Ceramic artist’s vessels layer materials, experiences
Curator Ryan Hardesty imagines ceramics artist Ann Christenson’s studio walls as porous, the boundary between art and life cleared with ease.
Ideas move in, become entangled with other ideas, “and there’s kind of this resulting beautiful array.”
Some of the results – more than 100 pieces, many containing references to Christenson’s cross-cultural experiences, her domestic environment and the natural world – are on display at the Museum of Art/WSU in Pullman.
Christenson, who began teaching at WSU in 1990, retired from the university in 2012. She’s been using clay to make art for more than 50 years.
While the exhibition includes a sampling of Christenson’s early work, the bulk of it is more recent, Hardesty said. The show includes “intimate” semi-functional pieces – bowls, mugs, teapots – along with sculptural vessels and larger-scale sculptural works combining steel and clay.
Learn more about the exhibit and artist