Jason Jacques Gallery, in collaboration with Elizabeth Dee Gallery, announces The Excited Eye, a solo exhibition of self-titled ceramiphile Joel Otterson. The artist will present a selection of sculptures that draw inspiration from aspects of domestic handicraft and sculptural materials. Otterson’s interest in the Gesamkunstwerk or total work of art keeps his works in conversation with one another and their environments.
Copper pipe, pottery and glass, cast metal, and lace are the raw materials that often constitute Otterson’s work. The artist blurs the line between the seemingly disparate spheres of learned and vernacular culture, art, and craft to create poignant sculptures that are both utilitarian and deconstructed objects. His current thought process has led to an investigation of classical Greek vessels whose forms he considers sublime. Otterson, in his own words, is “fascinated that these forms and their genetics have been spread throughout the history of the world.” Through his art, he places himself into this historical progression.
Otterson’s use of varied mediums and processes has grown out of his interest in the development of domestic landscape, and everything in relationship to human beings. His deconstructivist approach helps him to apprehend the nature of the material and visual culture that follows human living. “The vessel is gone,” he muses, “and only the decoration is left.”
