Kaiser Suidan

Gunmetal Glazed Architectural Cubes

2023

"RAKU RED AND WHITE", 2019, in wheel-formed white glaze with copper red blush, sprig, stamp, gold leaf and raku fired with kintsuji gold by artist Andrew Cornell Robinson, is one of a series of sculptural objects that include ceramic, glass and mixed media grottoes and containers. A project exploring the vessel form and notions of gratitude, plenty, poverty in material or humanity. Robinson has led artists to explore tableware as sculptural form – "Changing attitudes and emerging social behaviors in food preparation and the social and cultural rituals of eating have lead to changes in the way tableware is made and used." Andrew Cornell Robinson is an interdisciplinary artist working across media (ceramics, textiles, painting, prints, etc.). His work is influenced by collaborative craft communities, traditions, and the performative qualities of cultural production. The underlying ideas exploring identity, histories, rituals, and power in his work aim to create a space for intimate experiences and open narratives. He studied ceramic sculpture at the Glasgow School of Art and the Maryland Institute College of Art where he received a BFA. He was awarded an MFA from the School of Visual Arts, where he became interested in the intersection of memory, identity, politics, and power. He has been featured in many publications including Sculpture Magazine, Huffington Post, Hyperallergic, Art Info, et al. He has participated in curatorial and research projects and recently was a participating artist in Debtfair a project in the Whitney Biennial. Andrew has also worked on collaborations with designers such as Donna Karan’s Urban Zen project where his work in ceramics led to workshops with artisans in Haiti and the creation of a ceramic studio in Port-au-Prince. He is currently working with The Powerhouse Arts Workshop and their design team from the Pritzker-prize winning architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron in the design and development of a contemporary industrial fabrication center established to serve the working needs of artists in New York City. He is currently a member of the faculty at Parsons School of Design and Greenwich House Pottery in New York City. His work has been presented extensively throughout the world with the Anna Kustera Gallery, David & Schweitzer Contemporary, Christopher Stout...

Vertical 4, a ceramic sculpture of wood-fired clay pigmented with oxides, is a work by New York artist Harold Wortsman. Vertical 4 was recently exhibited at "Harold Wortsman: Time and Space" at the Orange Art Foundation, February-March 2022, New York City. Note the blending of geometric and organic forms in this work – it is characteristic of his practice – warm, contemporary, uniquely crafted, yet speaks to ancient, primitive traditions of art-making that cross cultures and histories. Highly attuned to the art of Africa, the Middle East, India and Asia, his forms are organic abstracts with masculine and feminine attributes that resonate together as a pleasing enigma. They make sense immediately, yet never give up all their secrets. From Harold Wortsman – "With sculpture, my material of choice is high-fired clay. Pieces are first low-fired in an electric kiln. I do not use glazes. Instead, I use oxides applied to the bisqued (low-fired) clay. As with a tattoo, oxides permit the surface underneath to breathe. The work is then high-fired in a gas kiln with double reduction to cone 10. The final temperature is 2,300 degrees F. At a certain point, oxygen intake is reduced to the kiln. Because the fire has reached a critical mass, it needs oxygen and chemically takes it from the clay and the oxides. Like a jazz improvisation, each kiln load comes out slightly different." From Jonathan Goodman – "Wortsman has increasingly moved into his own – a place in which the relations between the abstractions of volume and the intimations of very old culture are merged in a way that is new." – Essay, "Harold Wortsman: Time and Space", Orange Art Foundation, February 2022, New York City. Harold Wortsman is a sculptor and printmaker based in Brooklyn, NY. He “creates forms that bring to mind archaic cult objects and exude a quiet concentrated strength.” (Argauer Zeitung, Switzerland). His work, an edgy mix of freedom and clarity, can be found in public and private collections in the US, including The Library of Congress, Yale University, The New York Public Library Print Collection, The New York Historical Society, Smith College, Indiana University’s Lilly Library, Brandeis University, The Newark Public Library Special Collections Division, and the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum Print Archive. Also in private and public collections in Europe, including the Municipal Collection of the City of Brugg, Switzerland. Harold studied at the New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture, with sculptor George Spaventa...