their daughter Roosi, now 13, grew up at Project Art and is also creating artwork in the family’s shared studio. Sergei’s family who still live in Kyiv, Ukraine, are also producing artists.
Isupov’s reputation is international, both as a sculptor and teacher. He is highly sought after by students who seek him out from throughout the world to take workshops and participate in his performance based fire sculptures. Isupov’s works are shown and collected in museums throughout the world. A recent mosaic 10′ high sculpture “Miss Comet” was produced in 2022 with shards donated by the community and is now on view permanently on Main Street in the newly designated Cummington Cultural District, the first awarded to a small, rural community by Mass Cultural Council.
Sergei Isupov will give a tour of Project Art and speak about his work each day, September 30 and October 1 at 1 pm at Project Art at 54 Main Street, Cummington. Isupov’s ceramic sculptures on view in the gallery at Project Art trace his career with works made in studios throughout the world (Estonia, Hungary, and in the USA) and date from 1990 – present. The talk will run for 45 minutes and is limited to 30 people each day.
This event is sponsored by Ferrin Contemporary.
Sergei Isupov is an Estonian-American sculptor internationally known for his highly detailed, narrative works. Isupov explores painterly figure-ground relationships, creating surreal sculptures with a complex artistic vocabulary that combines two- and three-dimensional narratives and animal/human hybrids. He works in ceramics using traditional hand-building and sculpting techniques to combine surface and form with narrative painting using colored stains highlighted with clear glaze.
Learn more about Sergei Isupov here.
[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.22.1″ custom_padding=”0px|||||” global_colors_info=”{}”]
[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.22.1″ min_height=”133.8px” global_colors_info=”{}”]
Sergei Isupov is an Estonian-American sculptor internationally known for his highly detailed, narrative works. Isupov explores painterly figure-ground relationships, creating surreal sculptures with a complex artistic vocabulary that combines two- and three-dimensional narratives and animal/human hybrids. He works in ceramics using traditional hand-building and sculpting techniques to combine surface and form with narrative painting using colored stains highlighted with clear glaze.
Learn more about Sergei Isupov here.
[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.22.1″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” custom_padding=”||24px|||” global_colors_info=”{}”]Kadri Pärnamets works in porcelain using traditional hand-building and sculpting techniques to combine surface and form. Her biomorphic, organic forms provide a means to convey her personal interests ranging from fragile, natural environments to female identity. Her surface treatments feature a range of gestures and expressions with either abstract shapes or narrative figure painting, inspired by painters from the European Renaissance and Impressionist eras, like Lucas Cranach the Elder and Edouard Manet.
Learn more about Kadri Parnamets here.
[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.22.1″ _module_preset=”default” custom_padding=”1px|||||” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.22.1″ _module_preset=”default” min_height=”193.9px” custom_margin=”38px|auto||auto||” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.22.1″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.22.1″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” custom_padding=”3px|||||” global_colors_info=”{}”]NORTH ADAMS, MA to CUMMINGTON, MA– ARE WE THERE YET? is a celebration of Ferrin Contemporary’s 40+ years as leaders in the field of modern and contemporary ceramics. What began in 1979 as a woman-owned cooperative studio and gallery in Northampton, MA has flourished across the years and the locations to become the international ceramic experts and material champions known as Ferrin Contemporary.
Part of the Open House at Project Art, during the 2023 Hilltown Open Studio Tour, Ferrin Contemporary will open the doors of its
54 Main Street Showroom to the public.
Beginning September 30th, the long-time residents of Cummington will be open by appointment to interested collectors, arts professionals, ceramic artists, and art fans.
With the 2023 designation of Cummington as a cultural district, and the central location of Project Art to the gallery’s lives and growing focuses, the choice to highlight this unique space and follow this momentum on The Road to Cummington, was the right path.
SEPT 30th | 1 PM
OCT 1st | 1 PM
RSVP ABOVE
[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row column_structure=”2_5,3_5″ _builder_version=”4.22.1″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”2_5″ _builder_version=”4.22.1″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_image src=”https://projectart01026.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Project-Art-Gallery-2023-Work-by-Sergei-Isupov-and-Kadri-Parnamets-IMG_5001-scaled.jpg” alt=”Project Art’s 54 Main Street Gallery, 2023, Work by Sergei Isupov and Kadri Parnamets” title_text=”Project Art’s 54 Main Street Gallery, 2023, Work by Sergei Isupov and Kadri Parnamets” _builder_version=”4.22.1″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][/et_pb_image][et_pb_image src=”https://projectart01026.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/FerrinContemporary_AreWeThereYet_Exhibition_LaurenMabry_Installation_2023_FC_071923_AWTY_32_72dpi.jpg” alt=”Lauren Mabry Installation for %22Are We There Yet?%22, Exhibition at Ferrin Contemporary in North Adams, MA Wall Pieces (left to right: Lauren Mabry, %22Scrapyard No.2, No.4, No.3, No.1%22, 2023, ceramic, glaze, ~12 x 10 x 2%22 (each). Sculpture (below): Lauren Mabry, %22Glaze Flow Cylinder No.1%22, 2021, ceramic, glaze, 7.75 x 13.5 x13%22. Photo by John Polak Photography
WHAT YOU WILL SEE
During the course of four decades, the gallery has championed artists whose primary medium is clay. Beginning with a commitment to providing support for living artists, decades-long relationships grew with artists whose works explore traditions and history, deliver social commentary, experiment with the material, and use the medium to challenge themselves to produce new works.
