A Beautiful Spirit JAN 26 - MAR 16

Radius Clayworks is delighted to present new work by nine masterful artists working in ceramics, all past residents of the Archie Bray Foundation (aka The Bray) in Helena, Montana. These artists demonstrate the creative vigor and vitality, the impulse to experiment and explore, that The Bray has encouraged and celebrated for nearly 75 years.

The title of the show is drawn from a letter, written in 1951, by founder Archie Bray:

That somewhere thru it all will permeate a beautiful spirit... carrying on and forwarding the intentions, the aims and the life of the Foundation. Can we do it? What a joy it is to do it.

New works by nine past residents that comprise A Beautiful Spirit include:

Sam Chung, Christina Erives, Hiroe Hanazono, KleinReid, Yoonjee Kwak, Steven Young Lee, Julie Moon, Kensuke Yamada, Sunkoo Yuh

WARNING: Adding an artwork to your shopping cart does not, sadly, reserve it. Another visitor may have the same item in their cart and “scoop” it from you if they input their credit card first. If you really love a piece, we suggest you hurry to the check out to avoid disappointment. You can continue shopping after that purchase.

These works will be available for pick up or shipping after March 16th.

ARTIST BIOS

SAM CHUNG

I work within the context of pottery to exploit its universal familiarity and impose my own vision for merging historically and culturally disparate influences. I am curious about the relationships I see among various forms of creative expression both past and present, and try to bring forth a new language of pottery for the future.

—Sam Chung

Sam Chung is a Korean-American ceramic artist living in Phoenix, Arizona. He received his MFA from Arizona State University and a BA from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. He taught at Northern Michigan University from 1998-2007, and has been a Professor of Ceramics at Arizona State University since 2007. He was awarded a US Fulbright Scholar grant in South Korea in 2021-22.

Sam has exhibited his work nationally and internationally with major exhibitions at Harvey Preston, Duane Reed, Tansey Contemporary, and Greenwich House Pottery in the US, as well as Soluna Living (Korea) and Ann Linnemann Gallery (Denmark). Sam's work is included in the collections of The Everson Museum (NY), Crocker Art Museum (CA) and Icheon World Ceramic Center (Korea). He has also presented numerous lectures and workshops both nationally and internationally.

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CHRISTINA ERIVES

I recreate everyday objects and try to make sense or nonsense out of them. Visual representation comes and goes in my work, much like a story that, over time, gets stretched and altered in its telling. I want my pieces to carry that same sense of altered information, while still holding the heart of the narrative. These stories often stem from things I heard growing up one of twelve children in our family in Los Angeles. Through my work I enjoy playing with reality and finding more questions than answers.

—Christina Erives

Christina Erives often gravitates to the medium of clay because of its malleability and rich history. She sees ceramics as a material that offers permanence, and one of the ways we're able to learn about ancient cultures, their traditions and artfulness. Her aim is to make a mark of her own that will be preserved in the history of ceramic objects.

Christina received her BA and MA from California State University, Northridge, and her MFA from Pennsylvania State University. She has worked as a Resident Artist and Instructor at New Mexico State University, Belger Craneyard Studios in Kansas City, and the University of Montana. In 2017 she received an Emerging Artist Award from the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA).

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HIROE HANAZONO

My desire as an artist is to design and create dishes that enrich the presentation of food while enhancing the dining experience. I make pedestals for food, forms that consist of simple lines with muted colors. I use minimal design and a limited color palette to create an ideal display setting—one meant to enrich our appreciation of food and to enhance the ambiance of one’s home environment. My process includes wheel throwing, hand-building, and slip casting.

—Hiroe Hanazono

Hiroe Hanazono, a native of Japan, received her BA in Spatial Art and Ceramics from California State University-Hayward, and her MFA in Ceramics from the Ohio University School of Art in Athens.

Hiroe has participated in numerous prestigious artist-in-residency programs, a few of which include the Archie Bray Foundation, the International Ceramic Research Center in Denmark, and the Clay Studio in Philadelphia where she was awarded the 2008-2009 Evelyn Shapiro Foundation Fellowship. She produces highly designed functional tableware in her Philadelphia home studio, and also teaches a variety of ceramics classes in New York City and in the Philadelphia region.

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KLEINREID

Our shared vision is to create what we love and with each new collection elegantly convey goals that have remained consistent since KleinReid’s inception: thoughtful design, fine craftsmanship and lasting beauty.

—James Klein & David Reid

KleinReid is a New York-based porcelain design studio that stands at the forefront of contemporary studio pottery. The firm’s founders, James Klein and David Reid, began collaborating as KleinReid in 1993, hand-building elegant vases, objects, lighting and serving ware, and more recently soft goods, jewelry and limited-edition prints. Their collections have made a significant impact on tabletop and home design, and their New York City studio is renowned for its elegant forms; confident style; dense, translucent porcelain; artisanal glazes; and fine, “from scratch” craftsmanship.

KleinReid’s pieces have been shown extensively in gallery and museum exhibitions, and retail in design stores and stylish boutiques worldwide. KleinReid has designed collections for prestigious firms including Herman Miller, Dansk, and Room&Board, and has been profiled in national and international home, fashion and design periodicals and on television.

