pvd

We are just arriving home from Jingdezhen China and starting to unpack and process our whirlwind studio experience. Above are a couple of our bonsai trees in the studio fresh from the PVD, shiny enough to make Jeff Koons very proud.

science fiction

Mike carved these sci-fi bonsai by hand to cast in Jingdezhen for the next few weeks. This is the first test batch from the kiln, and I am beyond impressed. We are starting to work on the surface now - adding pattern and color to really push them over the edge.

up next

We are leaving for Jingdezhen China in eight hours, and have big plans to hit the ground running. This semester has been insane, and we have been working non-stop on some of our largest projects to date. For the next three weeks we won't slow down per se, but we will have time to explore and get a little weird in the studio.

GRAND THEFT at The Carnegie

This one is permanent 

                                                 
                                                   
                                                           
                                               

coming soon

Finally starting to catch up with life after the opening of Grand Theft for Fotofocus, almost 2 weeks ago at The Carnegie. We will post images of the final installations very soon. 

unit progress

GMD has been furiously working, building out the units for our FotoFocus installation Grand Theft that opens next Sunday. These boxes will hold our stolen goods, which will sit on pieces of black marble. 8 days left in the count down. Yikes.

progress

We had custom neon fabricated for our Grand Theft lithophanes, and are finally starting to put all the parts together. In the image above Mike is testing how far we can move the porcelain away from the neon to illuminate the entire image.

Units for Grand Theft

                                                       This is how we plan a heist.

This is the scene of the crime.

Grand Theft for Fotofocus

We are currently hard at work on our upcoming exhibition Grand Theft, for the Fotofocus Biennial 2014 next month in Cincinnati. We have been collecting pieces from around the country for the past year, turning our iphone photos into 3-dimensional scans that then are 3D printed. Our installation will be two parts: each object molded and cast in porcelain, and backlit lithophanes of the objects in their original museum context.

shotgun wedding

Studio shot of our installation for Shotgun Wedding, at 1818 Vinton in Omaha NE.

the monolith plan

The next logical step from here. We will post images of the finished project soon, but this is how we get from a to b.

Loot from the National Museum Cardiff

We got the monkey that was printed in Wales for the Immaterial Artifacts show at the National Museum Cardiff.

Our sculpture combined with 3-d scanned objects from the collection printed in plastic.

Here are the links that explain the project.

Immaterial Artifacts

interview with us

bemis studio

One of my favorite images from our Bemis studio - good old #12. We just arrived home today, and already miss everyone like crazy.

www

Finally updated our website  - we were still using iweb, which is a program that Apple discontinued more than 2 years ago. Needless to say, it had to be done. Still working out a few kinks with connecting this blog to the site, but otherwise here it is...

the littlefield

We have been working with a good friend of ours Matt Distel on his newest project, The Littlefield, a craft bourbon bar in Northside, Cincinnati. We designed an interior panel for the second story, are working on some lithophanes for behind the bar, and installed some of our wolf heads around the space. Matt had the brilliant idea to make matching wolf head ice cubes, so here is our inaugural test and drink. Cheers.

second life

"Zuber's Menagerie", iphone installation shot from Mike's install at the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft a couple weeks ago. We are part of the show Second Life, curated by Joey Yates, which runs from June 14th - August 31st. Super proud to have our work sandwiched between Damien Hirst and John James Audubon (Mike's hero). 

the beginning

The beginning of our 2001 capsule room of sorts... a combination of ideas over the last year and half that are finally starting to come together. We are working in collaboration with Chris Vorhees, who can pretty much make anything. 

2001

We are currently obsessed with 2001: A Space Odyssey. Big time.

ceramics monthly

Our piece, Gangster's Paradise is featured in Ceramics Monthly this month(!!) The show is a reboot of the original Taming Nature, which debuted at NCECA in March, but is now on view at Red Star through June 28th.

the dinnerware museum

We were invited to make a luncheon snack set for The Dinnerware Museum in Ann Arbor MI earlier this year by one of our favorite people ever, Margaret Carney. Part of the show Three Courses, the luncheon tray was made very popular in the 1940s and 50s, allowing for a civilized snack on your lap. We took a different approach, and filled the snack area with rats, who maybe got to the plate first. 

"Rat Snacks"

9" x 5"

porcelain, transfers, decals

UK

We were Visiting Artists yesterday at the University of Kentucky in Lexington - and had a truly wonderful time. Jonathan McFadden, Assistant Professor in Printmaking invited us out for the day - on a tip from one our graduate students Colin Klimesh. Really feeling the midwest love these days. 

bemis!

In less than two weeks are taking off and heading down to Omaha Nebraska to be Resident Artists at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts with these fine folks above. We are beyond excited, which makes powering through these last two weeks of school a breeze (of sorts).
Can't wait to hang out in here and make new work:

free time

For the last two months, we have been working with Carmel Buckley and Mark Harris on their epic project, Sparrow Come Back Home for the Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts in Wilmington, DE. We applied and fired over 300 ceramic decals to 12x12 tiles, mimicking a record cover in porcelain tile. You can read all about the exhibition here, and then run to pandora and type in Mighty Sparrow to see what all the fuss is about.

nceca 2014 - taming nature

"Gangster's Paradise"

porcelain and paper

4' x 2' x 6"

2014

created for the exhibition Taming Nature, curated by Paul Donnelly. 

photos taken with an iphone and a glass of wine

crafting a continuum

We are psyched to be included in the exhibition and book Crafting a Continuum, Rethinking Contemporary Craft, now at the Bellevue Arts Museum through April 27th. Even better is that the book is available on Amazon, which makes us feel super legit.

the art of food

Installing our work at The Carnegie for The Art of Food, opening tomorrow night. Love this building.

Opening night action shot (via instagram)

rookwood classics

We are back at Rookwood, working on a new series of interventions and collaborations. Kataro Shirayamadani's Dragon Vase from 1922 is pictured above, with a variety of alterations to the surface and glaze. Not sure where this going right now... but we definitely have a couple exciting projects in queue.

Monkey Heaven

This was just sent for a show happening at the National Museum of Wales, in Cardiff. We were invited to manipulate several digitalized objects from the museum collection. These will be 3-d printed and shown among the original artifacts. The monkey couldn't be happier with all this loot. The exhibition will open this April.

The New York Ceramics Fair

We are thrilled to participate in The New York Ceramics Fair, opening today and running through January 26th. Leslie Ferrin has curated us into The Bacchanalistas: Passions + Pleasure, which focuses on artists whose practice is informed by ceramic history and themes of abundance and excess. I can't stop thinking about The Secret History, one of my favorite books of all time, and drawing parallels between that, our work, and this show... 

more cups

Nothing like making lithophanes in China - the clarity is unreal. The image above is from a cultural revolution propaganda poster, which seemed super appropriate to appropriate.
Side note: GMD has been listening to The China History Podcast nonstop, which is definitely worth checking out. They are fascinating.