A Form of Reverence

The Jane Hartsook Gallery at Greenwich House Pottery is pleased to present A Form of Reverence curated by Derek Weisberg. The nine artists featured in this exhibition use the alchemic nature of clay to embody “reverence” in physical form. With modern pressures to prioritize information over wisdom and convenience above all else, many of us seldom consider the magnitude of existence or our role within it. We have lost our sense of awe at being part of an immense, inextricably connected universe that teems with mystery. The work in this exhibition gives form to the reverence we forget to seek, but can always find, in the grace, the beauty, the vastness of creation.

Clay is uniquely well suited to convey reverence in physical form because of its ability to act as a conduit for the material and the spiritual to converge. Working with clay requires an artist to focus deeply on the physical world and treat the volatile elements of earth, air, water, and fire as collaborators to be respected, not forces to be dominated. If an artist ignores these forces, clay will slump, crack, or explode, but artwork made in harmony with these forces comes alive through the artist’s synergy with the physical world. The sculptures in this exhibition are born from that synergy and help us move past shallow perception to see and revere the eternal in the ordinary.

Each artist uses this synergy to access the feeling of reverence from a unique perspective. De Staebler grounds the spiritual in the weight and vulnerability of flesh by reducing the human body to a foot and torso, sites of humility and prayer. Kawabata, Hamilton, Briggs, and Cook use nature as a visual language. Seeds, saplings, leaves, and nature’s abundance serve as metaphors for generative power and the sacred unfolding of life itself.  Kuniko, Duckworth, Crosslypka, and Mayer use abstraction to trace the edges of what lies beyond our knowledge, giving form to the ephemerality of awe. The work in this exhibition does not seek to define reverence, but to approach it. Each sculpture is an invitation to pursue the mystery of existence for ourselves, to seek the point where shape emerges from darkness and meaning hovers just beyond grasp.

Thank you to our collaborators Salon 94, Bureau, ATLA, and Nonaka Hill.