Masters of Craft: Philadelphia’s American Craft Council Fellows (Philadelphia: Center for Art in Wood).
Introduction
The Philadelphia Art Alliance is dedicated to the advancement and appreciation of innovative contemporary art with a focus on craft and design, and to inspiring dynamic interaction between audiences and artists in a setting of historic and aesthetic significance.
In 1915, philanthropist and theater aficionado Christine Wetherill Stevenson established the PAA with the goal of uniting the arts by presenting, music, theater, fine arts, craft and design, and literary events in a single venue. In 1917, through the generosity of Samuel Price Wetherill (1846-1926), Christine’s father, the Art Alliance moved to a new headquarters at 1823-25 Walnut Street on Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia. At this site, there were club rooms, galleries, and a restaurant for the 830 members of the organization; and studios in which artists lived and taught. In 1920 the Art Alliance purchased the adjoining property at 1827 Walnut Street, expanding its galleries and studio space. At that time, the PAA ‘s committees numbered eleven: Architecture, Crafts, Drama, Extension, Literary Arts, Music, Oil Paintings, Prints, Sculpture, Watercolor, and Drawing and Illustration.
In 1926, the PAA moved from their original quarters at 1826 Walnut Street into Mrs. Stevenson’s family home on Rittenhouse Square. Designed by Charles Klauder of Frank Miles Day & Brothers Architects, this historic home was designed in the style of an Italian Renaissance palazzo. Although transformed into a series of galleries for exhibitions and programming, the mansion retains many of the original domestic features.
Moving to the Wetherill Mansion provided the staff and volunteers the freedom to expand their efforts. Under the guidance of the Extension Committee, the PAA continued its invaluable role in assisting smaller cultural clubs and societies. Committees provided technical assistance and the building itself could accommodate literally dozens of meetings each month. As a result, the PAA was able to develop long-time collaborations, particularly in craft and watercolor painting. The PAA also filled a unique role on Rittenhouse Square in its equal admission of women and men who were either producers or consumers of the arts. Interest in art acted as the glue rather than class, sex or religion.
Through it’s history, the Philadelphia Art Alliance has exhibited visual and performing arts in a range of traditions and forms. In its early years, offerings have included exhibitions by such notable artists such as Mary Cassatt, Andrew Wyeth, Horace Pippin, Antonio Gaudì, George Nakashima, Man Ray, MC Escher, Walter Gropius, Le Corbusier. Writers and composers and choreographers have presented readings and performances, including, W.H Auden, E.E. Cummings, Buckminster Fuller, Leonard Bernstein, Dorothy Parker, Martha Graham, Alvin Ailey, and John Cage and Merce Cunningham.
In the past decade, the Philadelphia Art Alliance has refocused its curatorial vision on contemporary craft and design, devoted to presenting work in a wide array of materials with an emphasis on the practice and processes of designing and making objects. The artists whose work we present at PAA may be classified as “craftsmen” or “sculptors,” their work may be functional, decorative, conceptual, or some combination of the three, but what they have in common is a deep engagement with the techniques and materials of their chosen media and a reverence for the traditions from which they draw inspiration.
In this context, It is interesting to note that throughout its programming history, the PAA has hosted numerous exhibitions of craft-based work by artists at early points in their career, including: Samuel Yellin, Glenn William Lukens, Jack Lenor Larsen, George Nakashima, Henry Lee Willet, Henry Varnum Poor, Bernard Leech, Richard Reinhardt, William Parry, Rudolf Staffel, Olaf Skoogfors, Ka Kwong Hui, Erwin Eisch, Joel Philip Myers, William Daley, and Robert and Paula Winokur, among many others.
Today, PAA’s programming in craft and design includes adventurous works of sculpture and installation that have a formal or narrative focus on fabrication, material, or found objects sourced from a meaningful time or place. The most recent highlights from the past year that reflect this curatorial perspective include both retrospective exhibitions of internationally-renowned, established artists as well as emerging local artists. Recent exhibitions of note have included the work of Gjis Bakker, Wayne Higby, Robert Baines, Stanley Lechtzin, SunKoo Yuh, Kiff Slemmons, Bean Finneran, Candy Depew, Jeanne Quinn, Chad Curtis, Saya Woolfalk, Jennifer Angus, Sabrina Gschwandtner, and Molly Hatch.
