Clay in Minneapolis

WAM was one of the places where I found work by ceramics artists in Minneapolis. Inside the building you wouldn't know you were in an aluminum can, fortunately.

The Leo and Doris Hodroff Gallery in the museum, was entirely ceramics. I was excited to see, inside glass cases, some of my favorite artists' work; Lucie Rie, Mary and Edwin Scheier, and Maija Grotell for example,  along with other historically significant work from ancient times to modern. The glass made these un-photographable, but a few pieces outside the glass were worth recording.

Warren MacKensie

They are all large pieces, including these platters by the influential U of Minnesota professor and potter, Warren Mackenzie. Obviously, the decoration here is the important part, though his chunky forms were innovative at the time (1956 for the bottom one, 1988 for the top). He was influenced by Korean and other Asian pottery.

"Peasant Woman," Akio Takamori

Here are some other works that impressed me at WAM.

"Sleeping woman," Akio Takamori

"Vessel," Karen Karnes

I don't think there were any openings for this vessel, just the shallow hollows in the immense form.

"Dance Hall," Rudy Autio

from the "Fremont Project," Dango Series, Jun Taneko

This super large sculpture was in the current show
at the museum, not in the ceramics gallery. The informative label is worth quoting.


"The pieces weigh about one thousand pounds each and are very complicated to make. The artist hand-builds them over many months from thick slabs of clay inside large kilns in Omaha, Nebraska, where he lives. he leaves them to air dry for up to six weeks. In the final stage of production, only two or three pieces actually survive from a group of ten."

other side, with my Aiti

What is a "dango?" I must look it up, but it reminds me of a hindu lingam. Definitely primordial.
















Next post: the Northern Clay Center.