CONCORD MASS.- Lucy Lacoste Gallery announces their current exhibition, From the Lucy Lacoste Collection, which features a specially curated selection of works collected by gallery owner Lucy Lacoste, on view July 12 through August 3, 2024.
While not the first exhibition containing a selection of works from Lucys collection, this exhibition of ceramics marks a special leap into a new era for Lucy and her Gallery. Looking towards the future and highlighting her favorite pieces, most important works and most notable sculpture.
From the Lucy Lacoste Gallery Collection highlights an acclaimed group of International and National artists, including but not limited to ceramic legends like Don Reitz, Karen Karnes, Malene Müllertz, Margaret Keelan, Arnie Zimmerman and SunKoo Yuh.
The Flying X (2006) by Don Reitz (1929 -2014) is an iconic wood-fired sculpture by one of the preeminent sculptors of the 20th and 21st Century. Purchased at the request of the artist, this is a singular sculpture distinguished by the large X flying off the front of the sculpture. As the artist was dyslexic as a youth, he took to making marks in the earth and considers the X his personal symbol.
Three Narrow Bottles (2002) by Karen Karnes (1926 -2016) the grande dame of American ceramics, were from her Garth Clark solo of 2004 and are documented by a catalogue of the exhibition. Tall, sentient, with striking woodfired variations, these abstract forms can be viewed as a figurative, relational grouping.
The innovative Danish artist Malene Müllertz (b.1949) belongs at the top of Danish and international ceramic artists. Included in the exhibition are the iconic Spiral Basket made of small individual coils, as well as the earlier Lidded Jar with Black Lines that presages her linear yet uniquely human spiral basket forms.
Also, represented is the brilliant Arnie Zimmerman (1954 2021), a ceramic artist with a cult following, yet to be fully appreciated for his genius. With his self- deprecating humor, Zimmerman places himself squarely in the center of Vanities of Vanities, a work that presages his early death.
Memories of Pikesville TN from 2003 is a definitive museum quality work by the Korean artist SunKoo Yuh (b. 1960) in Seoul, South Korea, and professor of art at the University of Georgia. Pikesville is a large, complex sculpture referencing the summer the artist spent in Pikesville, TN as well as New York City, and contains Korean folk symbols. The sculpture has been exhibited at many influential shows including the 2009 Renwick Biennial, and solos at the Art Alliance of Philadelphia, and Alfred University.
Margaret Keelans Blue is a most unusual trompe loeil sculpture in which the artist though the use of clay, glaze and stain makes the figure look like weathered wood, to capture the passing of time. The figures gaze and dress take one back into a bygone era with classic sensibilities.
The Lucy Lacoste Gallery, whose focus has been ceramics for over 34 years, is known for championing ceramic artists, nationally and internationally for the last three decades. Friends of the gallery understand Lucy has dedicated her life to the arts and is deeply committed to clay as an art medium.
Lucy Lacoste and LLG
Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, Lucy Lacoste grew up with her family in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. She attended Newcomb Tulane College in New Orleans, where she initially fell in love with clay as a medium. Attending Newcomb Tulane introduced Lucy to the Newcomb Pottery movement (1894) which piqued her interest in becoming a maker herself. After starting the ceramic department with a small group of other female potters, at the Umbrella Arts Center in Concord, Massachusetts, Lucy opened her business, at the time called Lacoste Gallery, in 1990. Originally located at 37 Thoreau Street in Concord, LLG moved to 25 Main Street in 1996. The gallery has gone through many evolutions. Now a highly acclaimed and sought-after ceramics gallery, with a focus on contemporary ceramic sculpture. Lucy has made many deep connections with renowned ceramic artists and makes it a mission of the gallery to represent and support young artists of all backgrounds, especially artists of color.
Featured Artists:
Ani Kasten
Arnie Zimmerman
Don Reitz
Isaac Scott
Jeff Shapiro
Karen Karnes
Ke Francis
Linda Swanson
Malene Müllertz
Margaret Keelan
Paul S. Briggs
SunKoo Yuh
Sunshine Cobb
Sydnie Jimenez
Warren MacKenzie