AMOCA Lecture and Gallery Walkabout

"Large As Life" at American Museum of Ceramic Art (AMOCA) continues through August 31

REVIEW IN ARTSCENE  JUNE-JULY 14
  “LARGE AS LIFE”

(American Museum of Ceramic
Art [AMoCA], Pomona) Mud. It’s the
time-digested and sopping residue of
mountains, trees, bodies, roads and cities
all ground into dust. Artists working
in clay touch that transformed history.
Some even sculpt and shape it in ways
that encourage us to remember parts
of it. The three sculptors in “Large
as Life” make figures out of clay that
have a kind of abiding reverence for
organic nature not only of the muddy
material but also for the lives and history
composted within it.
There is a sense of protective pathos
in Lisa Reinertson’s impressive
naturalistic sculptures of human and
animal interrelatedness. “Neptune’s
Daughter” is a six-foot high figure
of a windblown, chalky white young
woman gently cradling a large pelican
in her arms. Both the front of the girl’s
dress and the entire bird are drenched
with a vivid, wet looking stain of
brick-colored glaze that reads both
as muck and drying blood. The figure
looks away, as if gazing into a distance
that we cannot see, with an expression
of absolute calm that is both alarming
and hopeful. As a meditation on human
responsibility for the natural world’s
oceans and what we’ve done to them,
it’s a potent piece.
Reinertson pushes the inter-dependency
between human and animal in
several ways. Mutual vulnerability is a
key theme in pieces like “Woman with
Lemur,” where the lovely seven foot
high naked woman determinedly balancing
on one foot tries to partly cover
her breasts while grasping reflexively
at the dangling tail of the small endangered
animal sitting on her shoulder. In
other pieces the artist inverts accepted
notions of the natural order by undermining
our expectations. “Sleep of
Reason” places a seated mother gorilla
holding her furry baby atop a pedestal
shaped from the burnished backs of
several intertwined human bodies. We
are accustomed to decorative tropes
that support the idealized human form.
on the backs of rampant plants or wild
beasts. By switching the hierarchy we
begin to see the mindset that underlies
that tradition.
The idealized animals in Betty Davenport
Ford’s stoneware sculptures are
refined abstractions that speak of the
dynamic animation to be found in carefully
observing a creature’s motion and
form. There is an unpretentious grace
and relaxed strength to the way Ford
draws postures, poses or anatomy. It
renders her animals at once completely
natural, but also transformed — as if in
turning the animal into clay the artist
has found its inner dancer. “Hooded
Gibbon” is a wonderfully smooth and
angular seated ape stretching out a
long, massive arm to reach for a fruit.
Its body is glazed a café latte brown,
flecked with nutmeg specks. The gently
worried face is a small chocolate
flame of expression framed by a tan
mountain of sloping shoulders. In the
beast’s simple, refined countenance,
the clay feels amazingly alive.
A simple gesture also animates the
three reddish swimmers turning as they
dive for fish in tall green reeds in the
stoneware piece “Otter Fountain”. The
artist gives us the vibrancy of moving
water in this work, making the undulating
forms of the playful creatures
and surrounding vegetation embody
the transparent liquid that submerges
them. Stretching out, twisting, bending
and turning to sniff at each other they
have a naturalness that feels entirely
authentic and modern even as it recalls
to us the close observational accuracy
found in ancient cave drawings of
wild animals.
Elaine Katzer’s naturalistic ceramic
animal and human head or bust
sculptures exude an air of compressed,
condensed life. It’s as if the artist regarded
the expression “clay body” to
be something more than just a description
of the medium. Forms are tight
and compact, as if still wedded to the
lump clay that started them. We feel
that most strongly in sculptures like
the beautifully curved “Mute Swan,”
the rampant “Young Elephant” peeling
away from its back support and the
muscular “Cougar Totem” seemingly
fused to the abstracted tree it is sleeping
in. These and her other rounded
sculptures turn a lump of solid clay
into unfolding or tightening balls of
compressed energy intimately tied to
the medium’s unadorned earthy color.
Suvan Geer

AMOCA Exhibition / Large As Life

AMOCA

399 N. Garey Ave

Pomona, CA 91767

(909) 865-3146

Large as Life: Betty Davenport Ford, Elaine Katzer, Lisa Reinertson 


June 14, 2014 through August 31, 2014

Opening Reception June 14th

The American Museum of Ceramic Art is honored to present, Large as Life, an exhibition that includes the work of three female artists whose sculptural work, figures, busts, torsos, and animals, is unified through their similar approaches to clay. Drawing from their individual experiences as working artists, teachers, mothers, visionaries, activists, or simply women, their sculpture and public commissions have explored themes of feminism, the human condition, the environment, portraiture, the ecclesiastical, and the fantastical.

Betty Davenport Ford, Elaine Katzer, and Lisa Reinertson share a fascination of using stylized figurative forms for their investigation of the human condition; their artistic endeavors speak to a spiritual concern for all life and for proclaiming the earth’s bountiful beauty. Ford, Katzer, and Reinertson fashion compelling sculptures that evoke playfulness, offer social commentary or reference spiritual truths.