As part of the exhibition that ushered Ferrin Contemporary from North Adams to Cummington, selected classic works will be presented directly from the artists’ archives or offered by private collectors, illustrating career highlights both in the Project Art 54 Main Street Showroom and online.
The exhibition asks us, the artists, and the collectors to reflect on the road we’ve taken and invites the public to join the dialog while we speculate about the future.
Learn more about Ferrin Contemporary HERE
[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]
Linda Sikora Artist Portrait, 2023, photo by John Polok
A special lunch with artist Linda Sikora and her artwork during the Hilltown Six Pottery Tour.
This event has already passed. See photos below!
Linda Sikora’s studio is anchored in the genre of functional ceramics. Sikora is interested in the philosophical and the agency of things. Complex, colorfully decorated, and often conceptualized in prototype groups or series, the work draws from the traditions of European 18 & 19th century industrial production porcelain and common crockery infused with a freedom and lightness that is innovative and contemporary. Her work explores the dual nature of ceramics—as objects of beauty and as objects of use—questioning the blurred line between visual art and functional subjects in cultured spaces.
Sikora is the recipient of a United States Artists Fellowship, an award for excellence in teaching and has been recognized for her mentorship as an educator. Her work was acquired by the Smithsonian in 2022 and featured at the Renwick in their 50th-anniversary exhibition “This Present Moment: Crafting a Better World”. She is a renowned ceramics professor at Alfred University where she maintains an active studio practice and lives with her husband Matthew Metz and daughter.
Learn more about Linda Sikora here.
Tickets for the Congress start at $10, for admission and watching the workshop ONLY on Friday 27th, at 7 PM EST. With this ticket, any of the 30+ workshops in the Congress can be watched only at the time they are posted on the schedule. For lifetime access to all of The Ceramics Congress Workshops, Tickets are $59.
For more information and ticket purchase: https://ceramic.school/the-ceramics-congress/
[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]
Join us for a welcome pot luck dinner and illustrated artist talk in conjunction with Jason Walker’s week-long hands on workshop “Personal Narrative” Sunday, July 21, 6- 8pm at Project Art in Cummington, MA.
Dinner is 6-7, talk 7-8pm.
Join us for a gallery talk and reception for Jason Walker’s solo exhibition “Personal Encounters” on view July 6th–August 10th. The talk and reception takes place Thursday, July 25th, 5–7pm at Ferrin Contemporary in North Adams, MA in conjunction with Downstreet Art, talk at 6pm.
Click for More on Jason Walker’s Workshop “Personal Narrative” at Project Art in Cummington, MA
HOURS: 10 – 5 pm
GARDEN TOURS: Ongoing with June Ferrin
DEMONSTRATIONS:
2:00 Saturday | Mara Superior | Painting on Porcelain
2:00 Sunday | Lily Fein | Hand-building with Porcelain
GUEST CHEF: Alice’s Kitchen
Our spring open house is in conjunction with second annual weekend-long Hilltown Open Studio Tour organized by the Hilltown Arts Alliance featuring thirty artists across five Hilltowns in Western Massachusetts. The participating artists engage in a variety of media and the tour encourages discussion of their work on both the technical and creative sides. The tour is an admission-free event, and many of the artists will have work for sale. Meander timeless backroads, rolling hills, farms, forests, and mountain streams as you make your way between studios. You may begin at any studio or see the group show of work by artists on the tour are on view and pick up a map at the Cummington Community House, 33 Main Street.
Click HERE to view the Hilltown Open Studio Tour Map.
We welcome Alice Cozzolino of Alice’s Kitchen as our guest chef. She and partner, Amy Pulley, formerly of the Old Creamery, live and work on their nearby Honey Hill Homestead. The culmination of a life-long caring for their land, Honey Hill Homestead now offers weekly prepared foods, catering, cooking classes, pollinator plants and more … Order ahead or just stop by and learn about their weekly prepared foods. In addition to the lunch menu, their a la carte selections offer tasty treats and take home foods.
