Sept. 4 – Oct. 30, 2011
Todi, Italy
I know, I know… it’s not Italian pottery … Still it’s most beautiful pottery and we feel it’s just right to promote the hard work of the Ab Ovo Gallery in bringing to us the works of Roland Summer and Christina Wiese, two well established Austrian artists with a wide International reputation.
Roland Summer is a master of technical perfection. He makes mostly vases slowly hand building his shapes adding layer after layer from the bottom up. This process, known as coil building, is the earliest pottery making method and it offers the highest degree of control over the size and shape of wares.
Once his form is ready he burnishes it and proceeds to slip it in Terra Sigillata. Then he raku-fires it with a glaze that cracks off during the process, leaving a perfectly smooth surface. He’s been investigating and perfecting this process for years, reaching a high degree of formal perfection. He named it Lost Glaze.
All his techniques are inspired by ancient civilizations: coil building from African or Pre-Columbian cultures, clay burnishing is still used in Africa and America, the Terre Sigillate were typical of Greek and Etruscan works, Raku firing originated in Japan.
Making pottery the way Roland Summer does is both complex and risky. It leads to many failures, but it also delivers outstanding and unique results.
His works combine classical proportions and architectural forms with the irregularities due to the coiling process. In addition, the lost glaze delivers carbon markings that seem to float within the depths of the polished translucent surfaces.
Summer’s vases dominate the space with their physical standing and sensual curves. One cannot but love or hate them. Indifference is not allowed.
The words “time” and “symbol” seem the best option to summarize Christina Wiese’s works.
Her ships combine hand build clay forms and materials that come from the past … lost traces that magically come to life and meaning. A miracle of balance between present and past and between nature and human (art) work.
She also works very much around the concept of “symbols”, as objects that “build their meaning”. Her works are composed of different parts that only make practical and ideal sense when they are built together.
Summer & Wiese
Ab Ovo Gallery
Via del Forno 4, Todi (Perugia)
Ph. 075 8945526
Email: info@abovogallery.com