Review of “Shadow,” curated by Mark Delvecchio, by Kay Whitney in December’s Ceramics Monthly.

Whitney writes, “The results are precise facsimiles made of earthenware with intensely black surfaces created from a combination of burnished charcoal and graphite, materials more closely associated with drawing. By migrating his work to the wall, McConnell has made a hybrid of drawing and sculpture. This series of wall pieces provides two different experiences; from a distance they are light-absorbing rectangles, close up they reward the viewer with intimate objects that are inventive, playful, and conceptually dense.”

Link to article here.

For those of you that haven’t been able to catch my body of work, “February, February” I am happy to be presenting a selection of these tablets just down the road in Little Rock. The New Gallery is, well, new… and run by a lovely couple (David and Teresa) determined to bring first-rate programming to Little Rock. It is a beautiful space, and I’m proud to be part of their endeavor.

The New Gallery’s exhibition, February, consists of 28 molded and pressed earthenware tiles finished with bone charcoal and graphite. As viewers enter the exhibition, they are presented with a repetitive line of black, tablet-sized works. From the center of the gallery, with their light-absorbing surfaces, the tablets appear as voids or placeholders. From a distance, they are virtually indistinguishable from one another. Drawing closer to individual works, textures and dimensionality emerge and previously anonymous surfaces reveal finely reproduced details and well-defined compositions. Anonymity and specificity are held together in sharp contrast.

“Over 45 works of contemporary art were carefully selected for ROOTED by local art curators Bo Beulow and Allison Hobbs who were inspired by the works of seven amazing contemporary NWA artists, visiting each artist in their studios while enjoying the stories behind each of their works, and providing us with this insider’s tour of their studios and inspirational work spaces. 

Allison and Bo encourage you to personally visit each of the artists’ studios listed here (by appointment) for an immersive experience where you can meet each of the artists in their own workspaces, connecting further to their latest works or commissioning your own unique piece. 

On the evening of October 25, 2018 (5pm to 8pm) at Lacuna Modern, The Scout Guide Northwest Arkansas will be hosting an opening reception to meet each of these artists and art curators Allison and Bo.”

Coming soon: A two-person exhibition with Jeremy Hatch at Eutectic in Portland, Oregon. 

“Look closely, very closely. All of the details are there. What it was is what it still is— yet what it was is no longer. Such is the mystery in the works of Jeremy Hatch and Mathew McConnell, two artists dedicated to exploiting clay’s potential for exacting replication. While Hatch and McConnell come to their forms in very different ways and for very different reasons, each artist has committed himself to the power inherent in unerring fidelity and simple material substitution. Along with a reduced, uniform color palette of white or black, the importance of form rises above all else.”

Opening August 3rd, 6PM

👀And, showing soon with these superstars...

"The Jane Hartsook Gallery is pleased to present work by our 2017-2018 artists in residence: Nicolás Guagnini, Samuel Johnson, Pam Lins, Linda Lopez, Mathew McConnell, Eun-Ha Paek and Rirkrit Tiravanija. The Greenwich House Pottery residency is a distinguished program that fosters artistic growth by providing artists with a creative community, time, space, material and technical skill to explore and generate new bodies of work in ceramics in the center of the art world."

Opening Reception | Friday July 13, 2018 | 5:00 – 7:00 p.m. 
Exhibition on view through August 9, 2018

Hi all — my latest solo exhibition is now up at Mindy Solomon Gallery. I'm elated for having the chance to show with Mindy. Great space, great person. If you're in Miami before the show closes on July 21, please stop by. 

From the press release:
"The exhibition continues McConnell’s long exploration into the persistent problems of invention, originality, and creative influence in art making. Using duplication as a primary tool for exploring these questions, McConnell works directly from images of contemporary art—selecting, stealing, stretching, and manipulating sources—wringing them for inspiration for his idiosyncratic processes. His practice exists in an emphatically tight loop of influence and response, enabled by the connectivity of our digital era. Most important in the sources he chooses is simply the impetus they provide for the production of “new” work. The resulting forms vary between recognizable images, strategies, and tropes commonly found in contemporary art and forms seemingly outside the sources they claim to derive from."

FEAST! 

