CLICK ON ANY OF THESE IMAGES FOR A FREE STREAMING SUBSCRIPTION OF HYLAND, a digital lifestyle magazine featuring residential decoration, design, architecture, art, travel, fashion, cuisine, good works and reflections.
Issue link: http://digital.hylandmagazine.com/i/262951
HYLAND oppose Western definitions of art, which comprise uniqueness, high monetary value, named authorship, highly individual genius, and lack of practical use. At the Ceramics Fair, both kinds of work were exhibited, a stunning testament to the myriad ways in which a work of art, ceramic or otherwise, anonymous or famous, comes into being. Twenty-nine international specialists gathered at the Grand Ballroom of the Bohemian National Hall for this rare display. Possibly my favorite object, even among this veritable museum of ceramic masterpieces of the past, happens to be brand new. It is Dominican artist Jose Arias' 2013 iCup, a thickly potted teacup of slightly undulating contour, glazed in white and vivid orange, inscribed with a mysterious pair of eyes in which the iris is a color wheel of red, orange, yellow, black and cyan blue. Exhibited by Martin Cohen of New York, Arias draws inspiration from Surrealism, animals and his own dreams. His cup reminded me of the sculpted pair of female eyes, a 4th century BC Greek votive offering, probably by Praxias, set in a niche of a pillar in the sanctuary of Asclepios in the Acropolis Museum in Athens. Compare this ceramic ex voto with the Martin Cohen of New York has a contemporary focus with his iCup and iPlate series, made in 2013 by José Arias, a Dominican artist whose work is influenced by Surrealism, Islamic Art, animals and the interpretation of his dreams. Master potter Cliff Lee of Stevens, PA is accentuating a pair of striking yellow prickly melons, which are also on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.