Summer ceramics: STC’s 15th annual South Texas Ceramic Showdown brings new round of works

It’s summertime!

And after last year’s pause, STC’s Ceramic Showdown is back with its 15th annual exhibition titled “Luck + Skill: Collaborations Over Space and Time,” featuring professional works as well as student collaborations.

Nine universities and community colleges from across the United States are represented this year. In the upstairs Library Gallery, “Luck +Skill” showcases works by professional ceramists, Angelina Aispuro and Larry M. Yáñez, while Photographer Gordon Fong’s works stretch across the wide downstairs Library Gallery space, Collaborative works are displayed at the Art Department Gallery in Building B.

“These folks are genuine story tellers, and it should be our pleasure to share in their stories and the experience of their long and winding road though more than a half century of connected art making,” said Chris Leonard, curator.

Aispuro and Yáñez are vastly different in their aesthetic approach to the clay medium. Aispuro takes a traditionally functional approach to her red-ware pieces, demonstrating her skill at mass production with her arrangement of shiny plates, bowls and drinking vessels. Her controlled precision in throwing and high gloss glazing technique makes these pieces commercially viable and speak of urban living. There are also two wall plates and small whimsical pieces in her display.

With a sensitive eloquence, Yáñez uses his clay to express feelings toward the world around him; with an amazing control of his Raku process, his pastel hued visions depict a beloved Southwestern landscape and hug his rough Raku fired constructions. Some are topped by additional structures reflecting the life he lives, some are figurative, and he also shows a group of wall pieces. Using dual slab-building and front and back imagery. ‘Tank You’ includes landscapes, a door to the night, a calavera, and a tank reminding us how the evening news puts wars in our living room and offers a glimpse of heritage intertwining with the present.

Yáñez works dominate this gallery. Inspiration from his Mexican American heritage and daily experiences within a bicultural society blend into a multifaceted identity that speaks through his work. Spirituality enters the scene dramatically, in “Unruly Visitor,” and humorously, in “Levitating Couch.”

His ceramics resonate with Chicano cultural symbols, particularly the calavera used as a lone image, as in his ‘Barrel Cactus’ wall piece, or in clusters on several free-standing works. His Raku stories are constructed with slabs that incorporate several views and suggest the uneven ruggedness of the desert land.

“Unruly Visitor” shows a startled figure against the outdoor landscape on one side, but an indoor calavera creates havoc on the other.

Photographer Gordon Fong has a long history in marketing and industrial artistic campaigns and his images are easily engaging, with objects sometimes sharing the picture space. Although a break from the ceramic theme of the exhibition, Fong discerns the pictorial interest of his surroundings to create a reflection of his experiences as does Yáñez.

Once again, Leonard flexed his organizing skills to bring to the Valley collaborative ceramic works from College of the Sequoias, Clarion University of Pennsylvania, Lawrence University, Southeast Missouri State University, South Texas College, Texas A&M-Kingsville, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, University of San Antonio, and Weber State University.

The “Collaborations” part of the Ceramics Showdown will be on display in the Art Department Gallery through Sept. 6, allowing everyone ample time to compare efforts from these participating institutions.

‘Luck + Skill: Collaborations Over Space and Time’

WHERE: STC Library Art Gallery, Bldg. F and Art Department Gallery, Bldg. B, 3201 W. Pecan Blvd.

WHEN: Through July 31

HOURS: 7 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday

INFORMATION: Call (956) 872-3488 or email [email protected]

COST: Free to the public

Nancy Moyer, Professor Emerita of Art, is an art critic for The Monitor. She may be reached at [email protected].