Gagosian often stages presentations at art fairs that are as much exhibition as fair booth. For the 11th iteration of artgenève in Switzerland the gallery has curated a joint presentation by two leading contemporary artists - Edmund de Waal (b. 1964) and Theaster Gates (b. 1973).
De Waal and Gates are both showing ceramics, and presenting the two artists in dialogue offers a great opportunity for the visitor to, in effect, have three experiences - one from each artist individually, and a third from their interaction with each other. It is especially interesting with two artists as close in material, and yet divergent in approach and technique, as Gates and de Waal. Both of the artists are well-versed in the venerable and established traditions of the medium, and yet they have worked to take them in quite different directions.
De Waal’s delicate handmade porcelain objects - often vessels and often presented in larger groupings of small mise-en-scène sets - are in a lot of ways deliberately “presented”, continuing a theme of his work as an examination of collecting and collections. His presentations focus on the experience of, and the appreciation for, the individual objects - though collaboration has been at the heart of his practice for decades. He has said that “clay is poetry” and, perhaps drawn from his education “at the feet” as he says of potters in Japan, he produces work which exudes a transcendent emotion. The result offers an appreciation that goes beyond the physicality of each piece.
Gates - himself no stranger to collaboration - takes a somewhat different route. Producing glazed stoneware which draws its being from African methodologies as well as Japanese folk-craft. Indeed, he has used the term “Black Mingei”. Gates first worked with clay at Iowa State University in the US before going on to train in Tokoname, Japan, a city famous for its pottery manufacture. Fusing various influences, Gates brings together Japanese philosophy and Black identity to produce ceramics that carry a similar delicacy - and import - to de Waal’s while physicalising these facets into bolder individual pieces, the apparent simplicity of which belies their roots in a ritual - he talks of “sermons about ceramics” - significance, which recognises and examines the labor, craft, art, and material experimentation that is inherent in ceramic as a medium.
“Ceramics hold a special significance in Geneva, especially given the proximity to the Musee Ariana. So this elegant, dual presentation of these two influential artists has been met with great enthusiasm” - Johan Nauckhoff, Director, Gagosian Geneva
Artgenève runs from January 26-29. There is also a video of the two artists discussing their work and their approaches (link here) which is a beautiful way to spend half an hour immersed in their world - as Gates has said “I feel like I have a soulmate in ceramics”.
picture credits: Edmund de Waal “we live here, forever taking leave, I”, 2022 © Edmund de Waal, photo: Stephen White & Co, courtesy Gagosian; Theaster Gates “Untitled (Ceremonial Vessel)”, 2022 © Theaster Gates, photo: Annik Wetter, courtesy Gagosian
