In March 2017, UA ceramics faculty, student and alumna participated in the annual conference of the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) in Portland, Oregon. MFA candidate Sydney Ewerth presented art works and a lecture. Assistant Professor Matt Mitros, instructor Wade MacDonald, Ewerth and recent MFA graduate Virginia Eckinger presented art works in a conference exhibition. Graduate students Amy Smoot and Patrick Hoban also attended the national conference.
Sydney Ewerth presented the lecture, “Artifacts of Identity.” Using didactic qualitative research methods, she argued that the interrelationship of clay, mapping, chance, shadows, and memory are significant in the creation of a work. Ewerth explained, “By using supporting theories on memory and semiotics, my hope is to explore how the identity of the clay object changes through iterations of itself.”
In addition, Ewerth’s art work was chosen for NCECA’s annual National Student Juried Exhibition (NSJE), which showcases the work of current graduate, undergraduate, and post-baccalaureate students across the United States.
Assistant Professor Matt Mitros co-organized an exhibition, Tactic, that includes ceramic work by Eckinger, MacDonald (pictured here) and other artists, The exhibition represents “a growing shift in material sensibility,” using other materials, technology and processes in the way they have traditionally used. The exhibition was supported with funds from The University of Alabama College of Arts and Sciences.