Stillness and Occurrence
Solo Exhibition | John Beckelman
Reception: [updated] May 22nd, 5:00-6:00pm
April 17- June 13th, 2020 [extended]
April 17- June 13th, 2020 [extended]
Exhibit Info
Stillness and Occurrence
April 17 - June 13, 2020
Reception: [updated] May 22nd, 5:00-6:00pm
Solo Exhibit | John Beckelman
Reception: [updated] May 22nd, 5:00-6:00pm
Solo Exhibit | John Beckelman
John Beckelman's artwork has been shown in exhibitions throughout the country and has been the recipient of numerous awards, commissions and grants. Following an undergraduate degree (BA English, Philosophy) from Hobart College in Geneva, NY, he received his Master of Science and Master of Fine Arts degrees in Ceramics from Illinois State University. After a 37 year teaching career at Coe College, where he taught ceramics, sculpture and three-dimensional design - and served as the Art Department chair for 20 years - Beckelman is now the college‘s Robert O. Daniel Professor of Art, Emeritus. John Beckelman lives and works in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He maintains a studio at the ‘Iowa Ceramics Center and Glass Studio’ in downtown Cedar Rapids.
Stillness and Occurence
“If you want to pare phenomena down, all there would be are stillness and occurrence: space, and that which is continually born out of space, and returns into space –- stillness and occurrence”. 1
The work in this exhibition is comprised of two different, yet related, directions in my work. One group consists of works that hang on the wall, as paintings. These are composed of unfired clay (which has been stabilized with oil, asphalt or resin binders) and a variety of other materials -including metal, glass, plexiglass, canvass, ceramic tile, brass and steel rod, oil and acrylic paints, prismacolor pencil, powdered pigments, wax, steel cable, fittings and gold leaf - that have been applied to paper, wood or concrete.
The second group of work in this exhibition consists of a series of large vessels created from clay, stabilized with concrete, acrylic resins and asphalt binders. The forms are purposely simple and direct container shapes, referencing Neolithic inspirations.
All of the work attempts to gently entice the viewer into the inner landscapes and interior spaces of our imagination and memory. There is for me a curious intersection between the seemingly enduring and timeless character of earth (clay) and the fleeting, yet wonderful, impermanence of phenomena in the world in which we live. While I often use a number of different materials in my work, clay is the material that most informs the things that I make. Having worked with clay, in a variety of forms and formats - and in all its varied physical states - for over forty years now, I find the elemental character and expressive potential of clay endlessly intriguing.
The work in this exhibition is comprised of two different, yet related, directions in my work. One group consists of works that hang on the wall, as paintings. These are composed of unfired clay (which has been stabilized with oil, asphalt or resin binders) and a variety of other materials -including metal, glass, plexiglass, canvass, ceramic tile, brass and steel rod, oil and acrylic paints, prismacolor pencil, powdered pigments, wax, steel cable, fittings and gold leaf - that have been applied to paper, wood or concrete.
The second group of work in this exhibition consists of a series of large vessels created from clay, stabilized with concrete, acrylic resins and asphalt binders. The forms are purposely simple and direct container shapes, referencing Neolithic inspirations.
All of the work attempts to gently entice the viewer into the inner landscapes and interior spaces of our imagination and memory. There is for me a curious intersection between the seemingly enduring and timeless character of earth (clay) and the fleeting, yet wonderful, impermanence of phenomena in the world in which we live. While I often use a number of different materials in my work, clay is the material that most informs the things that I make. Having worked with clay, in a variety of forms and formats - and in all its varied physical states - for over forty years now, I find the elemental character and expressive potential of clay endlessly intriguing.
- The Wisdom of No Escape, Pema Chodron, pg. 74
Exhibit Images