ARTISTS
Adela Akers (b.1933, Santiago de Compostela, Spain)
Adela Akers is a Spanish-born textile artist, who moved to Cuba at an early age to escape the civil war. With an interest in biochemistry, she initially graduated from the University of Havana with a degree in Pharmacy. While in Havana, she met a group of artists Los Once (The Eleven) that included painters, playwrights and actors. Influenced by their creative freedom, Akers was persuaded to study weaving and ceramics at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1957. During this time, Akers began completing commissions for sale, setting a process of drawing and weaving in consultation with the collector or corporation that has continued throughout her lifetime.
Travelling throughout North and South America and Europe throughout her lifetime strongly influenced the direction and evolution of her work. After completing her masters degree at Cranbrook Academy of Art and a residency at Penland School of Crafts, Akers traveled to Peru with a government program, Progress for Peace, as a weaving advisor in a program initiative the Kennedy administration. As part of the Peace Corps volunteers, Akers was tasked as a weaving advisor to organize and sell the work that they were trying to produce and develop a type of cooperative to develop an economic means to produce and sell their work. This was a transformative event in development of her oeuvre. Exposed to textiles of pre-Columbian Peruvian weavers and other early Indian weaving techniques, her tapestries begin to incorporate more subtle design elements, while at the same moment, her work reflected an increase in scale. These styles of textile and ceramics became an intrinsic part of the structure of her pieces because of its dependence on math and geometry.
Continuing to travel to discover new techniques, Akers then made a trip to Mexico, which introduced her to alternative methods of dying and weaving as well as new materials readily available in the market place such as sisal. This was followed by a research trip to the Santa Barbara Museum to study basketry. As a result, Akers also begin incorporating stiffer materials into her weavings, focusing almost entirely structure and texture, and less on composition and color. Throughout her career, Akers focused on process; developing a technique of wrapping warps with extra threads to provide more of a three-dimensional quality and adding color that was not in the warp itself. Using a double weave technique provided Akers with the possibility of having layers and more than one plane to the surface.
Equally important in Akers artistic impact is her tenured career as a teacher and mentor. From Professor and Chair Fiber Area, Crafts Department, 1972 to 1995, Akers taught at Tyler School of Art at Temple University and the Chair of the Fiber Department. Akers considered her work at Tyler as means to provide a continual community; a place where her continual feedback to students and colleagues, as well as a robust visiting artist program, was reciprocated by an exposure to new ideas, materials and techniques.
As an internationally-recognized artist, Akers has had numerous solo exhibitions at: Quicksilver Mine Company, Forestville, CA (2012); Sonoma County Museum, Santa Rosa, CA (2010) Hibberd McGrath Gallery, Breckenridge, CO (2009) Fiberscene, Online Gallery, San Francisco, CA (2009); Triangle Gallery, San Francisco, CA (2008 and 2001) Thirteen Moons Gallery, Santa Fe, NM (2004); Solomon Dubnick Gallery, Sacramento, CA (2004); Browngrotta arts, Wilton, CT (2001); Helen Drutt Gallery, New York, NY (1990) 1987 Patrick King Contemporary Art, Indianapolis, IN (1987); The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA (1986); Modern Masters Tapestries, New York, NY (1984); The Mandell Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (1981); Fiberworks Gallery, Berkeley, CA (1980); and Bloomsburg State College, Bloomsburg, PA 1977).
