A number of images of works from AMOCA’s permanent collection have been formatted as Zoom backgrounds below. Another Board of Directors exclusive! For instructions on how to set a virtual background, click here for Zoom’s instruction page, or click here for a video tutorial on YouTube.
Many thanks to Robert J. Dea for the suggestion.
Bennett Bean
Bennett Bean (b. 1941) is a multidisciplinary artist working in clay, stone, precious metals, weaving, paper, and painting. He is best known for his complex pit-fired ceramic works decorated with post-firing surface treatments using paint and gold leaf. His influences include Japanese, Native American, and modern American pottery. He is also inspired by English pottery in the tradition of Bernard Leach.
Bean received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Iowa State University and a Master of Fine Arts degree from Claremont Graduate University where he studied with Paul Soldner. Bean is represented in major museum collections nationwide including the Whitney Museum of American Art (NY), The Smithsonian Institution (DC), and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (CA).
Exhibited as part of New Acquisitions: Julianne and David Armstrong.
Mettlach
Jardiniere
This jardiniere is one of the many works donated by Bob and Colette Wilson. Mettlach (named after the village) is one of the factories of Villeroy & Boch located on the Saar River in western Germany, very close to the borders of France and Luxembourg. The factory was housed on the grounds of a former Benedictine Abbey dating to the 10th Century. The Abbey tower became a symbol for the quality and design of the Mettlach factory. On this side of the jardiniere the Abbey can be seen in the landscape. The factory ceased manufacture of these works during WWI and in August 1921 after a great fire destroyed the pattern and mold storehouse, but some molds survived and were used again in the late 1920’s.
Relief Plaque
This Mettlach plaque was made using a variety of different techniques. The relief angel was hand applied requiring great skill and attention to detail by the sculptor. Gilding with gold on the edges and highlights required an extra low firing step. The angel (Greek Angelos = messenger) in this case is a womanly angel with a message of peace in the Spring of life as symbolized by what appears to be Laurel branches with blooms.
Phanolith Vase
This Phanolith, 2-handled vase has scenes from the Trojan War. Mettlach Phanolith items were translucent and made of soft-paste porcelain in the technique developed at Mettlach by Jean Baptiste Stahl. This technique is similar to that of the earlier Wedgwood wares from England.
Peter Pincus
Peter Pincus (b. 1982) is from Rochester, New York. He uses colored porcelain slip (liquid clay) in an elaborate mold-making and casting process. Pincus makes a form on the wheel, produces a plaster mold of the form, dissects the mold into pieces, paints the interior pieces of the mold with colored porcelain slips, and fills the mold with white slip to create the final sculpture. Pincus believes the interaction of color can elicit new ways of seeing by introducing a diverse color field to an equally interesting form.
Pincus received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 2005 and a Master of Fine Arts degree in 2012 from Alfred University (NY). Peter is an Assistant Professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology (NY).
Exhibited as part of New Acquisitions: Julianne and David Armstrong.
Patti Warashina
Patti Warashina (b. 1940) is a Seattle based artist that had long since focused on the human figure in her work and began to explore character and presence through greater size, simplicity, and amplitude. She reintroduced prominent color, employed a variety of glazes, and reinstated the clay surface as a field for graphic play. Warashina invented more varied and far less naturalistic figure types.
As in other works during this time of her career, Warashina asserted a different fluidity, not in the poses but in themes of water. Water Boy is clothed in garments of “water,” with a roiling surface, wave tops breaking out erratically, and a high-gloss glaze of glistening wetness. Fish, boats, and oil, introduce ecological concerns.
AMOCA Entrance
The east-facing entrance of AMOCA in the evening light of late summer. For more information about AMOCA, visit the About page.