Clay Art Center

 

About her work, Jill Oberman states, “I find it interesting that all people universally establish protective structures, both architecturally and psychologically.  In exploring ways that people relate to each other through these structures, I am investigating the tension revealed in the spaces between objects.  The artwork focuses on architectural ideas of structure, reinforcement, support, and points of access, as they relate to more personal issues of attachment, affinity, opposition, and patterns of experience.

 

“My most recent work highlights the natural world, and the elusive space of the horizon; the contact point where the earth meets the sky, or the sky meets the water. This work also explores the idea of an "absent presence".  I hope to express that with unavoidable loss, while we may suffer, we also persevere. My sculptures attempt to convey a sense that the horizon might also be a point of restoration: a space where there is a convergence between expectation, destiny, desire, hopelessness, distance, and vision.”

 

Jury Smith states, “My principle work is comprised of hand-built process-driven earthenware sculpture. The purpose of my methodology is to allow process to ignite and direct the conceptual framework. By subscribing to and altering methods and systems in my art making practice, the work is given the structure needed to evolve slowly over time. Building methods or surface elements might seem somewhat arbitrary, but they actually embody a series of meaningful relationships (e.g. source/origin & outcome; call & response; thought & craft; desire & defeat).

“I am interested in the effects of repetition in tradition and practice. My vision is to make work that is directed at this passing of time, and expresses a stillness that seems to float. Overall, I intend to use tradition and practice to encourage a sense of humanity in my work.”

 

Jill Oberman is currently the Executive Director of the Clay Studio of Missoula in Missoula, Montana.  She has worked as the Programs and Administration Director at the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts in Helena, Montana, and the studio manager of the ceramics program at the Anderson Ranch Art Center in Snowmass Village, Colorado.  Jill earned her MFA from the Rochester Institute of Technology School for American Crafts in Rochester, New York, and her BA from Hamilton College in Clinton, New York. She has been a resident artist at the Anderson Ranch, the Archie Bray Foundation, Arrowmont School for Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan, the Sonoma Community Center in Sonoma, California, and the Armory Art Center in West Palm Beach, Florida.  While in her studio Jill focuses on creating minimal, architectural ceramic sculptures that have been widely exhibited throughout the United States, as well as sharing her passion of ceramics through conversation with anyone and everyone who will listen.

 

A native of New York, Jury Smith studied ceramics at Tyler School of Art and Sanboa Ceramic Art Institute in China. Her work has been exhibited in museums and galleries both nationally and internationally, at such places as the Fleisher Art Memorial (Philadelphia), Jingdezhen University (China), the Clay Studio (Philadelphia), Artists Space (NYC), and Blutenweiss Gallery (Germany). In 2010, Smith was featured as an Emerging Artist in Ceramics Monthly, and she was recently selected as a finalist for the Gyeonggi International Ceramix Biennale 2011 in South Korea. She currently teaches visual art at Saint Joseph’s University with a focus on ceramics.  Smith is represented by Tercera Gallery in Palo Alto, California and Snyderman-Works Gallery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.