Major group exhibitions have included: Frontiers in Contemporary American Weaving, Lowe Art Museum, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL (1976); Fiberworks—Invitational International Exhibition, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (1977); Art in Crafts: Work in Fiber, Clay & Metal by Women, Bronx Museum, Bronx, NY (1978); Contemporary Fiber Art, Newark Museum, Newark, NJ (1978); 8 Artists, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA (1978); Clay, Fiber, Metal: Invitational Pennsylvania Craftsmen, Arcadia University, Glenside, PA (1979); Fibers, Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Winston Salem, NC (1980); Jacquard Textiles, Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI, Cooper Hewitt Museum, and Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, New York, NY (1982); Craft Today: Poetry of the Physical, a traveling exhibition organized by the Museum of Art and Design, New York, NY (1986); Inaugural Exhibition, Asheville Art Museum, Asheville, NC (1992); Textile Invitational, Baylor University, Waco, TX (1992); Weaving Metaphors: Adela Akers, Virginia Davis, Emily DuBois, Arts Benicia, Benicia, CA (1997); Cranbrook to Lancaster and Back, Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, MI (2005); High Fiber, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC (2005); Penland School of Crafts Resident Artists Exhibition, Asheville, NC (2005); Material Difference: Soft Sculpture and Wall Works, Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, IL (2006); Saturn Returns: Back to the Future of Fiber Art, San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles, San Jose, CA (2007); Crafting Modernism: Midcentury American Art and Design, Museum of Arts and Design, New York, NY
In 2014, Akers was an Artist in Residence at the de Young Museum, San Francisco, CA. She became a Fellow of the American Crafts Council in 2008. Fellowships, awards and grants include: Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant (2008); Flintridge Foundation Award (2005); Faculty Award for Creative Achievement, Temple University (1995); Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Grant (1989 and 1983); Faculty Research Study Leave, Temple University (1988 and 1979); Faculty Grant-in-Aid of Research, Temple University (1988, 1979 and 1975); Faculty Summer Research Fellowship, Temple University (1984 and 1975); National Endowment for the Arts Individual Artist Fellowship (1980 and 1974); New Jersey State Council on the Arts Grant (1971); National Endowment for the Arts, Artists at Penland School of Crafts, Penland, NC (1971 and 1969); Cintas Foundation Fellowship (1968 and 1967). Her papers are at the Archives of American Art.
Akers has also been represented by at Brown Grotta Arts as well as the Snyderman - Works Gallery, Philadelphia, PA (2008-2014) Akers works and lives in Guerneville, CA.
Lewis Knauss (b. 1947-Macungie, PA)
The prolific body of work by Lewis Knauss in the field of textiles has always been influenced by the natural landscape of his surroundings. Whether it was the fields in Macungie, Pennsylvania where he grew up, or the mountains of Colorado, which he visited later in his career, or his travels to Egypt and Israel, his connections to place at a particular point in time heavily influences his choice of materials as well as his technique.
As a major in education at Kutztown University, Knauss was first exposed to textiles when trying to fulfill a general requirement for graduation. Attracted to the material properties of yarn, Knauss then decided to take a weaving class, which forever changed the path of his career. In the late 1960s, many artists were exploring the tensions within the field of craft, often questioning the need to crafts to be defined by functionality and delving into a focus on process and materiality for its own sake. His exposure to contemporary weaving and textiles was reinforced through his study at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts and subsequently at Tyler School of Art at Temple University where he received his Master’s degree.
It was when Knauss moved to Ohio to teach at Kent State University that he developed a keen interest in the natural landscape, which resulted in an life-long exploration of technique and the incorporation of new materials to “capture” his memory of a certain locale, during a particular season or time of day. For example, his earliest works were inspired by the landscape in Pennsylvania are made of raffia based on his recollection of the bleached grass in the midst of winter. As he studied and traveled, he continued to explore other materials to discover their potential to be weaved and built into the surface of his work. Twine, hay, feathers, leaves and even paper have been the source materials of his work. It is the layering through the process of knotting line by line coupled with his commitment to fine craftsmanship and attention to detail that drives his work. As Knauss observes “The act of making has always been very important. Sitting quietly, working, tying knots endlessly, working on objects on my own. I feel those objects really record every minute of my life. From the very first moment I picked up a yarn, I just loved the feel of that in my hands. I love the dialogue. Every material in textiles has a different response to a structure, a different response to me as a maker.”
