| Virginia Scotchie, Assistant Professor of Ceramics The University of South Carolina |
|||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|||
|
Virginia and Max
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
 |
|||
|
Married: Peter Lenzo Children: Joseph, Roxanne, and Tyler Pets: Max and the Pups |
|||
|
|
|||
|
European Ceramic Work Center, Residency Fellowship, S'Hertogenbosch, Netherlands, Traveling Exhibition, Domestic Attractions |
|||
|
|
|||
|
Ceramic Sculpture, Pottery |
|||
|
|
|||
|
My recent work in ceramic sculpture centers around the abstraction of personal objects that have been given to me by my family members; an old pipe of my father's, a funnel from my mother's kitchen, an old bulb from the family Christmas tree and my childrens toys. A recent object is a handmade wooden tool that was fashioned by my Italian grandfather to plant in his garden. Slender and pointed with a stump of a side handle, this small tool fit the hand of my grandfather and served him well. For me it holds visual intrigue and a connection to my memory of him. The warn, crusty surfaces on many of the pieces are created to give a sense of how time acts to make and unmake a form. I so not wish for this work to be named or lableled, rather it is my intention that through the borrowing and reformation of objects the work might trigger one to look closer and find beauty and intrigue in the humble, ordinary and familiar objects that surround us. |
|||
|
|
|
||
1999 Visiting Artist, Studio Art Center International, Florence, Italy Present Associate Professor of Ceramics, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 1992-97 Assistant Professor of Ceramics, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 1988-92 Assistant Professor of Ceramics, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 1985-88 Assistant Professor of Three Dimensional Design and Ceramics, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 1983-85 Associate Instructor of Liberal Arts Ceramics, New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, Alfred, NY |
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|
||
The dignity of Virginia Scotchie’s ceramic sculpture is deceptively complex. Scotchie conveys time and sensation with wit and restraint in her curiously tender abstractions. It is a skillful achievement for a conceptual artist to yield such compassionate and accessible forms. Like excavated relics, Virginia Scotchie’s sculptures feel important. They are ageless objects with attributes resistant to obvious classification. As easily dredged from the depths of the sea as tumbled to earth from outer space, the artist’s visual language suspends formal association. This breadth of interpretation is essential to her work. Scotchie’s metallic surfaces can suggest both the faded opulence of a vanished era and the glow of modern technology. The crusty glazes can be sprouting organic matter or a corrosive collapse. Punctures and craters could be natural or mechanical with openings small and restraining or wide and inviting. Such contrasting superficial elements are pivotal to the temporal strength of her sculpture. The artist’s most recent creations appear inflated with a curvaceous fullness. These sensuous characteristics are innocent rather than lustful, naive rather than promiscuous. Their sexual references rarely stray from candid human function. More often, Scotchie employs appendages that suggest handles or knobs with which to grasp and carry. These attachments establish mobility and, along with Scotchie’s characteristic textures, are deliberate choices employed to provoke an active response. Working in series and then grouping comparable pieces together further advances this motive. Each piece in this exhibition has a distinct personality that will unveil its unique attributes if given enough room, time and attention. Many of these characteristics come from the artist's own life. Her awareness as a woman and her individual priorities of family and career add considerably to the depth and wisdom of her work. Scotchie elevates ordinary items or actions drawn from contemporary life into meditations on the role of provider and nurturer. Through careful compositions, Virginia Scotchie offers the minimum amount of information needed to express her intention. A mature artist cannot only recognize but also honor the integrity of understatement. Over the course of Scotchie’s career, her allusions have become more subtle. Discovering the visual impact of the simplest contours has helped Scotchie to extract the work’s most fundamental nature. In making art there is a mysterious moment when the human imagination is liberated from consciousness. Virginia Scotchie’s instincts unite to capture this transcendent point of intricate purity and sculpt the wonder and pleasure of a thoughtful life. —Marthe Le Van |
|||
| —Marthe Le Van is the Creative Director of Blue Spiral 1 in Asheville, North Carolina. She is a full-time curator, exhibition designer and writer for the gallery. Le Van received her Bachelor of Arts from Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York. She has organized exhibitions in conjunction with SOFA - Sculpture, Objects and Functional Art (Chicago, New York); The Yokohama Museum of Art (Japan); Glasmuseum, Ebeltoft (Denmark); The New Orleans Museum of Art and the Asheville Art Museum, among others. |
