Shanna Fliegel: Artifacts of Circumstance June 27 - July 18, 2009 Opening Reception: Saturday, June 27, from 6-8pm VIEW ONLINE EXHIBITION Clay Art Center is proud to present Shanna Fliegel: Artifacts of Circumstance, a solo exhibition featuring narrative sculpture and drawings by Clay Art Center 2008-09 artist-in-residence Shanna Fliegel. Marking her residency experience, this body of work explores times past and what is yet to come. The exhibit, held in the Choy Gallery and Henry’s Project Space, will run from June 27 - July 18, 2009 with an opening reception on Saturday, June 27, from 6-8pm.   Admission is free. Shanna Fliegel’s narrative figurative sculptures are three-dimensional extensions of her evocative and expressive drawings on clay.  She entered graduate school in 2005 as a potter and a painter, combining these two talents to create fabulous functional items with a narrative surface.  She emerged from graduate school, however, a full blown sculptor, constructing works where her animal-human characters come to life amid imaginary environments. While functional pottery and wall tablets are still part of her visual vocabulary, her sculpture manifests most strongly her desire to preserve that which is now, and therefore that which might be lost in the future.  Commenting on our “fragile essence,” Shanna’s pieces are a product of a “certain time,” depicting animals and landscapes that may not even exist in the future.    About her work Shanna Fliegel states, “The surrealistic nature of dreams and childhood memories motivate the manifestation of the drawn, sculpted, and painted images and forms within my work.  I intend for image, color and clay to exist as a harmonious vehicle that can generate stories for the viewer.    “By combining the parts of horses, rabbits, insects, birds, and other various animals with human components I attempt to shape anthropomorphized characters within the fantasy worlds that once dictated our childhood thoughts.  Absurdity and humor are themes that circulate throughout situations I illustrate.    “Beyond the bizarre, I also question the disposition of contemporary society’s relationship and or disconnect with both wild and domesticated animals.  By chronicling the threatened and easily forgotten creatures that make up the natural world through drawn and figurative forms I hope to preserve their fragile essence as permanent artifacts.”    Shanna Fliegel received her MFA in Ceramics from Southern Illinois University in 2008. Since her BFA from James Madison University in 2001, she has exhibited her work widely, had her work featured in several publications and has received several awards. Most recently she was chosen as an “Emerging Artist” in the May 2009 issue of Ceramics Monthly.