For 28 years, Knauss was professor of textiles at Moore College in Philadelphia and retired from teaching as Professor Emeritus in 2010. He has received numerous fellowships from both the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts and was recognized with the Lindbach Distinguished Teaching Award in 2007. Knauss’ work can be found in several private and museum collections, including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Cooper-Hewitt, the National Design Museum, and the Smithsonian Institution, New York.
Knauss has had numerous solo exhibitions, including: Fields and Forests, Hadler / Rodriquez Gallery, New York, NY (1975); Macungie Notes, Hadler / Rodriguez Gallery, New York, NY and Houston, TX. (1978); Objects Gallery, San Antonio, TX. Craft Alliance, St. Louis, MO (1981); Helen Drutt Gallery, Philadelphia, PA (1982); Miller / Brown Gallery, San Francisco, CA. Elements Gallery, New York, NY (1984); Contemporary Crafts, Portland, OR (1986); The Woven Landscape, Patrick King Contemporary Art, Indianapolis, IN (1988); The Windows at Tiffany & Co., Washington, DC (1991); Meditation on the Landscape, Allentown Art Museum, Allentown, PA (1998); Lewis Knauss, Jane Sauer Gallery; Santa Fe, NM (2004); Philadelphia International Airport, Philadelphia, PA (2004); and Lewis Knauss: Ledgers, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE (2005).
His work as been included in several important group exhibitions, such as: Fiberworks, Cleveland Art Museum, Cleveland, OH (1977); Diverse Directions: The Fiber Arts, Washington State University, Pullman, University of Washington, Seattle, WA (1978); Miniature Fiber Arts, The Textile Workshop traveling National Exhibition (1979); Old Traditions/New Directions, Textile Museum, Washington, DC (1981); Crafts of the Eighties, Newark Museum, Newark, NJ (1982); Contemporary Arts: An Expanded View, a traveling exhibition organized by Monmouth Museum, Lincroft, NJ (1986); Contemporary Textile Art: A National Survey, Sierra Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, NV (1987); Textiles in Philadelphia, Helen Drutt Gallery, Philadelphia, PA (1994); Bridging Worlds: An Exhibition of the Visiting Artists Jacquard Project, a traveling exhibition organized by Philadelphia University, Philadelphia, PA (1996); Opening Doors: Selections from the Design Resource Center, Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum, NY (1998); Miniature 2000, Helen Drutt Gallery, Philadelphia, PA and Museum of Art and Design, Helsinki, Finland (2000); Wood of the World, Finnish Museum of Art and Design, Helsinki, Finland (2000); Ever Changing Landscape, Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft, Louisville, KY (2005); Fibre: A New World View, National Gallery of the Irish Craft Council, Kilkenny, Ireland (2005); A Memory of Place: Work by Beth Barron & Lewis Knauss, Society of Contemporary Craft, Pittsburg, PA (2006); Pulp Fiction, a traveling show organized by Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, MA (2006); Precious Possessions: The American Craft Collection / Fiber Art from the Museum Collection, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia PA (2008); Paper Works, Flinn Gallery, Greenwich Library, Greenwich, CT. (2012); Innovators and Legends: Generations in Textile and Fiber, a traveling exhibition organized by Muskegon Museum of Art, Muskegon, MI (2012) Contemporary Work in Fiber, University of Mary Washington Galleries, VA (2012); Making Design, Cooper-Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Collection, New York, NY (2012); Gifts from America 1948 - 2013, The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia (2014); A Broader Interpretation of Southwest Landscapes, and Biodiversity, Tansey Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM (2014); and The LA Art Show, Tansey Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM (2015).
Knauss has also shown at Art Palm Beach, SOFA/Chicago, SOFA/NYC, SOFA/West, as well as the International Fiber Biennial, Snyderman - Works Gallery, Philadelphia, PA (2008-2014)
Judith Schaechter (b. 1961, Gainsville, FL)
Heavily influenced by medieval iconography and the intense color found in Byzantine icons and panel paintings, Judith Schaechter work defies the current interests in the field of glass, which is typified by abstraction and transparency. Playing on the religious traditions of stained glass as a medium, her subjects explore human frailty and tragedy, yet there is not a specific didactic narrative, which was normally the purpose stained glass for centuries.
