NEW YORK, NY.- Les Ateliers Courbet announced a new exhibition by South African ceramicist Katherine Glenday. Known for evoking a feeling of stillness through her work, Glenday’s ceramic vessels are widely collected and appreciated for their expressiveness and translucent qualities. Her new exhibition, which opened on August 9th at Les Ateliers Courbet’s Chelsea gallery and is on view through September 2nd, features 30 new pieces, many of which demonstrate Glenday’s recent exploration of color.
Since the beginning of her career, Glenday has explored the conversation between lightness and darkness in her work, understanding that we need the dark to reveal the light. For many years, the artist has pondered how she would work with color, and this new exhibition reflects her foray into an expanded palette .
“This new body of work is merely a widening and clearer articulation of that conversation,” Glenday explains. “Color and light involve surface and form, and so for this exhibition, I have kept the vessel form as a constant, but I have played with surface and with pigment, and different clay bodies and firing temperatures. The edge qualities of the vessels throw off different types of light—according to their porosity.”
“Les Ateliers Courbet’s mission is to communicate appreciation for the timeless value of meticulously crafted pieces that result from time-honored techniques,” said Les Ateliers Courbet founder Melanie Courbet. “Katherine’s work embodies this, and Les Ateliers Courbet is proud to showcase her latest work and highlight the comforting experience of objects anchored in heritage.”
Born in 1960 in Cape Town, South African ceramicist Katherine Glenday discovered her vocation under the mentorship of leading ceramicist Marietjie van der Merwe. Since then, the artist has never ceased to pursue an unwavering path exploring the material’s wide range of expressive qualities, while continuing to learn different time-honored techniques through ongoing collaboration with master ceramicists around the world. Employing a variety of forming methods, most notably wheel throwing and occasionally slip casting, she sees the vessel as a circular canvas in movement. Inviting color and light in the pure matter, she introduces minerals and oxides often gleaned directly from the natural world, such as mud from the Niger River or clay from the Cedarburg, as her “paint.” Glenday currently lives and works in Kalk Bay.
