Opening Reception Friday, September 26, 5:30 – 8:00 PM
At 6:30 PM, three artists will be presented
with the jurors’ Award of Merit prizes.
The evening will also feature open studios by
HCCC’s current resident artists.

To read the CraftTexas 2014 catalog, click here.

This fall, Houston Center for Contemporary Craft presents CraftTexas 2014, the eighth in a series of biennial juried exhibitions showcasing the best in Texas-made contemporary craft. Featuring 49 works by 44 Texas artists, the exhibition includes everything from sculpture, jewelry, textiles, installations, and furniture to concepts that include vernacular architecture, formal elements of design, and man’s relationship to nature.

The CraftTexas series, which is hugely popular with visitors, provides artists the unique opportunity to have their work seen by three established jurors and included in an exhibition that seeks to broaden the understanding of contemporary craft. The show features exceptional work in clay, fiber, glass, metal, wood and mixed media. HCCC Curator, Elizabeth Kozlowski, says that the show serves as an excellent introduction to the impressive array of media, techniques, and skill inherent in the Texas contemporary craft community: “All of these artistic practices come together to create an outstanding showing of what Texas has to offer.”

Kozlowski finds that three pieces in the show stand out for her. In Binary, artist Nancy Slagle adopts a cross-disciplinary approach to her jewelry making. She incorporates rubber materials and laser technologies to replicate binary code that is transcribed into a historical form of adornment, the radial collar. Slagle employs objects as metaphor through formal elements of repetition and color. Thick translucent glazes and Nerikomi patterns envelop Katherine Taylor’s colorful ceramic piece, Packed Under the Sky. Her forms illustrate Texas architecture and landscapes, while documenting the experience of a place. Many of her sculptures are literal in translation, and others are altered by the artist’s memory and perceptions. In Seasons in the Rice Field, Ryu-Hee Kim constructs topographical layers from copper and wood, in order to emulate the time span of human history. The artist is inspired by her culture’s mythology and memories of life and death, past, present, and future. The highly polished surfaces of her work evoke the physical act of Korean ceremonial rituals and embody a reverence for her ancestors.

CraftTexas 2014 was juried by Carol Sauvion, the visionary behind the PBS TV series, Craft in America, and HCCC Texas Masters, Piero Fenci, Ceramics Department Head, Stephen F. Austin State University, and Clint Willour, Curator of the Galveston Arts Center. The jurors were tasked with selecting the finest works from a pool of 176 applicants and 477 pieces.

Sauvion noticed some similarities among the artists’ works, most notably, “a sense of responsibility to the thoughtful use of materials and to the environment, dedication to skilled work, content that includes social conscientiousness, and the pure joy of the creative process.” Fenci said the show demonstrates, “the current blurring of borders among the traditional art disciplines and confirms that craft can no longer remain relegated to a preordained rigid definition of art practice.” Willour summed up the jury process: “It is always interesting to see how selection by committee works–particularly when the committee has no communication with each other while jurying. I think the high caliber of craftsmanship and the originality of ideas and concepts wins out every time.”

CraftTexas 2014 Artists

Above: (1) Susan Budge, “Teal Cut Form,” 2014. Ceramic. 49 inches x 16 inches x 8 inches. Photo by Seale Studio/Susan Budge. (2) Harlan W. Butt, “Blue Jay Vessel #7,” 2013. 4.5 inches x 4.5 inches x 4 inches. Copper, enamel, silver. Photo by Harlan W. Butt. (3) Daniel Esquivel-Brandt, “Imaginate,” 2013. Cast glass and metal. 4 feet x 5 feet. Photo by Itzel Equivel. (4) Jean Fernandes, “Intrusion,” 2013. Glass. 3 inches x 3 inches x 9 inches. Photo by the artist. (5) Terry Fromm, “Eastern Dreams,” 2013. Pewter and bronze. 6 inches x 3 inches x 3 inches. Photo by Gregg Jacob. (6) Heidi Gerstacker, “Child’s Rattle,” 2014. Sterling silver, coral. 6 inches x 1 ¼ inches x 1 inch. Photo by the artist. (7) Jan Arthur Harrell, “Valentine Box and Candies-Offerings: Gifts for the Muse,” 2012. Enamel, copper, gold foil, sterling silver, tin box with gold leaf, Box 17 inches x 17 inches x 6 inches, Candies 4 inches x 4 inches x 3 inches. Photo by Jack Zilker. (8) Daphne Roehr Hatcher, “Three Portals,” 2013. Woodfired stoneware. 40 inches x 3 inches x 12 inches. Photo by Gary and Daphne Hatcher. (9) Melannie James, “Vines,” 2013. Copper plated thread, spray paint. 60 inches. Photo by Clyde Johnson. (10) Danny Kamerath, “Kampa,” 2013. Afzelia wood, glass. 48 inches x 26 inches x 17 inches. Photo by Danny Kamerath. (11) Ryu-Hee Kim, “Seasons in the Rice Field,” 2014. Copper, wood, resin. 6.5 inches x 11.5 inches x 7 inches. Photo by Robly A. Glover. (12) Susan Fletcher King, “Moon Drunk,” 2012. Quilt: hand-dyed, commercial fabric, various threads. 60 inches x 24 inches. Photo by Rick Wells. (13) Ana M. Lopez, “Attic Turbine Vent (Shoulder Brooch),” 2012. Sterling silver. 3 inches x 3 inches x 2.75 inches. Photo by the artist. (14) Caitie Sellers, “Houston Necklace,” 2014. Sterling silver, steel. 18 inches x 2.5 inches x .5 inches. Photo by the artist. (15) Nancy Slagle, “Binary,” 2014. Laser cut rubber. 15 inches x 15 inches x 1/16 inches. Photo by Robly A Glover. (16) Delaney Smith, “Signatures #5,” 2014. India ink, paper. 68 inches x 34 inches x 5 inches. Photo by Matt Golden. (17) Kamila Szczesna, “Drive No. 6,” 2014. Porcelain, gold leaf. 20 inches x 18 inches x 16 inches. Photo by Kamila Szczesna. (18) Katherine Taylor, “Packed Under the Sky,” 2013. Colored porcelain and glaze. 9 inches x 12 inches x 9.5 inches. Photo by Harrison Evans, Dallas, TX. (19) Joy O. Ude, “Clark Dolls (Nwanta Olu Ume Umirimanta),” 2013. Vinyl, African wax cloth, wood, cotton fabric, copper, embroidery floss. 10.625 inches x 7.625 inches x .75 inches (each doll). Photo by Joy O. Ude. (20) Grace Zuniga, “Sag,” 2014. Linen. 50 inches x 17 ¾ inches. Photo by the artist.