Schaechter began her artistic career as a painter, receiving her degree from Rhode Island School of Design in 1983. During this time, she was introduced to glassblowing and in a matter of weeks, she realized the potential of the medium. Unlike the usual interest in form or functionality that typifies most contemporary glass production, Schaechter turned to stained glass. She researched its origins in Europe from the 12th century until the Protestant Reformation, and its resurfacing during the 19th century Arts and Craft movement.
Despite the aesthetic consonances with 12th century stained glass, the iconography of her work is devoid of religious subject matter. The intricacy of her imagery is derived from from a myriad of sources, such as comic books, old book illustrations, art history, and biology. Her human and animal figures suggest a state of either complete despair or in a moment of transcendence. She describes her own work as “beautiful” stating, "beauty is considered the most horrible crime you can commit in the modern art world. People are suspicious of anything that makes them feel as though they may lose control. Beauty forces you to confront your helplessness as well as your dark side. My work is not intended to make comfortable people unhappy, although it may make unhappy people comfortable."
Although Schaechter’s technique is rooted in stained glass traditions, it has no specific precedent. She uses flash glass to create her work, which is a colored glass with thinner layers of paler colors. She is able to create subtle variations in her color palette by sandblasting and engraving the flash and then often layering several pieces together. She then models her images in black enamel. The windows are then put together using lead with a traditional copper foil technique and are installed in a light box.
Judith Schaechter is the recipient of many grants, including two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Her work is in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Fine Art Museum of San Francisco, the Museum of Arts and Design in New York, the Corning Museum of Glass, the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and numerous private collections. Judith has taught at the Pilchuck Glass School in Seattle, Rhode Island School of Design and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.
Schaechter has had numerous solo exhibitions throughout her career, including Nexus, Philadelphia, PA (1984, 1986 and 1988); Fleisher Art Memorial, Philadelphia, PA (1990); Virtue Triumphs, La Luz De Jesus Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (1992); Helander Gallery, Palm Beach, FL and New York, NY (1993); John Michael Kohler Art Center, Sheboygen, WI (1995); Heart Attacks, Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, PA (1995); Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, OH (1996); Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Morris Gallery, Philadelphia, PA (1998); Agni Fine Arts, The Hague, Netherlands (1999); Smalands Museum, Vaxjo Sweden (2001); Huntington Museum of Art, Huntington, WV (2001); and Stained, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO (2004). In 2004, Schaechter was featured in a major traveling exhibition featuring works between 1988 and 2003 at Arnot Museum, Elmira, NY, the Museum of Glass, Tacoma, WA and Bass Museum, Miami Beach, FL. In 2012, a major installation of site specific work, The Battle of Carnival and Lent, was featured at Eastern State Penitentiary, Philadelphia, PA (2012). She has been featured in several solo exhibitions at Snyderman-Works, Philadelphia and Claire Oliver Gallery, New York, NY.
