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CONSTRUCTS, The Ceramic Sculpture of Monica Van den Dool and Karl McDade
Feb 10 – Mar 5, 2011
The term “constructs” refers to jects formed by assembling and combining parts, and describes the shared process of ceramic artists Karl McDade and Monica Van den Dool as they create, accumulate, compose, and edit their work into completion.
Although their themes and formal experiments are quite different, Karl McDade and Monica Van den Dool share a raw aesthetic, a medium that allows for endless experiments in shape, texture, and color, and an interest in the compositional freedoms and possibilities of the “construct”.
Karl McDade’s collages on clay are structed of layers of silk screened imagery, and explore topics as diverse as war, politics, our environment and sex. These collages are as much a mirror of the human condition as they are light hearted and humorous juxtapositions of familiar images. His sculptures share these themes and compositional approach, as Karl combines both familiar and unexpected elements to create narrative.
Right: "Framed" Ceramic and Wood, 2006, 48x48x24"
Monica Van den Dool’s recent work is inspired by the genre of still life painting (functioning traditionally as a reminder of mortality) and particularly by the compositions of Chardin. Simplified but realistic three- dimensional representations of game animals are forcefully combined and contrasted with cartoonishly glazed and artificially bright and vibrant elements (dripping oranges, bright yellow canaries, flowing drips). The glazed elements are generally pushed into the wet clay of the larger sculpture, and the entire sculpture is dried, fired, and re-fired together, resulting in many cracks and stresses. This process and the whole jarring composition are meant to correlate with the complexity and strain of our attempt to understand our mortality in its entirety.
Left: "With Daisies" ceramic, mixed media, 2010, 32x23x12"