ABOUT
Solo Exhibition by Linda Swanson
MSU Union Art Gallery | February 21-April 4 |
Reception Friday, February 21, 5-7pm | Artist talk 6pm
https://www.lindaswansonstudio.com
While we measure time linearly, our experience of it is dense. Time is thick, embedded deep within things. In the landscape, we might sense the accumulation of millions of years in mountains and valleys while a momentary breeze rises and passes away.
We know that time has passed when something has changed. Things embody their own time. Each inflection of form and material articulating a moment, becoming accretions of time. Our bodies are no different. Our age appears in our skin, the smoothness of our face and hands hardening into furrows and scars to reveal our intimate histories.
As humans, we have a profound relationship with clay. It is a material that has always been a part of our world. Our mythical origins speak of our being formed from clay. Scientists have shown that specific energetic properties found in clay minerals are key to forming life. It is the only natural material that retains the shape we give it by hand, immediate in response yet enduring for generations.
Engaging with clay is my attempt to reflect on our existence in a distinctly human way.
About the Artist: Linda Swanson is an artist whose interests are grounded in the metamorphic nature of ceramic materials and processes. Her work engages the enigmatic properties of matter at an elemental level and the capacity of wonder to question how and what we know. Her raw and kiln fired ceramic works have been exhibited around the United States, Canada and Europe with recent exhibitions at the Musée National de Sèvres in Paris, Galateea Contemporary Art in Bucharest, Art Paris with Galerie Maria Lund, the DePaul Museum in Chicago and the Milwaukee Art Museum, Swanson was awarded the Raphael Prize in Ceramics by the Society for Contemporary Craft in 2014 and an Emerging Artist Award in 2013 from NCECA, the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts. Her work has been supported with grants from the FRQSC, Canada Council, NYFA, the Windgate Charitable Foundation and the Constance Saltonstall Foundation. Swanson studied ceramics at the Tekisui Workshop in Ashiya, Japan, following a BA in Art History from UC Santa Barbara, then a BFA in Ceramics from Cal State Long Beach and an MFA from Alfred University. Since graduation in 2005, she has taught at Alfred University, the Kansas City Art Institute and currently teaches at Concordia University in Montreal.
The Union Art Gallery is open M-F 12-5pm