Fiber Art & Ceramics At Fenn Gallery

WOODBURY — Fenn Gallery is presenting “reFORMations: New Forms from Ancient Techniques,” an exhibition of contemporary interpretations in fiber art by Paula Renee and ceramic sculpture by Robin Johnson. The show will be on view until October 29.

Ms Johnson aspires to achieve a timelessness in her forms that transcends those of conventional ceramics. Wood firing her work in the ancient Japanese tradition, she creates shapes that celebrate the elegance in the elemental; some are inspired by nature – a hornet’s nest, sea-worn shell fragments, and rippled sand.

Other forms recall ancient vessels or tools: an early Chinese bronze bell, a simple spade, or a bowl used in a Japanese tea ceremony. The bowl shape, Ms. Johnson reminds us, closely resembles the vessel from which man first drank: a cupped pair of hands.

Ms Johnson received her MA from Columbia University. She is a frequent speaker and workshop educator. Illustrations of her ceramics have been published, and her work is in the permanent collection of Yale University Art Gallery.

Recognized by The New York Times writer Betty Freudenheim as one of the nation’s 15 most innovative fiber artists, Ms Renee employs ancient knotting techniques in her work to create imaginative and colorful abstract compositions.

The exhibit will include her fiber art, along with a selection of tapestries hand woven of wool, linen, cotton, rayon, silk and sometimes metallic fibers.

Ms Renee is considered to be a visionary in her medium; her work is colorful and well composed, and invites the viewer to consider fiber art with fresh eyes. Her work is in more than 50 public collections and museums, and has also been featured in more than 30 publications.

Fenn Gallery, at 345 Main Street South, is open Thursday to Sunday from 11 am to 5 pm.

For more information call the gallery at 263-3449 or visit FennGallery.com.