Margie Hughto with her Palitz Gallery installation “Setting Sun.”
“Painting in Clay: The Fired Landscapes of Margie Hughto” at Palitz Gallery features new work by the internationally recognized artist as well as a selection highlighting her long and varied career in ceramic art.
The exhibition is open Monday to Friday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m., and will run through Feb. 4, 2016. It will be closed from Dec. 24-Jan. 2. It is free and open to the public. Contact 212-826-0320 or lubin@syr.edu for more information.
“Painting in Clay: The Fired Landscapes of Margie Hughto” is the artist’s first retrospective exhibition and includes a selection of new works as well as examples from her major public commissions and the nationally recognized project “New Works in Clay.” A study for “Trade, Treasure and Travel,” which resides at the Cortlandt Street New York City subway station, will also be on display.
A centerpiece of the Palitz Gallery show is be the U-shaped installation “Setting Sun,” which has not been exhibited before. “This artwork was not a public art project,” says Hughto. “It was an artwork I wanted to create. It is inspired by my beautiful Central New York environment.” And through the use of plants from her own garden that were pressed into the clay, Hughto brings the personal sights from her home to viewers, while the colors are inspired by the passage of time and light on the water.
Hughto uses a painterly approach when working in ceramics. “I don’t always know exactly where I’m going as I push, press and break the clay and later, layer slips and glazes over and over again,” says Hughto. “I stay with it, trying to take advantage of gesture and the potency of the ceramic medium and glazed surfaces.”
Hughto is a member of the faculty at the University where she has taught for over 40 years in the College of Visual and Performing Arts. In addition to her teaching and numerous public commissions, Hughto has served as curator at the Everson Museum of Art; was the founding director of the Syracuse Clay Institute; and the organizer of New Works in Clay, a collaborative program that brought artists, curators and critics to Syracuse University, including Helen Frankenthaler, Anthony Caro and Clement Greenberg.
Additional programing will include a special lecture with the artist and Sandra Bloodworth, director of the award-winning public art program MTA Arts & Design and author of “Along the Way: MTA Arts for Transit” on Feb. 3 at 6 p.m. at the Syracuse University Lubin House. More information can be found at http://nyc.syr.edu once it becomes available.
