Ohio Designer Craftsmen - The Best of 2000
The Wayne Center for the Arts hosts Ohio Designer Craftsmen - The Best of 2009 traveling exhibit now through Dec. 19. The exhibit features works in glass, metal, fiber, clay and wood by 77 artists and is sponsored by Ohio Designer Craftsmen (ODC) of Columbus, a nonprofit organization that promotes awareness and appreciation of fine craft.
Twelve artists were honored with awards of excellence in this, the ODC’s 26th annual juried members’ competition, including Wooster fiber artist Susan Shie. Her work, The Food Scales/Justice: Card #11 in the Kitchen Tarot, won the Quilt Surface Design International Ltd. Award.
The exhibit features 103 works in clay, glass, metal, wood, fiber and mixed media by 77 artists. Juror Wendy H. Outland, an independent curator, arts consultant and president of Who Knows Art, from Asheville, North Carolina, chose the work from over 332 entries by 131 artists. “Within this group of selected images, some artists were chosen for their dedication to time-honored traditions, others for bucking all constraints and offering something new and refreshing,” Outland commented.
“It is a challenging task to whittle down scores of images so the resulting exhibition (not too big, not too small) fits neatly into a predetermined number of square feet,” she added. “Knowing that virtually two out of every three pieces must be eliminated, and that there needs to be a balance of scale and media, the juror sets to work. An enjoyable process for experienced visual arts administrators, this time it was particularly so because I had arrived from the Southeast and was unfamiliar with most of the artists. Try as we may to be impartial, jurors’ brains still present background info about a known artist when we view his/her work.”
Outland chose award winners as well: The $1,000 Challenge Award for Excellence—the exhibition’s top prize—went to metals artists David and Roberta Williamson for a body of work. “David and Roberta Williamson are outstanding in their field, the composition of every piece a marvel,” Outland stated. Ceramics artist William Brouillard of Cleveland received the Watkins Printing Poster Award for Excellence for Red Octopus Fish Bowl, and Toledo glass artist Monica Chapon received the Postcard Award for Excellence for Some Days are Good. Winners of cash awards are (name, title of work, award): Lisa Wilson, Particle Wave No. 2, Pamela Morris Thomford Award for Excellence in Metals. Mary Pearse, Feeding Desire, To Have and To Hold, and One Pearl, Many Pleasures, Jane H. Zimmerman Award for Excellence in Body of Work; Susanne Gregg, The Gathering, Ruth Lantz Award for Excellence in Fiber; Derek Reeverts, Hen House, Brian Lonsway Memorial Award for Humor in Craft; Sandra Gross, Continuum, Dominick Labino Memorial Award for Excellence in Glass; Caroline Kelley, Leaf Bowl, Barbara Robinson Award for Excellence in Traditional Craft; Sumiko Takada, Inlaid Vase #3, Friends of Phyllis Clark Award for Excellence in Functional Ceramics; and Chelsey Radabaugh, Reflections, Banded Cups Overseas, and Ephemeral Pleasures: Blue, Emerging Craftsman Award.
Award winners were honored during the exhibition’s opening reception on May 3 at the Ohio Craft Museum in Columbus. After closing at the Ohio Craft Museum, the exhibition has traveled to the Southern Ohio Museum in Portsmouth, the Mansfield Art Center, and finally to the Wayne Center.
For more information, call 330-264-ARTS (2787) or visit online at www.wayneartscenter.org.
