Short and stout, practical or fantastical, the teapots featured in the Kimball Art Center’s Main and Garage galleries challenge the viewer to rethink the centerpiece of a centuries-old ceremony.
In the Main Gallery is a traveling exhibit, “Teapots: Object to Subject,” selected by curator Leslie Ferrin from among the finest entries in the 2004 Survey of Contemporary American Teapots at the Craft Alliance in St. Louis. Ferrin has been curating shows of contemporary teapots for more than two decades, presenting the idea that, as the teapot becomes more abstracted by each artist’s interpretation, its original function is obscured and the subject of the work emerges as the focus of the piece.
Sometimes hidden, sometimes conspicuous are the spout, the handle and the rounded vessel found in the middle to contain the tea. But then, given the framework, the artists push the boundaries of the form and material of the quotidian object. Of the more than 40 pots, some are quite sculptural, others more literal, each artist using a diverse range of materials from clay to fabric to jewels to realize their concepts.
One artist, Barbara Frey, for instance, makes a convincing display out of porcelain of what appears to be an eight-inch pile of smooth stones from a rocky ocean beach, collectively assembled into the silhouette of a teapot.
“Artists here are taking the form of a teapot and its particular features that we expect, and then focus on a subject,” Kathleen Carricaburu, the center’s exhibition director, explains.
Carricaburu considers another teapot made of clay created by artist Carrianne Hendrickson at the back of the Main Gallery that is, in essence, the top half of a woman floating in the sea hugged by a bright yellow inner tube. Growing from the tube are two necks featuring two creatures’ heads: one has its mouth closed, the other open, providing the “spout.”
“It all actually functions, but the object is about a person in a sea of emotion trying to make a decision,” Carricaburu reveals. “So what’s happened is this artist has taken the craft of ceramics and elevated it to high art.”
Beneath her work, on a label, is the title, “Sea of Duplicity.” In her own words beneath it, Hendrickson explains the woman is “floating around on a duplicitous sea, not sure what to expect.”
In the Garage Gallery, the members of the Park City Professional Artists Association tests their hand at the same challenge as the national traveling exhibition. Two-dimensional artists like Paul Jakubowski paint the tea ceremony in context, table and all. Three-dimensional artists run the gamut from silver teacups as decoration on rings to Anita Slevin’s “Soft Service” teapot, sewn out of canvas and polyester.
Judy Summer, a noted local jewelry artist and former bronze sculptor, used polymer clay to make her pot. Creating a lively and colorful smooth surface with detailed flowers and patterns in her teapot, Summer’s ability stretches far beyond her original introduction to the clay: In the 1970s, as a hobby, she would help her children roll and cut the polymer, then bake it in the oven.
“I’ve only taken a quick look at the exhibit, but I think people are really reaching out and it’s a nice showing,” she says of the show as a whole. “It really gives an overview of what’s available right in town and who Park City artists are.”
For Summer, who is sometimes perceived as a craftsperson, rather than an artist, the exhibit, a hybrid of what is considered craft (teapot making) and what is considered high art (sculpture), holds special relevance.
“Years ago, you were either a crafter or a fine artist, and I think that crafts were looked down upon as being a home-body sort of art. And now, I do believe almost all fine art galleries are carrying ceramic work and jewelry. I think the barrier has broken down,” she says. “But I have always thought of craftspeople as artists. The things they do are extremely difficult because, in addition to being artists, they must also be engineers.”
The Kimball Art Gallery is located at 638 Park Ave. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays and noon to 5 p.m. on weekends. Admission is free. For more information, visit Kimball-art.org.