Organized by Arizona State University and traveled by Smith Kramer Fine Art Services, Innovation and Change highlights seventy-nine masterworks by many of the leading international artists of our time, offering a panoramic survey of the potential of clay as an expressive art form. The exhibition includes functional ware and expressive sculptural forms by such prominent artists as Robert Arneson, Rudy Autio, William Daley, Rick Dillingham, Eddie Dominguez, Viola Frey, Jun Kaneko, Michael Lucero, Nora Naranjo-Morse, Richard Notkin, Ken Price, Don Reitz, Chris Staley, Toshiko Takaezu, Akio Takamori, Peter Voulkos, and Betty Woodman.

Some of the artists started their careers when the studio movement in America was in its infancy. After World War II, there was renewed interest in the craft movement, with many universities establishing programs and more museums presenting ceramic works. Influenced by European modernist design, as well as Asian pottery traditions, emerging ceramic pioneers created a new American aesthetic.

During the 1960s, the craft field matured and prospered and paid homage to the value of functional pottery in everyday life. The real American revolution in clay, however, began under the charismatic leadership of Peter Voulkos who embraced and redefined the potential of clay as an innovative form of contemporary art. Voulkos, who started the ceramics program at Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles, attracted a nexus of students—including John Mason, Ken Price, and Jerry Rothman—that broke all boundaries. A new ceramic frontier was born.

The figure became a prominent foil for artistic expression in clay and witnessed a resurgence of interest in the 1960s, primarily from West Coast artists including Robert Arneson and Viola Frey. Arneson was widely known as the leader of the “Funk Movement,” which placed familiar objects in unfamiliar terrain. Frey, originally a painter, is recognized for her use of vivid color, dynamic texture, and themes that are autobiographical and gender-related.

With each ensuing generation new pioneers have been given voice within the ceramic idiom. Borrowing freely from different times and cultures, as well as being fluid between art mediums, they are not limited by past traditions.

The RMAC is proud to present Innovation and Change, a superior exhibition that serves to acknowledge the importance of our own studio ceramics program. Under the deft leadership of ceramics manager, Aria Finch, our program is known as one of the preeminent offerings of its kind, anywhere.