“Vessels of Possibility” Art Exhibition to Open This Friday at BPL
If you were a blade of grass or a tiny flower
I will pitch my tent in your shadow.
Only your presence revives my withered heart.
You are the candle that lights the whole world
and I am an empty vessel for your light.
– Rumi, 13th-century Islamic poet
A new exhibition of works by Alabama potter Larry Allen, Vessels of Possibility, opens at the Central Library today, Friday, December 6. Inspired by Native American and African designs, Allen delicately carves decorative details onto the surface of his wheel-thrown vessels in a process known as sgraffito. A selection of Allen’s intricately embellished stoneware will be on view in the Lobby Gallery through Friday, February 28.
“I am moved by Native American and African designs. I use them as a springboard for my designs. The aftermath of 911 gave me the message that I wanted to put in my work. The tragic event was a unifying moment, and so I use the message of the moment in my designs. I call them ‘unity motifs.’ People linked together around the vessel.”
Larry Allen has worked as an artist for the past 35 years, honing his wheel-throwing and glazing techniques, ceaseless in his enthusiasm for stoneware and the infinite possibilities of his craft. Born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama, he received a B.A. degree in Art from Berea College in Kentucky in 1978. Allen has an art studio in Leeds, Alabama, where he resides.
All Allen’s pottery is wheel-thrown and primarily involves the technique of sgraffito, a sophisticated method of incising designs onto leather-hard clay that has been completely covered with a colored slip, or clay solution. Allen’s stoneware is made of a special black clay.
After the vessels are formed they are covered with a slip solution that is mixed. After the slip has stiffened on the vessel it is covered with a wax coating, which allows him to carve designs into the clay. The vessels are bisque-fired, and the interior is glazed and fired again to maturity. In the final stage, Allen highlights each piece with a low-fire red glaze and refires each piece.
Allen’s work has been exhibited across the United States and figures in the permanent collection of the Birmingham Museum of Art. In 2007 one of Allen’s vases was presented as a gift to Pulitzer Prize-winning author Harper Lee on behalf of the Alabama State Council of the Arts. In 2008, one of his pieces was offered as a gift to Liberia's first woman president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
Learn more about Larry Allen and his work at www.larryallenpottery.com and by checking out this Birmingham Times article.
The majority of works featured in Vessels of Possibility are for sale. The artist receives 100% of all sales but may make a contribution to the Friends Foundation of the Birmingham Public Library to support the Art for Everyone exhibition series. This exhibition is made possible by a grant awarded to the Friends Foundation of BPL by the Alabama State Council on the Arts.
To see Vessels of Possibility, please stop by the Central Library anytime during regular business hours. The exhibition is free and open to the public.
By Margaret Splane, Library Assistant III
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