Norma Penchansky-Glasser - Inside and Outside the Box

Step into WSG gallery's entry space and you'll be welcomed by a group of bronze sculptures first. You may stop, wait for them to draw a breath, lift an arm, flex on the ball of a foot, make their next move....

Norma has studied the figure as her primary inspiration, capturing each dancer at the point just before the next gesture - at a point that leaves the viewer anticipating what comes next.



On the walls, you'll see Norma's spectacular drawings. You can see the artist's work process in these pieces, as she sees the figure, records in on paper, imagines the figure's next movement, records it on top of the first drawing, and so on. The drawings have such a poetic nature - meditative, really. The black and gray lines are so elegant against the white paper!




A slight departure from Norma's bronze work and framed drawings are her wall-hung box pieces. I say slight, because her drawings and sculpture provide a stepping-off point for these little pieces. Norma starts with an antique sewing drawer and uses drawings of her dancers, beautiful papers, clay objects and parts from sculptures to create these assemblage pieces.

"Dance With Me", above, is one such piece. The box pieces provide the artist with more immediate satisfaction than the bronze pieces - a nice break from the labor-intensive process of sculpting, moulding, casting in wax, investing in ceramic shell, pouring bronze, chasing, patinating and mounting on a base (WHEW!). Working in several different veins, an artist can feed her soul, invigorate her thought process and, ultimately, discover things that translate among the media she explores.

Norma Penchansky-Glasser's work will be featured from May 18 through June 27, 2010. Gallery hours are Tu, Wed noon to 6, Th - Sat, noon - 10 pm and Sunday noon - 5pm. WSG gallery is located at 306 S. Main St., Ann Arbor.

Interview with Francesc Burgos

Study Model for a National Cenotaph
stoneware with terra sigillata

Interview with the Artist, Francesc Burgos

I had the pleasure of gallery-sitting one evening with Francesc and decided to ask him a few questions about his background, his work and his process. Read on to learn more!

Q. How long have you been working in clay?

A. I've been working with clay since 1990 or 91. Prior to that, I was an architect, working for a firm in San Francisco that did mostly residential, single-family houses. We did a few commercial projects - warehouses, malls and shelters. I also taught Spanish at U.C. Berkley, where I earned my graduate degree.

Q. How did you come to clay as a medium - how did you know that was the direction you wanted to go, after your architecture work?

A. It was a visit to the Asian Art Museum - I was simply AWED by the medieval Japanese ceramics on exhibit. I knew I had to be a ceramicist! So, I took classes at Laney Community College. Then I pursued an MFA in ceramics at University of Utah, where I was living at the time.

Q. What was it about that first contact with the ceramic pieces at the Asian Art Museum that drove you?

A. I was drawn to the Japanese medieval clay pieces because of their simplicity. They were unrefined, but very elegant and had a lot of presence. You could see the character of the maker in the piece - I'd never realized how expressive ceramics could be!


Q. Could you tell me a little about your working process - how you come from idea to form?

A. I make lots of sketches. Very often I draw cross-sections of the pieces - to plan structurally how they'll be built. I have to anticipate how firing will affect the clay. I start first with form and make full-scale drawings and sometimes templates.

Q. What are some of the things you think about, as you're making those drawings and planning the forms?

A. I am considering interior spaces, structure and the nature of dwelling.

Clay sculpture of Francesc Burgos at WSG gallery

Right now at WSG gallery, the gorgeous ceramic sculpture of Francesc Burgos is featured in our front window space. This delicate piece welcomes you into the gallery. Using porcelain joints and thin bamboo poles, Francesc creates a balanced structure that makes an ephemeral drawing on the wall with its shadows. The show continues through May 15, 2010.

"Abstraction of a Woman's Head with Hat (after Julio Gonzalez), Montserrat"
earthenware with terra sigillata
Francesc manipulates form in a way that makes it seem, well, not manipulated - like it might have just naturally occurred. The terra sigillata surface treatment further enhances this effect. Terra sigillata is a technique the artist uses to cover the clay form with slip (a thinned clay mixture), letting it dry to a certain degree, then burnishing the surface to bring out the natural eggshell-to slightly glossy finish of the clay. This labor-intensive finish really allows any texture in the surface to be enhanced.

