Vernissage

On Saturday afternoon we hosted our Vernissage, the opening reception for the group exhibition of my residency program in Vallauris. After a month of effort, my fellow residents and I were finally able to see each other’s vision for our work in the exhibition space as opposed to watching the pieces come to life and then sit on a work table inside the studio.

I know that I will need a bit of space to fully absorb all of the information, knowledge, and emotions of this experience. What is already clear to me is that my time here, the work I created, the place itself, and the people I shared all of it with will forever be part of me. I was an artist, a colleague, a friend, a student, and a mentor during this residency…all of those things are now part of my DNA as an artist.

Below are the first few images of my main project– which was to create a collection of forms and bring them into the world and photograph them in the wild. An extension of a series that I began last year back home. These forms were smaller (I did have to consider how to bring them home), but I believe that their impact is as monumental as my larger forms of the past year. These pieces and I traveled throughout Provence, Le Luberon, and the Cote d’Azur together over the past couple of weeks.

My artist statement from the exhibition-

For most of my lifetime of working with clay I have focused on the details of the functional object. I arrived in Vallauris with the intention of exploring a new body of work. I also knew that I had to use the time here to find space for myself outside of the studio.

This collection, while devoid of function, draws from the objects I have made throughout my life. The methods are familiar– Each piece begins on the wheel. The clay itself, a distant relative of my porcelain back home, offers a stark contrast to the refined surface of my previous work. Creating these forms was always meant to be the beginning.

Taking the time to see the world beyond my studio walls became the driving force of my time here. I wanted to bring this work with me into the world and make that exploration part of my creative process. My world is expanding and I wanted my work to join me on this new path.

My photography is not here solely to document my work. It is meant to be part of the work itself, for its own sake.

My wife and I are taking the long way back to Austin. We will be home in a little over a week, where I will return to my studio for my final push in the space that has been my creative home since 2013. I will be working to get this collection, and more of my available pieces on my website for an Online Holiday Sale scheduled for December 15th.

I will also be opening my studio doors on Friday December 19th and Saturday, December 20th for an In-Person Studio Sale. Details on all of that will be coming through my “regular” newsletter that you can sign up for on my studio website, keithkreeger.com

More thoughts from my time in France and the rest of our travels will find there way to Thinking Through Making soon.