GARETH MASON EXHIBITION

Gareth Mason Exhibition

BY INFOCERAMICA ON 11 AUGUST, 2022EXHIBITIONS

The  Jason Jacques Gallery, in New York, presents until August 14 the exhibition entitled "Wild Clay", by the British ceramist Gareth Mason

Clay has languor and vigor. It has an air of indomitability, an innate savagery, both because of its deliriously banal natural origin (clay can be called like a luxurious mud) and because of its intriguingly whimsical behavior inside the oven.

Only fire can transform this indeterminate and wavering substance into a material that is as fragile and changeable as it is hard and pure. This duality gives rise to a tantalizing tension; When contemplating a work by Gareth Mason, one cannot help but imagine the pots broken, but not broken, starting a riot inside the hell of a furnace.

These intricate vessels carry chunks of wild clay between reused shards of pottery from the past and glittering droplets of gold, glittering, molten, metallic tears. It is a ceramic that challenges the pristine history of porcelain, developing an approach to clay that is as raw and unadulterated as the medium allows.

In the words of the artist himself: «We love shiny things created by forces beyond our knowledge. We want to be witnesses and know the wonder. Clay has this potential in spades . "