Visual Voices: Truth Narratives is a NCECA ANNUAL EXHIBITION. Guest curator Winnie Owens-Hart has invited artists Syd Carpenter, Roberto Lugo, Sana Musasama, Reginald Pointer, and Janathel Shaw to frame the curatorial concerns of Visual Voices: Truth Narratives. 37 selected ceramic artists create powerful works that speak in a variety of visual volumes that touch on personal and global issues and emotions. Their narratives, whether literal or abstract, acknowledge that intolerance spawn racial, religious, class, and gender biases in every part of the world. The sense of interconnectedness created by modern media has transformed what was once an ancestral community to now a global community.

Our stories, re-told in clay, are borderless. Historically, the narrative ceramic object has engaged with the retelling of events through visual imagery codification. Clay works dating back thousands of years have enabled archaeologists to theorize on ceremonial, spiritual, and utilitarian societal markers that document the social and cultural contexts of their makers’ communities. Makers have continued the creation of narrative works using clay. Contemporary narrative ceramic artists, compared to their historical counterparts, are visually bombarded through media systems. Some work is created based solely on the artist’s personal experiences while others are influenced by what they see through the media; many today are shaped by both.

The exhibition reception will be held on Thursday, March 15, 6 – 9 PM.

Exhibiting Artist includes:
Jesse Albrecht, Crista Ames, Natalia Arbelaez, Sharif Bey, Jill Birschbach, David Bogus, Abigale Brading, Angelique Brickner, Nora Brodnicki, Jim Budde, Syd Carpenter, Bryan & Brad Caviness, Sean Clute, Tara Daly, Matthew Dercole, Yewen Dong, Elhan Ergin, Richard Freiwald, Dennis Gerwin, Ronnie Gould, Jocelyn Howard, Hsin-Yi Huang, Stacey Johnson, Marsha Karagheusian, Ahrong Kim, Rob Kolhouse, Bethany Krull, Roberto Lugo, Patricia Maloney, Sana Musasama, Kelly & Kyle Phelps, Reginald Pointer, Kristine Poole, Janathel Shaw, Lydia Thompson.

Visual Voices: Truth Narratives is sponsored by National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA). Media sponsored by 90.5 WESA and 91.3 WYEP. (As of November 2017)

NCECA promotes and improves the ceramic arts through education, community-building, research and creative inspiration. NCECA offers programs, events and publications to support its membership of artists, students, individual and corporate patrons, gallery owners, museum curators and providers of ceramic arts-related products and services. As a dynamic, member-driven organization, NCECA is flexible in its program development, international in its perspective and responsive to the changing needs of its constituency.

IMAGE: David Bogus. Punk Necklace Series: Treat the Youth Right and Red, White, Brainwashed, 2017. Ceramic and plastic chain. 11″ x 6.5″ x 2.5″ each. Photo courtesy of David Bogus.