River Gallery’s 19th Annual Ceramic Invitational
Exhibition on view from February 10th - March 30th, 2024
Sasha Bakaric
River Gallery's 19th Annual Ceramic Invitational
Sasha Bakaric
Bonnie Gordon
Rebecca Zweibel
Featured Artist of the Month
Judith Brandon
Like nature, particularly water, emotion is mutable. The most important element I work with is emotion. Emotion drives my vision. Suspending a breaking wave on paper is like trying to define happiness or grief. Each piece has a story and an overriding emotion within it that develops gradually and organically. They reveal themselves through layers of thoughtful crafting to be tornadoes, ocean swells, earthquake explosions and light pillars. Maybe it’s about our perceptions of control, or lack thereof, that fascinates me. I only know that I better understand the world as a planet, and my relationship to it, when I’m in the studio.
I work almost exclusively on cotton rag paper using a variety of media. Each piece begins with scribed elements on blank paper. These lines become the geometry and compositional framework that initially define each piece. Next comes the underpainting of colored washes. I create these washes with brushes laden with various inks and dyes. The washes saturate the paper, flowing through the incised lines in tiny rivulets, enhancing them, and marrying the framework to the underpainting. Pastels, charcoal, razors and graphite are used to create the top layers of imagery, defining the final subject.
About River Gallery
River Gallery is dedicated to supporting the revival and continuance of Cleveland area arts and artists. The owner, Ara Hamamjian, has established connections with the art professors and alumni of area schools such as the Cleveland Institute of Art, Baldwin Wallace University, and Kent State University. The gallery shows everything from contemporary to traditional style paintings, works in metals, blown glass, ceramics, photography, and jewelry fabrications.