|||
| Top | |||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
Virginia Scotchie: Object Lessons at McKissick Museum, American Craft, Gallery Section, August/September 1996. Packer, Mark. Miliken Gallery Exhibit Review,.Art Papers, Issue 4 July/August 1996. Gilkerson, Mary. Virginia Scotchie: Object Lessons at USC’s McKissick Museum, South Carolina Arts 2, No. 6 May 1996. Object Lessons: A Ceramic Installation by Virginia Scotchie, Artifacts van der Burgt, Anna. “Brabants Dagblad.” Visual arts review of End Presentation at the European Ceramic Work Centre, s’Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands. July 29, 1995. Harnish, Anne. Commissions, Sculpture Magazine, (January/February 1995). Scott, Angela. Virginia Scotchie’s Blue Orbs, Ceramics: Art and Perception International Issue 20, 1995 Haga, Michael. Triennial 95: Diversity in SC Visual Arts, South Caroina Arts 1, No. 6, (February 1995): 4 &14. Meteor Exhibition: Virginia Scotchie, Ceramics Monthly, UpFront Section, (November l994): 16. Odd Balls. Artifacts, Cover Photograph. Virginia Scotchie at Zone 1 Contemporary. American Craft. Gallery Section. (April/May 1994). Perreault, John. Craft Is not Sculpture, Sculpture Magazine, (November/December 1993). Patterson, Tom. Visual Arts Review, Winthrop Galleries Exhibition, The Charlotte Observer July l8, l993. Brown, Linda Louise. Southern Neighbors, Art Magazine, March 1993. Portfolio Review. Arts Indiana, ( November l99l, Portfolio Section. Raczka, Robert. Units: New Ceramic Sculpture, Ceramics Monthly, May l99l. Williams, Gerry. Conversation with Indiana Potters, Studio Potter 19, No. 2, June l99l. Zalkind, Simon. Exhibition Review of Virginia Scotchie at the Joan Robey Gallery, American Ceramics. Calhoon, Sharon. Border Crossing: Women and Art, New Art Examiner November l990. Great Lake’s Chicago, American Craft, Gallery Section. April/May l990. Hunt, Bill. Syracuse: The 28th Ceramic National, Ceramics Monthly November l990. Pitts, Greg. Virginia Scotchie, Ceramics Monthly, February l990 Artemesia Gallery Review - Virginia Scotchie: Linear/Solids, Women Artist News, Fall 1989. Mannheimer, Steve. Review of Indiana University Faculty Exhibition, Indianapolis Tribune, January 18, l989. Wilson, Wade. Virginia Scotchie at Artemisia, Chicago, IL. New Art Examiner, December l989. Krainak, Paul. Virginia Scotchie, American Ceramics 6, No. 4 Summer l988. Sozanski, Edward. Works of Four Prominent Sculptors, The Philadelphia Inquirer, March l7. |
|||
|
|
|||
| Zakin Richard, Ceramics: Ways of Creation, Krause Press, 1999. Peters, Lynn, Surface Decoration for Low-Fire Ceraimcs, Lark Press, 1998. Triplett, Kathy , Handbuilt Ceramics, Lark Press, 1997 Zakin, Richard. Handformed Ceramics., Radnor, PA: Chilton Press, 1995. Zakin, Richard. Ceramics: Mastering the Craft., Radnor, PA: Chilton Press, l990. |
|||
|
|
|||
| National Arts Club, KY/SCnyc, New York, NY, 1996 (Traveling Exhibition). University of North Carolina at Asheville, Dedicated Clay, 1997. Asheville, NC McKissick Museum, Object Lessons, Columbia, SC, 1996 (Traveling Exhibition). Gibbes Museum of Art, Crafts of the Carolinas, Charleston, SC, 1993 (traveling exhibition). Museo Internazionale Delle Ceramiche, 48th International Della Ceramica D’Arte’, Faenza, Italy, l993. Everson Museum, The 29th Ceramic National Exhibition, Syracuse, NY, l993. Everson Mueum, The 28th Ceramic National Exhibition:Clay, Color, Content., Syracuse, NY, l990. Penelec Gallery, Units: New Ceramic Sculpture, Meadsville, PA, l990. Everson Museum, The 27th Ceramic National Exhibition: American Ceramics Now. Syracuse, NY, l987. (traveling exhibition) Greenville County Museum of Art, Places: Here & Now, Greenville, NC, l985. National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts, Traveling Members Catalog, 1984-1985. Nexus Gallery, National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts, Juried Members Exhibition, Atlanta, GA 1983-1984. National Council on Education for the ceramic arts, NCECA Exhibition Catalog. 1983-1984. |
|||
|
|
|||
| Kruithuis Museum, s”Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands Wustum Museum, Racine, WI Hoyt Institute of Art, New Castle, PA Flordia Gulf Coast Museum, Bellair, FL York County Museum of Art, Rock Hill, SC Robert Ash, Philadelphia, PA Paul Hertz, New York, NY Robert Pfannebecker, Lancaster, PA Clark Gallery, Lincoln, MA West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV Zanesville Art Center, Zanesville, OH Sybaris Gallery, Detroit, MI Dennis & Colleen Bentley, Middleton, WI Ewing Gallery of Art and Architecture, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN |
|||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Rene Rouiller Ginny Casey Christy Siebert |
|||
|
|
|||
|
Jeremy Vaugn Leslie Rech Priscilla Hollingsworth Chris Pettingill |
|||
Inspirations
Teaching Experience
Selected Bibliography
Reviews