Geological Observations: Ceramic Sculpture by Paula Winokur

October 26 - November 20, 2009

Lecture: Thursday, October 29, 5:30-6:30 PM, Whitaker Hall 214    Reception: Thursday, October 29, 6:30-7:30 PM

Internationally recognized ceramic artist, Paula Winokur, works in large-scale, porcelain sculpture that mimics and embodies the earth’s formations. Porcelain is often thought to create light, delicate forms. These sculptures are massive and weighty and yet capture a sense of vulnerability. The largely austere, white forms, with titles such as Glacier Ledge, Iceberg Split and Shattered Ice, seem pulled and pushed into wrinkles and crevices much like the earth’s surface and the glaciers that Winokur has observed.

Earlier in her career, Winokur made functional stoneware vessels, then porcelain “boxes”. The boxes themselves began to take on geological forms and in the 1980s Winokur began to work in a larger scale. In her own words, “My work has been influenced by information gathered at various "sites", places in the natural environment that I have responded to visually. The earth itself, particularly cliffs, ledges, crevices and canyons: the effects of wind, earthquakes, glaciers and other natural phenomenon such as geological "shifts" and "faults" interest me. In addition the many ways man has marked and scarred the land (through plowing, roads, fences etc.) provides an interesting perspective and point of view, real, illusory and aerial.”

Winokur has a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from Tyler School of Art, Temple University. She is a professor emerita at Arcadia University in Glenside, where she taught for 30 years. Her work resides in many collections, including the Design Museum in Helsinki, Finland;  The Contemporary Museum in Honolulu; the Mint Museum of Crafts & Design in  Charlotte, N.C.;  Los Angeles County Museum of Art;  Jingdezhen Ceramic Art Institute in China; and the Renwick Gallery, Museum of American Art at the Smithsonian Institution.

Recently, she has shown her work in numerous group and solo exhibitions, including: Goggleworks Art Gallery in Reading;  Art Gallery at Arcadia University; Design Museum in Helsinki; and The Contemporary Museum in Honolulu.

Winokur has received two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as, grants from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and the Leeway Foundation. In 2002 she was appointed a fellow of the American Crafts Council.

A lecture by the artist is scheduled 5:30-6:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 29, in Whitaker Hall 214 on HACC’s Harrisburg Campus. A reception in the Rose Lehrman Arts Center follows.

All gallery programs are free and open to the public. Rose Lehrman Art Gallery fall hours are 11AM-3PM Monday-Friday, Tuesdays and Thursdays 5-7PM, when the college is open, or by appointment.

The Rose Lehrman Art Center Gallery exhibits are made possible, in part, through Pennsylvania Partners in the Arts (PPA), a local decision-making program of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts (PCA). The PCA is a state agency in the Governor’s office, created by the Legislature in 1966 to encourage and promote the arts. Funding comes from the citizens of Pennsylvania through an annual state appropriation by the Legislature and from a federal grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. PPA is administered locally by Jump Street.

Email: kebanist@hacc.edu