Couturier Gallery is pleased to present Blurred Boundaries, an exhibition of ceramics and works on paper by seven ceramists who cross boundaries between clay objects and mediums other than clay. Some artists stretch and flatten the ceramic object to hang on a wall, while others infuse their sculptures with narrative or implant it on paper. The show features work by Anabel Juarez, Sasha Koozel Reibstein, Alison Petty Ragguette, Porntip Sangvanich, Nancy Selvin, Joan Takayama-Ogawa, and Patti Warashina, and is guest curated by Rody N. Lopez. The exhibition runs from June 10th – July 29th, 2017. The opening reception is Saturday, April 22nd, from 6-8pm and is open to the public.

Each artist in this exhibition champions the medium of ceramics in their own unique way, exuding extraordinary craftsmanship and seductive qualities. Whereas traditional ceramics tends to be smitten with relationships between ideas centered around the purity of form and the functionality of the object, this exhibition is more deeply invested in discovering and exploiting the limits of the medium. Some of the artists represented are working counter to the expected three-dimensional volumetric use of their material.

Nancy Selvin, whose flattened clay still-life reliefs, such as Findings #021, are echoed in her paper collage works, like Red Bottle. Selvin’s work is in the collections of Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and American Museum of Ceramic Art, Pomona, CA.

Patti Warashina, from Spokane, WA, makes works on paper that echo the figurative forms and caricatures found in her ceramic pieces. The characters in Kiln Yard, a hand-colored drypoint print, engage in a flurry of creative activity at the ceramic studio, where both pottery and fowl emit plumes of smoke from the kilns. Warashina’s work is in the collections of the Smithsonian/Renwick Museum, Washington D.C., the National Museum of Art, Kyoto, Japan, the Seattle Art Museum and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Joan Takayama-Ogawa, from Pasadena, CA, creates seductive ceramic representations of foods which trigger a multisensory response. Washington as Usual, Let them Eat Cake, plays with ideas of elegance and delicacy, coupled with layers of perversion and gluttony. TakayamaOgawa’s work is in the collections of DeYoung Museum Fine Arts, San Francisco, CA, and Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Portnip Sangvanich, from Samut Songkharm, Thailand, creates elegant and refined vessels that engage in conversation with her wall pieces, conflating otherwise divergent aesthetic ideologies. Some of the angular forms found in Square Teapot II, or Building Blocks #3, for example, find their way into the flattened and geometrically abstract Untitled Wall Pieces. Sangvanich’s work may be found in the collections of Los Angeles Museum of Art, and the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco.

Alison Petty Ragguette has developed an expansive approach to making sculptural objects in porcelain, glass, and rubber, often in whimsical combinations. Joy Stick, for example, is an anthropomorphic piece that crosses boundaries of industrial design, toy design, and human anatomy. Ragguette has been featured in the publications Ceramics Monthly and LA Art Week, and has work in the collection of Shanghai Museum of Art.

Sasha Koozel Reibstein, from Boston, MA, currently working in San Diego, CA, creates relationships that are simultaneously confrontational and elegant, questioning the relationships between our own bodies and the environments in which we live. Reibstein has been exhibited in the American Museum of Ceramic Art, Pomona, CA, The Attelboro Museum, Allelboro, MA, and The Morris Graves Museum, Eureka, CA.

Anabel Juarez, from Michoacan, Mexico, creates figurative earthenware sculptures that draw from both modernist and ancient traditions, cloaking them with mischievous swaths of color. Juarez’s ceramics may be found in the collection of the Sevres Ceramics Museum, Paris, France.