Schacht Gallery presents Served a solo exhibition featuring the utilitarian pottery of Daphne Allen, SCAC’s 2018-19 Artist-in-Resident. The exhibition, which reflects the culmination of her year-long residency, opens Saturday, June 22nd with a reception from 5-7pm and runs through July 13, 2019.
Saratoga Clay Arts Center’s Artist in Residency program offers emerging artists who have just received their BFA or MFA the time and space to develop their artistic voice in clay. While enhancing their knowledge and experience in a working studio environment, residents are expected to work to develop a strong and cohesive body of work, have a visible presence in the studio and interact with members of the clay community and the public. Each September, fresh talent enters the community and offers them their unique perspectives in clay while they learn the inner workings of running an arts business.
Daphne has spent her year developing a new line of hand built decorative utilitarian pottery. In her work, the iron-rich stoneware clay body acts as a canvas for colorful polka dots, often overlapping to create patterns and layers of whimsy. About her work, Daphne states “The ceramic dinnerware we use at our tables bonds us to both the food and drink we are enjoying to the memories these vessels have helped facilitate countless times before. Pieces like lemonade pitchers and prized gravy pourers passed down from mothers to daughters are often hidden in our pantries, basements, and cabinets and only brought out for special occasions.
“Creating plates, platters, and sets that can be displayed decoratively on our walls, rather than in a china hutch is a constant idea I use when building my work. The intention is to be both playful and personal as each piece is developed to hang on the wall as a painting would, but also functional enough to use at the table. My childhood was filled with hand painted and wood burned items that held a special place in my heart due to their unique patterns and colors. The cherished memories of my past are often reflected on when I use these items to this day. That feeling of happiness, freedom and creativity is something I channel when I am creating my work.
“The untamed patterns on each piece are never the same and often incorporate different colors, shapes, textures, and sizes. I enjoy the contrast between the brown stoneware and bright colored slips I use to decorate. The unglazed slips and clay bodies reveal an organic texture, and the color and patterns you see and the textures you feel give you a more intimate experience where old memories are reflected and new ones are created.”
Daphne is a ceramic artist from Old Orchard Beach, Maine. She received her BFA in Studio Art with a concentration in ceramics from Hartwick College in May of 2017. Daphne currently holds one of the two positions for Artist in Residence for the 2018-2019 year. Along with creating learning and working to make a new body of work for her up coming solo show ‘Served’ in June of 2019, she also works at the center on a day to day bases. Maintaining the studio during open hours, which includes teaching weekly adult and kids classes, private lessons, running both gas and electric kilns, making glazes and helping other studio community members. After her residency at SCAC comes to an end she will be staying around the Saratoga area and continuing to create new work in hopes of pursuing a masters degree in ceramics or another residency in the coming year.