Former Uark grads Danny Baskin and Ashley Byers have been coordinating an excellent alternative contemporary art program in Fayetteville for the last couple of years, "working with an expanded idea of art which includes aesthetics, experience, craft, curation, food, sound, and discussion."  The exhibition also includes Nick Fagan, Trudi Ludwig Johnson, John Newman, and Melissa Weiss. I'm flattered and excited to be part of their latest show. Opening reception May 5th from 5-8.

Curated by Matthew Mitros, this exhibition showcases the work of 22 artists representing a growing shift among contemporary ceramic artists in material sensibility as seen by the way non-clay materials are being integrated into their compositions. These non-clay components, in many cases, compositionally and conceptually support the ceramic elements rather than call attention to the difference of materials within the finished work. Artists on view are: Sasha Alexandra, Rain Harris, Matt Mitros, John Byrd, Dylan Beck, Alex Hibbitt, Adams Puryear, Bryan Czibesz, Tom Lauerman, Dennis Ritter, Ben DeMott, Linda Lopez, Amy Santoferraro, Virginia Eckinger, Wade MacDonald, Keith Simpson, Shannon Goff, Julie Malen, Kyle Triplett, Jason Hackett, Matt Ziemke, Brian Harper, and me!

From 8/28 to 9/29 I'll be presenting a combined installation of works from 2013's What it Means to Move and 2016's More Possibilities for Distance and Mass at Doane University's Rall Gallery in Crete, NE.

Closing Reception and Gallery Talk 9/29 3-5PM

Maybe the coolest show I'm in this year... "Infinity Pool" curated by Rebecca Morgan and Stephen Eakin for Spring / Break NY, "examines the artist as primary examiner, critical of both the inward and outward scope of art making and expression and their place in it." Included artists are: Paul Bergeron, Heather Garland, Paul Gagner, Lawrence Mesich, Bryan Rogers, Erik Schoonebeek, Ken Weathersby and Robin F. Williams.

Summer Fellowship at Greenwich House Pottery

What's better than hanging out in NYC for six weeks? Having a fellowship at Greenwich House while you do it! Linda and I are bringing the baby on the road for our first residency since Oona's birth. We'll be sharing work space and splitting time with the kiddo. We're both really looking forward to a summer in the city. If you're in town between July 14th and August 30th, stop by the studio and say hi!

A Hard Swath to Mow at Belger Crane Yard

The University of Arkansas Ceramics faculty are pleased to present an exhibition at Belger Crane Yard Studios, A Hard Swath to Mow

"There’s a spot just at the edge of the field, where the manicured and predictable meets the unruly. Here, things are a little less certain—problems arise more readily, and one misstep could leave you stranded in the woods. The artists in this exhibition, members of the ceramics faculty at University of Arkansas, represent a group of practitioners eager to seek the more difficult terrain." 

Featuring Jeannie Hulen, Linda Lopez, Adam Posnak, Benjamin Cirgin, and myself.
February 3 - April 15, 2017
Opening Reception Friday, February 3rd, 6-9pm 
2011 Tracy Ave., Kansas City, MO 64108
 

"Realness" by Matt Blomeley in NEW CERAMICS

Thrilled to have a feature in NEW CERAMICS this month! Author Matt Blomeley writes, "As with all good artists, McConnell's practice is interesting not because he spells something out. He doesn't. Rather it is that McConnell's work deliberately communicates to a trait inherent in each of us at some level or at some time in our lives. Simi­lar to the mimetic way in which we all learn at a fundamental level, by creat­ing facsimiles of works of other artists and makers using his trained hands, McConnell's installations seek to find something new through making and then grouping "his" objects. What he is seeking is not the perfect copy but that almost alchemical moment of dis­covery and learning, when something new happens." Link to the full article here.

Artist Lecture at CSU Long Beach

Next week I'll be giving a lecture and meeting with students at CSULB—a ceramics program I have long admired! I'm very eager to see what Tony Marsh's latest crop of students has been up to. If you're in the LA area, drive on down and catch the lecture at 7PM on November 3rd.

Demo and Lecture at University of Cincinnati

Linda and I are soon on our way to Cincinnati to hang with Katie Parker and Mike Davis, the duo behind the excellent Future Retrieval. Linda and I will be giving talks, doing a short demo, meeting with students, and (hopefully) getting a grand tour of Cincinnati. Our lectures are on October 13th at noon, somewhere in the art building, I assume. 

