NEW YORK, NY.- albertz benda is presenting a two person show with works by Thomas Fougeirol and Tony Marsh, on view from January 7th to February 13th, 2021. Showing together for the first time, Thomas Fougeirol and Tony Marsh both embrace the flux inherent in their respective practices, arriving at unforeseen outcomes through a combination of protocol and alchemy. With this exhibition, albertz benda is thrilled to announce the representation of sculptor and ceramicist Tony Marsh.




Sculpting in ceramic, Tony Marsh uses the vessel form as starting point for experiments with texture, color, and movement. The geomorphic surfaces of the work are the result of physical interactions between layers of slips, glazes, and fragments built up over months and fired as many as five times. There is no note taking in this process, making each work an irreplicable product of chance rooted in Marsh’s intensive, decades-long study of the material.

For this first comprehensive presentation at the gallery, Marsh presents a new body of work defined by cascading, vibrant glazes alongside pieces coated with a lustrous black glaze from his ongoing Cauldrons and Crucibles series. The gesticulated forms and surface fissures of Spill and Catch 4, 2020, facilitate the dripping and pooling of polychromatic glaze, in contrast with the austere palate and igneous texture of works such as Untitled Crucible,2020.

Thomas Fougeirol’s paintings bear the imprints of his actions, crystallizing moments of fluidity and capturing intermediary states. Fougeirol arrives at his undulating surfaces by ceding control to the forces of gravity and chance. The dramatic drips and sculptural ridges suggest processes of entropy or tectonics, imbuing the work with a sense of recursion. Dichotomies formed between the tactile, coagulated crusts and their atmospheric effects emulate the passing of energy between movement and matter, flux and stasis, within Fougeirol’s process.

Fougeirol and Marsh both utilize sets of parameters in their studios to produce forms that emerge through discovery rather than intention. Process is embedded within their forms, mirroring universal laws of nature. Material is deposited and re-formed in the studio with forces analogous to geological processes– the seismic shifting of tectonic plates or the melting and cooling of volcanic rock. Exhibited together, the surfaces of Marsh’s vessels and Fougeirol’s canvases index the artist’s body as a physical, creative force traversing new territories within the boundaries of their respective mediums.

Thomas Fougeirol [French, b. 1965] lives and works between New York and Paris, where he runs the non-profit exhibition space Dust. He holds a DNSEP from École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris. Recent solo exhibitions include Praz Delavallade, Paris and Los Angeles; Fondation Antonio Perez, Spain; and the Galerie Saint Séverin, Paris. He participated in Fifteen Year Anniversary Exhibition at the Margulies Collection in Miami as well as From Pre-History to Post-Every-thing at Sean Kelly Gallery in New York. Acquisitions have been made by Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, FR; Fondation Louis Vuitton pour l’art contemporain, FR; Collection Chanel; and The Margulies Collection, Miami, FL. Fougeirol and the artist and the curator Jo-ey Tang organized the project DUST: Plates of the Presence, which was acquired by Centre Pompidou, Paris in 2019.

Tony Marsh [b. 1954, New York, NY] is a sculptor and ceramicist based in Long Beach, California. He received his B.F.A. from California State University in 1978, after which he began an apprenticeship at Shimaoka Pottery in Mashiko, Japan. He received his M.F.A. from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. He has been showing his work in both solo and group exhibitions since 1992, and has been included in such notable exhibitions as the Cheongiu International Craft Biennale in South Korea (2015). He was also an invited international juror at the 2012 Koran International Ceramic Biennale, Incheon, South Korea. His work is in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; Museum fo Art and Design, New York, NY; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art, Toronto, Canada; Takumi Folk Art Gallery, Tokyo, Japan; New Taipei City Yingge Ceramics Museum, New Taipei City, Taiwan, among others.