GOOD DOG EXHIBITION

TURTLE BAY MUSEUM 

REDDING, CA

Good Dog: Art of Man's Best Friend
Jan 31, 2014 - Apr 27, 2014

EXHIBITION OVERVIEW

Dogs have been part of human history for thousands of years.  They have assisted us with tasks that have been crucial to our comfort, if not our survival. They have been our protectors, our hunters, even our transportation, carrying or pulling great loads as we moved one place to next.  They have preformed many roles for humans, but none more important than companionship.  This special bond between humans and dogs has been celebrated throughout history in ancient markings, literature, film, music, and of course in the visual arts.

Northern California has a rich tradition of artists working with man's best friend, the dog.  Northern California art movements such as West Coast Pop, Photorealism and California Funk emphasized personal, iconic, as well as everyday subject matter.  Paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, and mixed media works incorporating dog imagery seem to have flourished in this area over the past five decades.  Many examples in this exhibit reflect those works.  Good Dog: Art of Man's Best Friend portrays examples of contemporary works by artists that have focused on the subject of dogs, but also stays true to the original inspiration for the show: the dog as an extension of the human experience.  The exhibition presents works by both renowned and emerging artists, including some from our local community.  Through their unique interpretation, these artists give us a glimpse of the dog as a supporting companion sharing our world of exploration, or as a powerful mysterious creature rooted in legend and folklore, or even as an extension of our very own emotions.

So, take a look for yourself at “our best friend the dog” through the eyes of contemporary artists.  Maybe as you look at these works of art you can see a little of yourself reflecting back.

Exhibiting Artists include: Betty Bailey, Clayton Bailey, Angela Bennie, Michael Bliven, Maija Peeples-Bright, Joan Brown, John Buck, Travis Collinson, Roy De Forest, Bill Dane, Jeff Downing, Joe Draegert, Rupert Garica, David Gilhooly, James Gilmore, Cassandra Jones, Frank La Pena, Joe Mariscal, Peggy Garbutt Murray, Lisa Reinertson, Clif Sowder, Michael Stevens, Wayne Thiebaud, Nancy Youdelman

This exhibition was developed and curated by John Harper exclusively for Turtle Bay Exploration Park.

Good Dog: Art of Man's Best Friend is supported by Sally Wells.  Additional support from Ron Reece, M.D. and Haven Humane Society.

Back to Back (1985) by Lisa Reinertson, courtesy of the artist,  Eight Dogs (1990) by Wayne Thiebaud, courtesy of Reed Applegate 

"Life Observed" Lisa Reinertson / November Exhibition

SMAart Gallery & Studio 

1045 Sutter Street

San Francisco, CA 94109

 Reception: Thurs. Nov.7

  6-10PM

Gallery hours: 

Tue - Sat 

11:30 am - 5:30pm

  Much of what artists do is observation; from focusing on direct observation of nature’s physical attributes (which I don’t think we can separate from a sense of awe), to artist’s historic predilection to be keen observers of the current political and social hypocrisies and troubles of their times.  “Art is a lie that reveals the truth.” -Picasso

   In the intimate setting of Steve Allen’s SMAART Gallery in San Francisco, I am exhibiting small figure studies, along with a selection of my large ceramic sculptures. The figure studies, some in bas-relief and some 3-D, were done while working along with my students in sessions with live models. This practice of direct observation has been key to taking the larger sculptural works to a more expressive and powerful place conceptually.

   Observations of our relationship with life, i.e. nature, our earth and the living beings on it, motivate my life size figurative works in this exhibition. I feel the yearning to protect life on this earth, as I witness and grieve the destruction of habitats, entire species, and eco-systems. I use mythological imagery to stir up our collective memory. Myths express our relationship with life while also keenly observing our own human nature. In combining contemporary content with the timeless nature of human/animal based myths, the intent is to resonate in the human psyche. I think artists understand that the tragedy is if we don’t feel the grief; if we refuse to let the truth of what we are doing be revealed.  -Lisa

2013-2014 Teaching and Exhibition Update

 TEACHING SCHEDULE

I am teaching Ceramic Sculpture/Figure Sculpture at the San Francisco Art Institute this academic year.










2013-2014  EXHIBITIONS .....

AUGUST             -  FIGURATIVELY SPEAKING 2013  (group exhibition)
                                 SMAART GALLERY, 1045 SUTTER ST., S.F.

NOVEMBER       - ONE PERSON EXHIBITION at   SMAART GALLERY, S.F.

JANUARY 2014  - GOOD DOG
                                 Turtle Bay Exploration Park in Redding, CA.
                                 from January 31st to April 30th, 2014
                                 22 Northern California Artists who have worked with Dog Imagery

JUNE 2014        -   LARGER THAN LIFE:  
                               BETTY DAVENPORT FORD, 
                               ELAINE KATZER, 
                               LISA REINERTSON
                                            
                               AMERICAN MUSEUM OF CERAMIC ART
                               POMONA, CA




ONGOING           - CHRIS WINFIELD GALLERY, CARMEL, CA
                                  carries my bronze work and some ceramic

June 11

Manuels' sculpture, Lisa, Pam Dixon, Manuel Neri, Scott Shields 

On Tuesday, Pam and Manuel came with me to see my show at the Pence Gallery. We met up with Scott Shields and who then took us over to the Crocker Art Museum for a tour. Here we are with Manuel's sculpture. Lovely day...
And the Crocker has the most wonderful collection of California art. Go, if you haven't been. Go again, if you have!!