Selected group exhibitions include: Contemporary Philadelphia Artists, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA (1990); GlassWorks, Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC (1990); Design Visions, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth Cultural Center, Perth Australia (1992); American Crafts: The Nation’s Collection, Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC (1992); Treasures From the Corning Museum, Yokohama Museum, Yokohama, Japan (1992); The Rhode Island Connection: 13 Contemporary Glass Masters, Newport Art Museum, Newport, RI (1993); Glass Today, Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (1997); 12 x 12: A Generation of Challenge Artists, Samuel S. Fleisher Art Memorial, Philadelphia (1998); Biennial 1998, Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE (1998); American Glass: Masters of the Art, Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, (1998-2000); Bizarro World! Cornell Fine Arts Museum, Winter Park, FL (2000); Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY (2002); Triennial 9 Form and Contents: Corporeal Identity, Museum fur Angewandte Kunst, Frankfurt, Germany, Chicago Athenaeum and the Museum of Arts and Design (2003); Cheongju International Craft Biennale 2005, Cheongju City, Korea (2005); Point of View IV, Mint Museum of Craft and Design (2007); Pretty Is As Pretty Does, SITE Santa Fe, Santa Fe NM (2009); Venice Biennale Collateral exhibition Glasstress, Venice, Italy (2011); History in the Making: Renwick Invitational, Renwick Museum of the Smithsonian Institutions, Washington, DC (2011); Studio Glass: Anna and Joe Mendel Collection, Musee Des Beaux- Arts Montreal, Montreal, Canada (2011); The Glass Canvas, Het Glazen Huis, Lommel Belgium (2011); Playing With Fire; 50 Year of Contemporary Glass, Museum of Arts and Design, New York, NY (2012); The Female Gaze, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA (2012); and Glasstress New York, New Art from the Venice Biennales, Museum of Arts and Design, New York, NY (2012).
Judith Schaechter is an adjunct professor in the Craft & Material Studies department at the University of the Arts. She lives and works in Philadelphia, PA.
Warren Seelig (b. 1946 Abington, PA)
Although Warren Seelig’s work can be categorized into two interrelated bodies of work, his aim in both is to define and redefine the qualities that are unique to textile, and especially to a kind of abstraction rooted in repetitive processes. As the third generation of his family to be involved in textiles, his interest in weaving began very early in his education when first witnessing how cloth is actually created on a loom and how that process offered the possibility of endless reiterations and exploration. An equal interest for Seelig to the very materiality of the woven textile is building up form and the relationship of weaving to basic architectural principles. His formal training began with Philadelphia College of Textiles and Science, followed by a master's degree in fine art at the Cranbrook Academy of Art. He became interested in the writings of Bauhaus textile artist Anni Albers and the work included in the groundbreaking 1972 craft exhibition Objects USA, held at what is now the Museum of Art and Design in New York.
His earlier series “Spoke & Axle” is composed of tailored bands of synthetic double-weave fabrics made of such materials as mesh, Tyvek paper and nylon stretched across sculptural frameworks of hand-wrought stainless-steel rods. Seelig states, “When yielding to its natural geometric form, textile becomes an energy field which increases in power proportionally to its abstraction and simplicity.” Seelig brings contrasting aspects of textile production to light; the craft of weaving by hand while simultaneously referencing industrialized and scientific processes. From this series, several large scale engineered constructions emerged; commissions such as the 60 foot work Spiral Light for Royal Caribbean International or more recently an installation for the U.S. embassy in Monrovia, Liberia.
His most recent series entitled “Shadowfields”, has a metaphorical relationship to textiles, utilizing materials such as plexiglass, metal and rock instead of more traditional textiles. Using a three-dimensional woven matrix made of metal he incorporates various materials such as rock, metal, wood and Lucite to create depth and pattern. Seelig describes these as “material fields [that] are becoming less tangible and more illusive. The complex relationship between materiality, light and shadow is evolving into an energy field, a beautiful matrix of obsessively repeating parts and particles, expanding, swelling, increasing, and decreasing. For me, the textile is a phenomenon which is ‘spirited’ and evokes images of connection and connectedness, of crystalline fields, cellular atmospheres, and granular surface in three dimensions.”
Seelig is a distinguished visiting professor in the Fibers/Mixed Media program at The University of the Arts in Philadelphia where he teaches, curates and writes on various subjects related to textile, fiber and material studies. Seelig has twice received individual fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and three fellowships from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. He has lectured extensively including programs at the Korean National University of the Arts, Banff Centre in Alberta, the Royal College of Art, London and the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam and has written extensively for various magazines and journals including American Craft, Fiber Arts, Surface Design Journal, Textilforum, and Nouvel Objet. His work is in the collections of museums, colleges and in private and corporate collections worldwide.
