Clay & Textile

curated by Yuko Nii 

Show Dates: Sept. 10 – Oct. 22, 2022

Opening Reception: Sat. Sept. 10, 3–5pm

Participants:
Clay Medium: Alan Chin, John Domenico, Tom Franco, Sandra Giunta, Susan Handwerker, Judith Eloise Hooper, Nicholas Newcomb, Robin Roi, Nobuko Saji, Janine Sopp, Mary Westring

Textile Medium: Lucy Beizer, Ayakoh Furukawa, Eileen Hoffman, Mary Lane, Cecilia Lu, Susan Maffei, Caroline McArliffe, Mary Parker, Paulina Perlwitz, Howard Ptaszek, Ellen Ramsey, Hisami Sakamoto, Margaret Sampson, So Ye Oh, Hillary Steel, Cordelia Trupin, Magaili Wilensky

We have experienced recently a darkest period in our life, first with the deadly coronavirus pandemic followed by another horrifying social pandemic both of which have spread all over the USA and worldwide like a tsunami, and nothing seemed to help lift our spirits in hope for humanity. –Yuko Nii

Since the lockdown period started, most New York art institutions closed their doors or some galleries initiated an alternative way to show art by zoom. But, the WAH Center continued to open its doors to let the public see how our artists were responding to this historically significant period through their visual language by presenting four consecutive exhibitions in order as follows: “Works Created During the ‘Lockdown Period’, “Togetherness & Oneness”, “America, the Beautiful”, and ending with “The Yuko Nii Foundation Permanent Collection from the Covid-19 Period” shows. The viewers responded to each show extremely well!

We had gone through an extraordinary period in the past 3 years, and even today this fear still continues to haunt our life. We also now know the cause of the universal catastrophic disasters was due to climate change.

Many materials artists use for their art making are basically the products of Mother Earth, including clay, stone, wood, bamboo, metal, glass, plastic, paper, fiber, water, oil, ink, etc. So, I have decided to have ongoing exhibitions from now on based upon the products gifted us by mother nature. It will be very interesting to see in new settings what we have always taken for granted in those materials that will be eternally available for us, but if we mistreat mother nature, those common products of the nature won’t be available in the future. We need to be humble and appreciate and not waste the precious materials, and use them in most meaningful way!

Because the month of September is Textile Month in NYC, we will start the fresh fall season with Textile Art. For contrast and context we will also present “Clay Art.” While the two different mediums share the same gallery space, they have to work harmoniously together, which makes the show very rich and interesting.

What we will see in this show is a remarkable mixture of the traditional textile art, more cutting edge type taking a personal technical approach to textile art, and the young generation artists trying to find their own identity fitting into the “Textile Art” definition.

It is a special delight to notice that one male artist is participating in the textile art category, while women have traditionally dominated the textile art making for centuries. When this has started happening, we are awakened to recognize that the division between the male and the female roles is getting thinner, getting closer… and we are experiencing a positive change, ”a moving forward” in a very interesting period.

Regarding the CLAY work, we are very thrilled to welcome the two unique ceramists from LA and one from Denver, Colorado. We call it, “The CLAY Bridges the East Coast and the West Coast”, or “The WAH  Bridges the West Coast though Clay”. You will be surprised to see what they have brought to the WAH Center!

“TEXTILE” is the product of Mother Nature and it is the product of the Earth, a part of which is made of “CLAY.”

We must treasure the Mother Nature, not abuse the Mother Nature!

Let us celebrate the “Clay and Textile” show!

See you there!

Yuko Nii