year of the horse

Our pieces for the show One Artist One Horse at the Mufei Gallery in Jingdezhen. We thought it was fitting to honor the year of horse with Eadweard Muybridge and his photos of a horse in motion, using blue and white painting and cutting paper silhouettes. 

back in jingdezhen

Working with Mao, like a boss.

cincinnati art museum

A couple images found via social media of our ARTiculate lecture with Cincinnati Art Museum director Aaron Betsky last Wednesday night. We had a blast talking about how we collaborate (in the studio as well as at work/school) and gently pushing the other one to admit crazy things about themselves out loud to the public. Good times. We just might have spilled some secrets after all.  

in progress

Currently working on a pair of luncheon snack sets for The Dinnerware Museum in Ann Arbor MI. This is one of four "sets" we have in the works - glazed but not fired. Going with a still life motif, and hoping that the future owner eats very tiny sandwiches.

Ceramic Top 40

Above are the two pieces we sent to Red Star/Belger Art Center in Kansas City for Leslie Ferrin's Ceramic Top 40 show. They are the first we have made using the Meissen Lion we "captured" this summer. More to come without a doubt.
Grand Theft Lion, Misfit and Grand Theft Lion, Floral
11"x 8"x 7", and 15" x 8" x 7"
porcelain, china paint, and gold leaf
2013
images courtesy of Red Star

florals

I am recently obsessed with all things block printed after spending some time in the Cooper Hewitt stacks this summer. As always, I love starting anything new - and then obliterating it with pattern. So, take one, with restraint shown (notice the blank spaces).
idea in progress

Cincinnati Portfolio IV

"Quantitative Menagerie"

Our 7 color screen print from Clay Street Press, part of the 4th edition of the Cincinnati Portfolio. This drawing is a proposal for a future sculpture, inspired by urban animals, Spring Grove Cemetery, and Dutch Still Life paintings. You know, just the usual stuff. 

(special thanks to Mark, Emily, and Casey at Clay Street for all your help and hard work)

Grand Theft

 

Kirchner's Lion made for Meissen, ca. 1732, part of Augustus The Strong's porcelain menagerie. Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We love the way the face stretched, due to some of the processing,  making the lion look like it has melted a little. With this project I am more interested in the glitches of digital translation than the precision that we get from our regular process.  We have been traveling and visiting museums to snatch up some of our favorite historical works using photogrammetry, curating our own collection. Time to do what we do to this...

printmaking with professionals

Image of our print in progress at Clay Street Press. A six seven color silkscreen printed by REAL printmakers - the images are actually lining up which is super exciting. (don't get me wrong, I love the way we do it, but it is very nice to be working with professionals). This is print will be part of the Cincinnati Portfolio, a series Mark Patsfall and Clay Street Press put out every ten years. 

The Living Room, lights

The chandeliers for the "dining room" @ The Living Room, CAC. The show is up for one more week!

White Light, Bear 

6' x 4' x 3' installation view

porcelain, die cut paper, and neon 

2013

(and special thanks to all the guys at Neonworks)

contemporary arts center (CAC) art auction

We have some work in the CAC art auction this year, including this tile we printed with Terence Hammonds- which was really the piece that got our whole collaboration started. 

For the first time the CAC is accepting online bidding as well, closing at 10pm this Saturday August 24th. The link is here. 

The Lion

One of our favorite pieces at the met will soon be ours with a new project we have in the oven. This is the trial run to see how we can snatch images of historical works and print them in 3-d. Above is a still from the capture and a one inch prototype of the lions head, its glitchy of course and an altered representation but we still think its pretty cool. Also theres a little shot of our dog Chewy, king of the jungle. Learn more about the early porcelain menagerie from Meissen Germany here.

back to the future

Maria Seda-Reeder just wrote an amazing piece about our collaborative practice and current show at the CAC for Cincinnati's CityBeat magazine. (thank you Maria!!) You can check out the entire article here. 

Cincinnati Art Museum

Our small Still[ed] Life has made it to the Dutch Masters wing at the Cincinnati Art Museum! Insane. Could not ask for a better place, anywhere.
(please excuse the cell phone photography we took while the guard wasn't looking)

The Living Room fireplace

Images of The Living Room Fireplace, at the CAC through September 2. Featuring our ceramic heros:

R1:Johann Friedrich Bottger, Isaac Scott Hathaway, Josiah Wedgwood, Russel Wright, Eva Zeisel, Adelaide Alsop Robineau, Charles Fergus Binns, Isaac Scott Hathaway, Maria Longworth Nichols Storer

R2: Charles Fergus Binns, Adelaide Alsop Robineau, Kataro Shirayamadani, Maria Longworth Nichols Storer, Johann Friedrich Bottger, Josiah Wedgwood, Russel Wright, Eva Zeisel, Kataro Shirayamadani. 