His work has been included in several solo exhibitions such as: the British Craft Centre, London (1977); St Maryʼs College, Notre Dame, IN (1990); Machina Textrina, The Museum for Textiles, Toronto, Canada (1996); Suspended Animation, Maine Center for Contemporary Art, Rockport, ME (1998); and the forty year retrospective Textile Per Se, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD (2009). Major group exhibitions include: Art Fabric Mainstream, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (1981); Old Traditions, New Directions, Textile Museum, Washington, DC (1981); Poetry of the Physical, American Craft Museum, New York (1987); Craft Today: USA, American Craft Museum European Tour (1990); 4th International Textile Competition, Museum of Kyoto, Kyoto, Japan (1994); Fiber: Five Decades from the Permanent Collection, American Craft Museum, New York, NY (1994); Textiles and New Technology, British Crafts Centre, London (1996); World Contemporary Craft, Chongju International Craft Biennale, Chongju, Korea (1999); Fabric & Fiber 99ʼ, Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Maine (1999); Haystack: Pivotal Transformations, Maine Center for Contemporary Art (2001); Jack Lenor Larsen, Creator and Collector, Museum of Arts & Design New York (2004); 20/20 enVision, Colby College and University of New England (2004); Jack Lenor Larsen, Creator and Collector, Museum of Arts & Design, New York (2004); and Daegu Textile Art Documenta 2005, Daegu Metropolitan City, Korea (2005).
Warren is a regular visiting critic at Rhode Island School of Design and is a mentor in the graduate program at Maine College of Art. In 2009, the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore presented a major retrospective of his work. He lives and works in Rockland, Maine.
Paula Winokur (b. 1935, Philadelphia, PA)
Known for her hand-built porcelain forms, the work of Paula Winokur references her strong interest in geological forms such as cliffs, ledges, crevices and canyons. More importantly her work suggests the passage of time and its affect on these types of formations, whether it be water, wind, earthquakes or other natural phenomena. Her choice of porcelain echoes the subject matter of her forms. Winokur states, “I have chosen to work with this clay because it has allowed me to explore issues in the landscape without necessarily making literal interpretations. It can be minimal and sometimes surreal in its starkness.”
Winokur began her academic career with a focus on painting. During her sophomore year that she took a course with the ceramicist Rudolph Staffel and began working in clay. Initially exposed to with stoneware on kick wheels. Her work was influenced by East Coast artists such as Bernard Leach and Shoji Hamada, among others. It was after she spent a summer at Alfred University with her husband Robert Winokur, the couple moved Ashfield, Massachusetts where they started Cape Street Pottery. They sold functional ceramic work from their studio until Robert received a teaching position at Tyler School of Art in 1966.
In 1970, under the influence of work by Ken Ferguson and Warren Mackenzie, Winokur began to experiment with Grolleg porcelain. Her work initially in this medium included a series of box forms inspired by dreams and inner spirituality. The epiphany for a major change in her work came in 1982 after attending a workshop in Portland, Oregon. On her return home, Winokur became mesmerized by aerial view of the Rocky Mountains. Her focus then began to change from the internal to the external by studying the actual landscape.
Subsequent travels to archeological cliffs of Mesa Verde, Colorado, the standing stones at Salisbury Plain and Avebury in England, and glaciers of Alaska were imperative in the development of her work. Experiencing the size and scale of the mountains and glaciers in these locales in person allowed Winokur to increase the size of her work while simultaneously exploiting the natural delicacy of handling porcelain, including its tendency towards cracking and capturing its textural qualities without the need for glazes.
Her most recent body of work is influenced by trip to Iceland in 2006, where the artist witnessed several receding glaciers in various states. As a result, Winokur created several pieces interpreting these features. Becoming more political in nature, these large-scale pieces reflect her concern about climate change and call the viewer’s attention to the serious impact of the loss of glacial ice on the planet.
Winokur has a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from Tyler School of Art, Temple University. She is a professor emerita at Arcadia University in Glenside, where she taught for 30 years. She was on Board of Directors at National Council in Education for the Ceramic Arts, The Cay Studio, Philadelphia, President of the Alumni Association at Tyler School of Art, the International Academy of Ceramics. She is currently on the Board of Trustees for the Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts. Winokur has received two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as, grants from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and the Leeway Foundation.
