Art Reviews: Clay's in play in Shadyside shows

Tuesday, February 13, 2001

By Eve Modzelewski

In the 1950s, ceramic artists started using their creations as aesthetic canvases instead of functional vessels. Influenced by Abstract Expressionists, many clay artists made a drastic shift away from the utilitarian and toward purely decorative and artistic styles of ceramics.

		Denise Bergevin's "The Thirteenth Faerie," at Mendelson Gallery. (Robin Rombach, Post-Gazette)

This month in Shadyside, clay is the medium of choice, with three separate galleries showcasing the material in forms that are decorative and sculptural.

Both malleable and sturdy, clay is the perfect medium for local artist Dennis Bergevin's works of self-discovery at Mendelson Gallery. His provocative show, "Faces From a Queer Journey/Works in Clay," includes sculptured faces that are simultaneously chimerical and realistic.

Bergevin has used his ceramic work as a method of coping with the emotional and physical symptoms of AIDS, which he was diagnosed with in 1991. In his artist's statement, he describes his pieces as a reflection of his soul: "Both harsh and comic, serious and fanciful, it sings of who I am."

"Thirteenth Faerie" is one of Bergevin's allegorical and androgynous faces, dominated by an indignant expression. Horns protrude from each side of the rounded, highly textured clay head, and the figure stares at itself in a wall-mounted mirror framed with gold leaf, which the artist also created.

A former makeup artist for opera in New York City, Bergevin is intimately familiar with the nuances of the human face, and that shines through in his work. He has a striking ability to capture very real emotions.

While the pieces are not anatomically realistic -- their necks are elongated and the foreheads are shortened -- the sensibilities conveyed through the facial gestures are highly authentic. Skepticism, indignation and confusion are brilliantly captured in the organic clay forms.

His "Oberon: King of the Faeries" is an enraged and resenting presence. Peering out through slitted eyes and with a sour expression on the mouth, the figure is extremely reactive, and the phallic imagery atop its scalp makes it even more so.

While most of his pieces are not meant to be functional, Bergevin includes a series of goblets and teapots he created with human limbs protruding from them. The works are playful and silly in contrast with his more serious sculptures.

Bergevin also mixes textures in his works. Some parts of the pieces are of porous, bare clay, while other parts are sealed with a glaze. He continually maximizes the tactile quality of his ceramics, which accentuates the unique quality of the medium.

The show runs through Feb. 24. Also showing are pastel artist Filomena Coppola and sculptor Richard Claraval. Call 412-361-8664.

Cleveland artist Megan Sweeney at The Clay Place Gallery in Shadyside uses a similar approach in her works, emphasizing the texture of the clay over the shape of the form.

The hair on several of her almost-human sculptures is made of thick, serpentine locks. Sweeney creates this effect in her "Mermaid with Catfish Pets" and in "Portrait of a Lady," a colossal head tilted back in reflectiveness.

Her works, like Bergevin's, have an allegorical quality, and "Head with Encircling Birds" best describes that tendency with its large-scale head that has small birds clinging to its scalp instead of hair. The same theme is addressed in "Woman with Ape Inside," an imposing sculpture of a contemporary woman with the figure of an ape hiding in her hollowed-out abdomen. The piece brings to mind thoughts of evolution, fertility and femininity. The nondescript woman grasps the primate's shoulder with a motherly touch; the ape reciprocates with an equally caring gesture.

Most works in the show were created during Sweeney's residency at the Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis. "Megan Sweeney: Ceramic Sculpture" runs through March 28. Call 412-682-3737.

At Gallerie Chiz, ceramics have a more utilitarian purpose with Ron Korczynski's "Ceramics: Exuberant Expressions in 3-D."

Though the low-fired, white earthenware pieces are of very traditional ceramic forms -- teapots and bowls -- the regional artist's surface designs are anything but conventional.

Swarming in web-like schemes around each teapot, busy lines of color seem defiant against the functional shape of the vessels. Korczynski uses the clay surface as a painter's canvas. His painted glaze forms are cartoon-like and jolly, with no attempt at pretentiousness. In fact, he even includes several clay airplanes that look like child's toys.

But the sexual imagery on the lids of the teapots seems incongruent with the vessels' domestic function, which makes them all the more intriguing.

Korczynski has an obvious love for ceramics, as he explains in his artist's statement:

"I cannot properly put into words the feel of the clay in my hands, the 'growth' of the pots as they change from a shapeless mass into a bowl, casserole or vase, the look of the dry glazes as I decorate, the touch and visual experience of the work as it comes from the kiln."

His pulsating, bright clay works fit in perfectly among the other two artists showing at Gallerie Chiz: Renee Dupree works in equally vibrant mixed media, and Mark Weber's paintings reference comic books and Zen landscapes. All three artists' shows run at Gallerie Chiz through Feb. 24. Call 412-441-6005.

Eve Modzelewski is a free-lance writer and former Post-Gazette intern.

See another article on Megan Sweeney.