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YOONJEE KWAK

Clay serves as a medium for narrating the remnants of memories forged through diverse and unpredictable relationships with others and myself. These memories manifest in my work as precarious and fragile forms, exploring the delicate balance between weakness and strength.

—Yoonjee Kwak

Yoonjee Kwak is an artist and educator originally from South Korea. Her preference for hand-building techniques stems from the directness of the fabricating process, preserving evidence of her physical interactions with clay. This interactive dialogue with the material is essential to her process.

Yoonjee earned her MFA in ceramics from the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York, and her BFA in ceramics and glass from Hong-Ik University in Seoul, South Korea. Yoonjee has been honored with the James Renwick Alliance Chrysalis Award in Ceramics, and the Emerging Artist Award from Ceramics Monthly Magazine. Her work has been showcased in international exhibitions in Icheon (Korea), Chungju (Korea), Jingdezhen (China) and elsewhere. Currently Yoonjee is a full-time faculty member of the Visual Arts Department at the prestigious Loomis Chaffee School in Connecticut.

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STEVEN YOUNG LEE

Growing up the son of immigrant Korean parents, I often find myself situated between cultures. I've had the duel experiences of being a minority in my own country, and being an outsider in the country of my heritage. My work allows me to re-interpret and confront questions of place and belonging. Having begun my artistic career learning Asian pottery techniques in a Western education system, I am also continually investigating the sources and ownership of cultural influence.

—Steven Young Lee

Originally from Chicago, currently based in Helena, Montana, Steven Young Lee was the resident director of the Archie Bray Foundation for sixteen years from 2006 to 2022. In 2004-05, he lectured and taught at numerous universities throughout China as part of a one-year cultural and educational exchange in Jingdezhen, Shanghai and Beijing. In 2005-6 he was a visiting professor at Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Vancouver, B.C. He received his BFA and MFA in Ceramics from Alfred University. Steve's work has been collected by the Smithsonian Museum, the Daum Museum of Contemporary Art, the Four Seasons Hotel in Seoul, Korea, as well as many private collectors.

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JULIE MOON

The process of making and the experience of seeing motivate my artistic practice. Working in the studio is an attempt to filter and digest the experiences of life, which helps me in my efforts to make sense of the world. However, the result of my efforts never reveal any clear definitions but always bring about a series of questions, and much like the forms themselves, their meaning/purpose seem amorphous and ever-changing.

—Julie Moon

Julie Moon received her MFA from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. Based in Toronto, she has exhibited extensively in Canada and the US since graduating from the Material Art and Design Program at OCAD University. Exhibition venues include Birch Contemporary in Toronto, Society for Contemporary Craft in Pittsburgh, and Toronto International Art Fair. She has been a resident artist at the Clay Studio in Philadelphia, Anderson Ranch, the Center for Ceramics in Berlin, AIR Vallauris in France, as well as the Archie Bray Foundation.

Prior to her career in ceramics, Julie spent over a decade working in Toronto's garment industry. She continues to be inspired by the language of ornament, tactile media and the human figure.

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KENSUKE YAMADA

I came to the US from Japan with limited knowledge of the English language. As I struggled to learn and communicate, I became very aware of the complexities of our daily functions, and the social infrastructures that subtly guide these interactions.

With clay I look for sculptural conversations that evoke the beauty, the subtleties, the sadness and the humor of our everyday lives. In viewing my sculpture I hope for people to enjoy the moment, rather then the movement of time. I hope for my work to fill the space between two seemingly distant things, to provide a connection and thus create the story of you and me.

—Kensuke Yamada

Kensuke Yamada was born in Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan. He received his MFA from the University of Montana and his BA from Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. He has participated in artist residency programs at the Archie Bray Foundation, the Clay Studio in Philadelphia, Tyler School of Art and Architecture at Temple University, and Cheekwood in Nashville. His sculptures have been exhibited nationally and internationally. He is currently teaching at University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

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SUNKOO YUH

My work expresses my inner life and draws from everyday experiences. I want to record my daily impressions through my art with the hope that it will lead me to small insights into my life and family. While art-making may be a quest in search of broad meanings, it may be expressed through intimate awareness of daily life.Sunkoo Yuh

Sunkoo Yuh was born in South Korea and immigrated to the US in 1988. He now resides in Athens, Georgia, where he is a Professor of Art at the University of Georgia. He received his BFA from Hong Ik University in Seoul, Korea, and his MFA from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred in New York.

Sunkoo's work has been exhibited widely and he has received many awards and honors. He was the recipient of the Joan Mitchell Foundation grant, the Grand Prize at the 2nd World Ceramic Biennale International Competition (Icheon, Korea), and a Virginia A. Groot Foundation grant. His work is in the collections of The Renwick Gallery at the Smithsonian Institution, The State Hermitage Museum (St. Petersburg, Russia), Icheon World Ceramic Center (Icheon, Korea), the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and elsewhere.

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ARTIST BIOS

SAM CHUNG

CHRISTINA ERIVES

HIROE HANAZONO

KLEINREID

YOONJEE KWAK

STEVEN YOUNG LEE

JULIE MOON

KENSUKE YAMADA

SUNKOO YUH

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