Her work resides in many collections, including the Houston Museum of Fine Arts; Design Museum, Helsinki, Finland; The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, Hawaii; Mint Museum of Crafts & Design, Charlotte, NC, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA; Jingdezhen Ceramic Art Institute, China; Renwick Gallery, Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution; The Philadelphia Convention Center Art Collection; The International Ceramic Studio, Kecskemet, Hungary; Montreal Museum of Decorative Arts, Montreal, Canada, Museum of Art and Design, New York, NY; Connecticut State College Ceramic Collection; Arizona State University, Ceramics Collection, Tempe, AZ; Utah Museum of Art, Salt Lake City, UT; Alberta Potters Association, Calgary, Canada; Delaware Museum of Art, Wilmington, DE; and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Major solo exhibitions include: Contemporary Crafts, Portland, OR (1976); College of William & Mary, Williamsburg, VA (1980); Napa Valley College, California (1991); Long Island University, Southampton, NY (1995); Clay Art Center, Port Chester, New York, NY (2003); The Contemporary Museum Honolulu, HI (2004); Design Museum, Helsinki, Finland (2005); Arcadia University, Glenside, PA (2006); Goggleworks Art Gallery, Reading, PA (2008). Between 1978 and 1999, the gallery Helen Drutt: Philadelphia represented Winokur.
Winokur’s work has been included in several pivotal group exhibitions such as: 23rd Ceramic National, Everson Museum, NY (1964); Crafts’70 American Crafts Council, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA (1970); Opening Exhibition: Helen Drutt Gallery, Philadelphia, PA (1974); Baroque’74, Museum of Contemporary Crafts, NY (1974); Philadelphia: 300 Years of American Arts, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA (1976); American Porcelain, The Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institute, Washington DC (1980); Dionyse International, Gent, Belgium (1981); Craft Today: Poetry of the Physical, a traveling exhibition organized by the Museum of Art and Design, New York, NY (1986); Contemporary Philadelphia Artists, Philadelphia Museum of Art (1990); A Decade of Craft: Recent Acquisitions, American Craft Museum, NY (1992); NCECA Endowment Exhibition, Strong Museum, Rochester, NY (1996); East & West & South: International Ceramics Symposium, Tolgyfa Gallery, Budapest, Hungary (1996); Ceramics from the International Ceramics studio, Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Wales (1997); First Yixing Ceramic Invitational, Yixing, China (1998); NCECA Honors & Fellows Exhibition, Fort Worth Museum of Modern Art (1998); International Biennial, Ichon, Korea (2001); Poetics of Clay, Philadelphia Art Alliance, Designmeuseo, Helsinki, and Houston Center for Contemporary Crafts (2001 to 2003); 2002 Fellows Exhibition: Contemporary Crafts Gallery, Portland, OR (2002); NCECA Invitational: Earth Matters, Moore College of Art & Design, Philadelphia, PA (2010); Foregrounding the Palisades, Wave Hill and Hudson River Museum, New York, NY (2012); Structure and Form, Gravers Lane Gallery, Philadelphia, PA (2015); and Ceramics Invitational, Abington Art Center, Jenkintown, PA (2015).
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“Masters: Lewis Knauss” American Craft Magazine, Oct./Nov. 2012 <http://craftcouncil.org/
magazine/article/masters-lewis-knauss>
“Profile: Judith Schaechter” University of the Arts, updated 2015 <http://www.uarts.edu/users
/jschaechter>
“MICA Mounts Warren Seelig Retrospective” Maryland Institute College of Art 26 Oct., 2009 <http://www.mica.edu/News/MICA_Mounts_Warren_Seelig_Retrospective_Dec_4_2009-March_14_2010.html>
“Warren Seelig Constructed Surface: A Metaphorical Textile” Shakerag Workshops, 2006 <http://www.shakerag.org/workshops/20
Oral history interview with Paula Colton Winokur, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 2011 July 21-22, <http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-paula-colton-winokur-15988>