'MUCK' exhibit showcases new trends in ceramic art

6:30-8:30 p.m., Feb. 14
ASU Art Museum season opening reception

“MUCK: Accumulations, Accretions and Aggregations,” featuring the art of seven contemporary ceramic sculpture artists, opens at the ASU Art Museum Feb. 15.

The exhibition, curated by Peter Held, will feature more than 20 works of art from both previous and new bodies of work by Susan Beiner, Nathan Craven, Michael Fujita, David Hicks, Annabeth Rosen, Meghan Smythe and Matt Wedel.

On view in the Top Gallery at the ASU Art Museum’s 10th Street and Mill Avenue location through May 31, MUCK will showcase sculpture that pushes the boundaries of both technical virtuosity and arresting visual imagery.

Each artist in the exhibition creates work that deals with incorporating a diversity of objects to create a cohesive whole, says Held. The artists in MUCK combine potent elements of labor, scale, material and the innate sensuality of clay and glaze to address concerns of environmental peril and searching for a humanistic balance in a seemingly all-consuming technological culture.

“United by their visually stunning work, the artists presented in MUCK invoke pure joy in the medium, creating order from chaos while confronting issues of personal growth and transformation,” Held explains. “Whether using repetitive shapes to create patterns or assembling a multiplicity of objects metaphorically, their work reflects upon the natural world and human condition, and our place within it.”

An opening reception for the exhibition will take place from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m, Feb. 14 (with a members, alumni and press preview from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.). In addition, curator Peter Held will give a gallery tour of the exhibition and lecture at 6:30 p.m., April 8. Both events are free and open to the public.

MUCK: Accumulations, Accretions and Aggregations is generously supported by the Helme Prinzen Endowment, Joan and David Lincoln and members of Ceramic Leaders at ASU, and organized by the ASU Art Museum, part of the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University.