Pictured: Ashwini Bhat, Imprinted [series], Laurel Oak Hollow [sculpture], 2021. Glazed ceramic sculpture. 10 x 5 x 1.5 inches.
| On View: | January 8–May 1, 2022 |
| Artist Reception: | January 8, 2022 • 3-5 PM (Pacific) |
| Virtual Artist Talk: | January 22, 2022 • Noon (Pacific) |
Exhibition Overview
Since 2016, the American Museum of Ceramic Art (AMOCA) has partnered with the Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery at Scripps College to produce exhibitions of works by the guest curators of the Scripps College Ceramic Annual. In January of 2022, curator Ashwini Bhat will curate On Fire: Contemporary Trailblazers for the 77th Scripps College Ceramic Annual. Opening earlier in the month in the Vault Gallery at AMOCA, the exhibition Ashwini Bhat: IMPRINTED, Assembling California will debut a new body of work comprising sculptures, photographs, and a video work that are based in direct experiences with the California landscape.
From the Artist
“The eye sees what it is trained to see.”
“A thousand details add up to one impression.”
—John McPhee
The Assembling California series is a documentation of my personal, artistic field survey of California’s ecology in this time of climate change, shifting habitats, and devastating forest fires. As a new immigrant to California, deeply touched by its diverse and fragile natural environments, I found myself and my studio practice drawn—historically, culturally, physiographically—to this region’s topographies. Some of my research has taken place in the company of biologists and poets documenting species re-inhabiting post-fire sites in the Sierras, Yosemite, Mono Lake, and around Sonoma. Related explorations and research about large-scale forces, geological time, and interrelated symmetries have led to this current and ongoing body of sculpture, installation, photography, and video. To imprint is to mark by pressure, stamp; to impress on the mind or memory. I see the Assembling California series as an act of mapping and remapping, contributing to a spiritual or a psychological archive, with a strong contemplation of place. Imprinted is an archive of the insides that aren’t necessarily visible, a collective of impressions of the places or textures or objects or the environment on us.
Related Media
Artist Talk with Ashwini Bhat
Saturday, January 22, 2022 • 12–1 PM • Virtual
About the Artist
Ashwini Bhat, born in Puttur, Karnataka, in southern India, currently lives and works in the San Francisco Bay Area, California. Bhat holds a masters degree in literature from Bangalore University and brings over a decade of experience in classical dance to her artistic practice. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and can be seen in collections at the Newport Art Museum, USA; Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park, Japan; FuLe International Ceramic Art Museum, China; the Watson Institute at Brown University, USA; New Bedford Historical Society, USA; Daugavpils Mark Rothko Centre, Latvia; and in many private collections. Bhat is a recipient of the McKnight Foundation Residency Fellowship and the Howard Foundation Award for Sculpture.
Learn more at AshwiniBhat.com or follow her on Instagram.
The 77th Scripps College Ceramics Annual
Pictured: David Katz, Moratorium (detail), 2018. Rescued chairs and clay. 168 x 84 x 60 inches.
| On View: | January 29–April 10, 2022 at the Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery at Scripps College |
| Reception: | January 29, 7–9 PM • Featuring live music and light refreshments at the Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery at Scripps College |
The Scripps Ceramic Annual at the Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery, now in its 77th year, is the longest running ceramic annual in the country. This year, curator Ashwini Bhat brings together artists in the exhibition On Fire: Contemporary Trailblazers that are “revisioning the possibilities for [clay].” Participating artists include Ebitenyefa Baralaye, Sharbani Das Gupta, Nicki Green, Julia Haft-Candell, Kahlil Robert Irving, Anabel Juárez, David Katz, Sahar Khoury, Nathan Lynch, Annabeth Rosen, Nicole Seisler, Anna Sew Hoy, and Linda Sormin. This exhibition features an illustrated catalog with an essay by writer Leah Ollman.
The Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery at Scripps College is located at 251 E 11th St, Claremont, CA 91711. The gallery is open Wednesday through Sunday from 12 to 5 PM during exhibition dates. More information can be found on the gallery’s website or by calling (909) 607-3397.