10' x 8.5'

porcelain, gold leaf

2013, edition of 2

made in collaboration with Terence Hammonds at Rookwood Pottery

The Rookwood Fireplace and ICFF

Our finished Rookwood fireplace for ICFF 2013. Interesting fact.... Rookwood's last participation in an international exhibition was the 1893 Columbian Exposition, aka the Chicago World's Fair, where they won several awards. 

(collaboration between Guy Michael Davis, Terence Hammonds, and Katie Parker)

(above) Mike always does these amazing drawings before we start a project - I think it is time we start posting them. 

the crew

Before and after we installed fireplace #1 at Rookwood. Bottom photo taken when hearing the news about crating the piece for NYC.

Shop Talk

Shop Talk 2013 - Volume 6! MFA candidate Marge Gormley visited our studios to interview us for Shop Talk, a journal of artist interviews that are published by Edinboro University in Pennsylvania. We love the interview (thank you so much!) and had a blast showing Marge around our studio, UC, and Rookwood. You can read the entire publication HERE. And you should - it is fascinating that this project is school sponsored. 

Drawing and Printmaking

Here is the initial sketch for a project in collaboration with Clay St. Press, excited to work with a real master printmaker to help us realize the potential of our drawings.

coming soon

Such and Such's model of the wooden bear skin rug above (which turned out AMAZING)... and an image from our panel talk at the CAC last Friday night (below). We will posting images from The  Living Room exhibition and ICFF soon.

fireplace #1 = done

We just crated our first fireplace to ship out for ICFF 2013. Cannot wait to install in New York, and see our booth come to life next weekend. Get ready Rookwood... Fireplace #2, coming up.

The Living Room - get ready

The Living Room
May 18th - September 2nd, 2013
Curated by Justine Ludwig

Collaborative site specific installations by Such + Such, Paul Coors, Terence Hammonds, Guy Michael Davis, and Katie Parker

A bold endeavor breaking traditional museum boundaries, The Living Room presents alternate modes of experiencing art within a museum setting. Featuring local artists who overlap with contemporary craft, this exhibition is comprised of several room vignettes meant to facilitate interaction, occupation, conversation and lounging for extended periods of time. The sitting area features an elaborately tiled hearth as the main focal point, a custom-made sofa, a bearskin rug sculpted from wood and ceramic chandeliers. To create the bespoke tiles and realize the hearth’s unique surround, the artists worked with the legendary Rookwood Pottery Company. Wall treatments incorporating print and projection complete the vignette. Beyond that is an area with a sunken dining table and extremely low hanging light fixtures, forcing intimacy among those who gather there. Finally, the rear of the gallery is conceived of as the “backyard,” where a large tree house takes advantage of the space’s increased height and light. Functioning as a type of living space, the exhibition is only considered complete when visitors occupy it. Additionally, the space will be used to host various programs and performances during the run.

building the fireplace

Our fireplace looks huge! We are getting closer and closer to seeing these pieces upright, and I am thrilled. Steve and Ericka, the Rookwood master woodworkers are building two modular fireplace set ups for us - so we can move/crate the pieces, install easily, and then eventually deinstall. One fireplace is going to ICFF this May in New York, the other to the CAC. This is progress.

tile mural in progress

Working on piping glaze in our giant mural that is going above our fireplace... inspired by Rookwood, Over the Rhine, Indian tapestries, and the Garden of Earthly Delights (definitely a long-standing favorite). We are getting close here.

heros

We are printing up a storm at Rookwood - and by we I mean Terence Hammonds (collaborator and master printer). For the main panels in our fireplace (progress pics coming soon) we decided to celebrate our ceramic heros. Above, Josiah Wedgwood - who was a potter, abolitionist, and worked with colored slips and unglazed porcelain way before it was cool.

The Rug

Here is another bear project that we have in the works, though hard to tell, this is a life size bear head sliced up and cnc milled out of black walnut from a 3-d scan of one of our odd animal finds. The parts seen here get reassembled to complete the form.
This is a really exciting project for the Living Room show coming up at the Contemporary Arts Center. The bear head is just part of a complete wooden bear skin rug that is a collaboration with these really great industrial designers, Such + Such.

big time

GIANT 3d print of our Rookwood honeybear. It has gone from a small figurine to the size of our dog.
Its moldmaking time.

the kansas city star

Dana Self just wrote a LOVELY article in the Kansas City Star about our show at Belger/Red Star in Kansas City. You can read the entire article here. And Dana if you are reading this - thank you so much! Our show is up for one more week, so if you are in or around KCMO we highly recommend checking it out for yourself...