2020 Vision: The Persistence of Memory

The artists of POWR present a group exhibit of their work to further engage the public with the ceramic arts, both as a functional and sculptural medium. The exhibit title, “2020 Vision: The Persistence of Memory”, is in part a title borrowed from Salvador Dali’s famous surrealist painting of the same name. By its usage, we hope to create works that evoke memories of past periods in art history and/or the history of ceramics by looking back—with 2020 vision—during this notable year and examining the past with visual clarity.

“The primary material of ceramic art, clay, connects our human experience from our local communities to distant places, and times long past. Clay’s receptivity to human touch carries the hands of distant and past makers into the here and now. Ceramic art’s diversity of expression and continuous invention generate affinities that extend the human imagination.” In this, POWR’s tenth anniversary year, “we will explore ways that ceramic artists are charting new pathways from the complex meanings of our interwoven histories.”

Each artist has chosen a specific historical era in art and will respond to the art created during that period with visual perspective from the year 2020. For example, one artist might respond to the Abstract Expressionist period while another might reference Pre-Columbian art as inspiration.

We are also establishing a tradition as a way of re-examining our own past work. In this case, from 2020 to 2018. To achieve this, we have re-introduced an exercise utilized in our last group exhibit, “The POWR of Multiples”. In that exercise, each artist was given the same plaster mold to use as a base to create profoundly different works of art. In this case, another plaster mold has been used, and the works created from it reflect the art era referenced by the artist in other work exhibited here.

The following artists are participating:

Deborah Britt

Shawna Cargile-Pickinpaugh

Joy Jones

Carolyn Orr

Donna Yost

Cristin Zimmer

Here are some photos from the exhibit.