Workshop: "Ghost Collaborators" at Oxbow

Linda and I will be leading a two-week course at Oxbow this summer, titled Ghost Collaborators. Come join us on the shore of Lake Michigan!

"We are all under the sway of many collaborators—some are acknowledged, but most are not. In this two-week course, we will attempt to identify the ways in which we have been influenced by our ghost collaborators and how we can take more accountability for those collaborations. Studio assignments will focus on extracting influences from the work you have produced in the past. Once apprehended, you will be asked to minimize or amplify those influences in new work. The course will also include readings, discussions, and short technical demonstrations—including open-form building with coils using fiber clay, fabricating models for splash molds from simple materials, and using casting slip in combination with press-molding techniques."

Session information here.

Dredged|Drawn at Kendall College of Art and Design

"Each artist in Dredged|Drawn is a maker who uses drawing to produce work as an act of visual inquiry where the physical act of hand to eye to create line and document process becomes an endeavor to contemplate systems of identity, beauty, memory, and space. For these artists drawing is not just a tool, but rather an innate facet of their practice."

Curated by Israel Davis and Michele Bosak. Artists in the exhibition: Jesse Albrecht, Brian Caponi, Lilli Carré, Benjamin DeMott, Emily Duke, Shannon Goff, Del Harrow, Myung Jin Kim, Mathew McConnell, Allan Rosenbaum, Valerie Zimany

The Fed Galleries @ KCAD
March 1 - April 16

#F*NKED! at KCAI Dodge Gallery

"A multidisciplinary exploration of mind, hand, and mouse."

"The artists included in this exhibition harness the internet's glitchy, ridiculous, virtual reality to create work with an irreverent humor that at once exposes, critiques, and embraces contemporary culture. No practice is too hallowed, no subject too taboo for their gleefully satirical approach... Using the decontextualizing power of the Internet, the artists in #F*UNKED! lay bare the gritty—and in their works appealing—underbelly of our age. "

Curated by Susie Silbert and Anna Walker. Exhibition includes works by Matt Causey, Zachary Lechtenberg, Roberto Lugo, Adams Puryear, Brent Owens, Mallory Westin, Dustin Yager, Nate Prouty, and others.

Kansas City Art Institute, Dodge Painting Building
Hours: March 15th-18th 10am-5pm
Reception: Thurs, Mar 17, 5-9:30pm

"Now and Then" at the Kansas City Museum at Corinthian Hall

My newest work, "More Possibilities for Distance and Mass" will be on display at the Kansas City Museum's Corinthian Hall until May 14th.

From the Press Release: Now & Then showcases contemporary ceramic works that offer insight into the intersections between art, culture, and daily life. This exhibition brings together a selection of graduates and professors from the University of Colorado’s Boulder MFA program. Organized and curated by Casey Whittier and Blanca Guerra, Now & Then includes works from Scott Chamberlin, Kimberly Dickey, Rachel Eng, Kelcy Chase Folsom, Julia Galloway, Joshua Paul Hebbert, Janice Jakielski, Stephanie Kantor, Linda Lopez, Mathew McConnell, Alia Pialtos, Joanna Powell, Jeanne Quinn, Annie Strader, and Emily Schroeder Willis.

Exhibition Opening Reception on Friday, March 18 from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m.

"Accessibility by Design" at Vulpes Bastille

From the press release: Accessibility by Design seeks to mark the democratization and ubiquity of design. Perhaps this has led to a larger, less discerning, representation of design in a market place that includes everything from technological devices and domestic necessities to studio-made art and design objects.... This exhibition of ceramic work by artists and designers who are negotiating this current will evidence makers' access to new discourse and technology, affinities with related design practices, and/or the market's appetite for a certain level of sophistication, resolve, and distinctiveness.

Accessibility By Design features work by Luke Armitstead, Andrew Casto, Rebecca Chappell, Trygve Faste, Neil Forrest, Tyler Lotz, Mathew McConnell, Tim Berg/Rebecca Myers, Anders Ruhwald and more. Organized by Susan Beiner and Brian Gillis.

Vulpes Bastille. 1737 Locust St, Kansas City, MO
Hours: March 15th-19th 10am-5pm
Reception: Fri, Mar 18, 6-9pm