Category: Penland People

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Nancy Blum: Exploring Interconnectivity

Drawings by Nancy Blum
Nancy Blum, Black Drawings 31, 72, 28, and 158, colored pencil and graphite, 12 x 9 inches each

Nancy Blum–one of the featured artists in this year’s Penland Benefit Auction–is known primarily for large-scale botanical drawings and her public artworks. These include a remarkable suite of floral tile mosaics at the 28th Street subway station in Manhattan and an installation of monumental, botanically-themed windows at the San Francisco General Hospital. Nancy was first trained in ceramics, and she loves collaborating with the skilled craftspeople who execute these projects.

Her contributions to this year’s auction, however, are entirely the work of her own hands. She describes these “Black Drawings” as “playfully rendered depictions of scientific imaginings and abstractions of the natural world.” This series, she says, explores the interconnectivity of all living beings. Nancy’s drawings and sculptures have been shown in venues across the U.S. and in recent solo exhibitions at Reynolds Gallery in Richmond, VA and Ricco Maresca Gallery in New York City. Her work is found in many private and public collections including the World Ceramic Exposition Foundation in South Korea and the Boise Art Museum in Idaho.

To learn more about Nancy and see more of her work, please watch the video below (videographer: Nikki Appino), or visit her website (but watch the video first).

Penland’s Annual Benefit Auction takes place on August 26-27, 2002 with online bidding on many pieces continuing through September 2. Nancy’s drawings will be sold in the live auction on August 27 and in the online silent auction that runs from August 28 – September 2. Complete auction information here.

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Paul S. Briggs: Expansive Ceramics

A ceramic vessel by Paul Briggs
Paul S. Briggs, Whorl, Windflower (Geode Series), glazed stoneware, 10 x 8 x 8 inches

Paul S. Briggs, who is one of the featured artists at the 2022 Penland Benefit Auction, has built his ceramic practice around two processes: pinch-formed vessels and slab-built sculptures. “Pinch-forming is what I do to meditate,” he says, “slab building is what I do to think through ideas.” The work featured in this year’s auction is one of his distinctive pinched vessels. “My pinching process,” he explains, “is neither additive nor subtractive but expansive. I grow the form from one chunk of clay using the pinching method to open the chunk and expand it outward and upward.”

Paul’s work has been in numerous exhibitions including Lucy Lacoste Gallery in Concord, Massachusetts, Friedman Benda Gallery in New York City, and The Clay Studio in Philadelphia, and is found in museum collections including the Fuller Craft Museum in Massachusetts, the Columbus Art Museum in Ohio, the Legacy Museum in Alabama, the San Angelo Museum of Art in Texas, the Alfred Ceramic Art Museum in New York, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

He has studied educational theory and policy, art education, theology, sculpture, and ceramics. “After a circuitous and fortuitous journey,” he says,“I am an artist-teacher at Massachusetts College of Art and Design.” He has also taught ceramics at Penland, Anderson Ranch, St. Olaf University, and Harvard University.

To learn more about Paul and see more of his work, please watch the video below (videographer: Darren Cole), or visit his website (but watch the video first).

Penland’s Annual Benefit Auction takes place on August 26-27, 2002 with online bidding on some pieces continuing through September 2. Paul’s work will be sold in the live auction on August 27; absentee bidding is available. Complete auction information here.

 

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David K. Chatt: Objects of Wonder from Tiny Beads

 

David K. Chatt, Red Stinger, glass beads, thread, time, 33 inches long

For nearly forty years, I have sewn tiny glass beads, one to the next,” says artist David K. Chatt. During this time David has painstakingly developed methods for creating sculpture and jewelry from sewn beads–beads alone and beads encasing objects–and he is one of a small group of artists who have made a place for beadwork in the world of contemporary art and craft. He is one of three featured artists at Penland’s annual benefit auction where he will be represented by an intriguing wearable piece titled Red Stinger (pictured here).

His work has taken him all over the country as a lecturer and teacher, and it has been chronicled in books and periodicals and recognized with a retrospective exhibition at the Bellevue Arts Museum in Washington. At Penland he has been an instructor, a resident artist, a student, an employee, and a neighbor.

In 2019, David won the Grand Prize at the Irish Glass Biennale. In 2021, one of his pieces was purchased by the Renwick Gallery of the American Art Museum (DC) and is included in its current 50th anniversary show.

“I make art,” David says, “because I want to contribute, discover, understand, inspire, reach for the very edge of my potential, and say something true.”

To learn more about David and see more of his work, please watch the video below, or visit his website (but watch the video first).

Penland’s Annual Benefit Auction takes place on August 26-27, 2002 with online bidding on some pieces continuing through September 2. David’s piece will be sold in the live auction on August 27; absentee bidding is available. Complete auction information here.