"Propitia"
porcelain with terra sigillata



Here, Francesc continues his exploration of form simultaneously radiating and turning in on itself. The negative spaces are just as important - and interesting - as the positive spaces.

"Branch and Return"
earthenware and wood

Again, Francesc plays with space, growth, contraction and "drawing" with shadow. You can see a suggestion of the shadow drawing on the pedestal in this photo, but at the gallery, the shadows are much more dramatic. The genius of this piece (and the large pieces on the gallery walls - YOU GOTTA CHECK THEM OUT!) is that they define your perception of space with minimal materials.

WSG, Family & Friends

WSG Invites Family & Friends
February 23 - April 4, 2010
reception: March 12, 6-9pm

That's right, folks! We invited family members and friends who make art to take part in this show. Artists from 9 years old on up have work in the gallery for this show. People making work in plaster, porcelain, oils, watercolor, printmaking, photography and mixed media are represented here and the artists are from Michigan, Ohio and South Carolina.

Be sure to stop by and see the giant doll house with an elaborate story and riddle to solve!

Natural Landscapes

natural landscapes
Karin Wagner Coron

January 5 - February 21, 2010

reception: Jan. 8, 2010, 6 - 9pm

Karie paints the landscape of Michigan with a special attention to the skies in this show. She has a talent for capturing the vastness of the sky and its humbling nature, noticing subtleties and bringing them to the canvas in a way that makes the viewer say, "Yes, I've felt that way when I've seen the sky."

Visitors to WSG during Karie's show will step in the gallery and stop immediately inside the door to catch their breath. Her work transports the viewer to a favorite place, physically or metaphysically. Landscape can do that.

Karie took her camera on a trip to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, prior to her show. She snapped photos on the way up and back, drinking in the beauty of Michigan. When she returned to her studio, she chose the photos to use as a stepping off point and brought the landscapes to life with her favorite media - oil on canvas.

This show is a great break to the cold, gray winter in Michigan. However, one of my favorite paintings is the large, square-format painting of a winter sky straight ahead, as you enter the gallery. Karie captures the subtle coloration and glow of the sky in a way that stops me in my tracks every time I enter the gallery.

Holiday show

WSG Holiday Show

December 8, 2009 - January 3, 2010

Reception, Friday, December 11, 7 - 10 pm

Our Holiday show is full of surprises! We have pieces of all sizes and media. The space as you enter the gallery is hung with paintings, drawings, hand-pulled prints, photography work and felted wool hats. On the pedestals, you'll find bronze sculpture, mixed media sculpture, books, recycled wool mittens, porcelain and stoneware pieces. Something for everyone!

We've tried something new for this Holiday Show. Each artist has produced several smaller-scale pieces, in addition to their larger-scale pieces so visitors to the gallery will have a broad range of pieces at a broad range of price-points and can choose gifts for yourself or others!

In addition to our member-artists, the following visiting artists will also be on display:

Pat Truzzi, John Lilley, Matruka Sherman, Maria Ruggiero, Ruthann Baker and Margaret Parker.

Figures & Spaces - paintings by Nora Venturelli

NORA VENTURELLI

Figures & Spaces

October 27 - December 6, 2009, Opening reception November 6, 6-9pm

Also showing are gallery member-artists and the following visiting artists:

Ruthanne Baker, John Lilley, Chris McCauley, Margaret Parker, Pat Truzzi, Maria Ruggiero and Matruka Sherman

As you walk into WSG, you have 3 choices as to where you can indulge your eye.

1. Straight ahead, on the title wall, are 3 still life paintings, each with a mannequin, a wooden frame and a rectangular piece of paper as the objects. Venturelli has set up a challenge for herself in these pieces - a very limited palette of khakis, browns and off-white colors are used to define the objects, visually pulling you into the spaces with the complex layers of shadows and the illusion of depth.

2. To your left is a grouping of 5 oil paintings - figures in dynamic poses, dramatic colors capturing the figures moving, changing poses. One model super-imposed atop himself almost seems to be struggling to release himself from the canvas. Another seems to be moving back and forth through the deep spaces Venturelli has created.

and your 3rd decadent choice is:

To your right, is a grouping of large-scale drawings - 46 x36". Venturelli's love for the figure is truly evident in these charcoal and pastel pieces. Their quiet power makes you stop...breathe... and stare in awe.