Alice’s Kitchen will offer some of the following items: Fresh Mozzarella, Pesto, Caramelized Onion Baguette Sandwiches * Turkey Wraps * Stuffed Grape Leaves * Endive Salad Canoes with Pear, Goat Cheese, Candied Pecans & Aged Balsamic Vinegar * Pesto Tortellini Skewers * Veggie Egg Rolls * Pizza * Cookies * Watermelon Slices * Herb Tea Tonic * Ginger Honey Lemon Tea * Chai
Join us for the opening of Ferrin Contemporary’s summer gallery, June Ferrin’s Garden Tour and open studios at Project Art. We welcome our newest resident artist, Lily Fein and feature works by resident and visiting artists, June Ferrin, Sergei Isupov, Kadri Parnamets, Paul Scott and guest, Mara Superior.
This event is in conjunction with the weekend long Hilltown Open Studio Tour with 26 artist studios in all media in four nearby Western Massachusetts towns.
MARA SUPERIOR, is a frequent, short term resident artist and actively engaged in creative collaborations with the other artists at Project Art. The 2017 recipient of MCC’s prestigious artist fellowship award, her work is in numerous museum collections throughout the country and in New England including the Peabody Essex Museum, MFA Boston, Fuller Craft, RISD Museum of Art, Hood Museum of Art. Known for detailed works in porcelain, she will be introducing “The Pollinators”, a new series on a range of forms that feature birds, bees and the plants they support. Represented by Ferrin Contemporary, her work can be seen at Project Art and in selected exhibitions at the gallery’s North Adams location in Building 13 on the MASS MoCA campus. Based in Western Massachusetts, Mara lives in nearby Williamsburg and maintains her primary studio at East Street Clay Studios in Hadley.
Demonstration: 2:00 Saturday | Mara Superior | Painting on Porcelain
Click HERE to learn more about Mara Superior.
LILY FEIN is the newest resident artist at Project Art. Arriving in January of 2019, since her graduation from Syracuse with a BFA in ceramics in 2016, she has been traveling and working in residency programs including the Archie Bray Foundation, Helena, MT; Northern Clay Center, Minneapolis, MN; Craigardan in Upstate New York; The Society of Arts and Crafts in Boston, MA and Japan. She employs simple hand building techniques of pinch and coil to make utilitarian pots and sculptural vessels using the most challenging of clay bodies, porcelain. Her time at Project Art has focused on developing a body of new forms that morph and change, and curve and twist with unexpected interruptions and intersections. Her work invites and encourages touch with soft surfaces that reveal the imprint of her fingers on shapely, pleasing, delicate shapes. When not working in clay Lily enjoys dipping in creek beds (including the Westfield River) and playing in her band, The Glue.
Demonstration: 2:00 Sunday | Lily Fein | Hand-building with Porcelain
Click HERE to learn more about Lily Fein.
JUNE FERRIN captures the light and blooms of her extravagant flower gardens in her watercolor paintings. Graduating from UCLA in the 1950s, Ferrin has been an active artist and teacher throughout her life and continues to teach a weekly watercolor class on Wednesdays in the art room of the now closed, former Berkshire Trail Elementary School. Her current work will be on view during the HOST tour. Living and working in Cummington, June’s glorious inspirational flower gardens surround her home and visitors are welcome to tour her gardens and enjoy the view of the Westfield River when stopping by at Project Art during the HOST tour.
GARDEN TOURS: Ongoing with June Ferrin
RESIDENT ARTISTS recent works by resident ceramic artists Sergei Isupov and Kadri Pärnamets will also be on view. OTHER ARTISTS selected works by Project Art’s visiting artists and other artists represented by Ferrin Contemporary.
Join us at Project Art for a slideshow presentation by Lauren Mabry, whose solo exhibition Fused opens at Ferrin Contemporary in North Adams, MA on Saturday, May 4, 2019.
Fused introduces Mabry’s new series of ‘dimensional paintings’ using color, form and an exuberant sense of play to explore transformative nature of clay. Drips, spills and dollops of brightly colored glaze move across her forms, with a precise sense of chaos. The titled, Fused, eludes to the melted surface created within the kiln. This magical moment is something that Mabry is able to hold to within her glaze work, as if she’s able to slow down time itself.
“Because I strive to keep my work as playful as it is scientific, the things I make exist
where haphazard sketching meets the precision of chemistry.” — Lauren Mabry
A Gallery Talk and Reception will take place Saturday, May 4th, from 5–7pm at Ferrin Contemporary in North Adams, MA. A group dinner will follow at Bright Ideas Brewery & A-OK Berkshire BBQ.
