New York, NY Clay was a travelling exhibition organized to focus on the new influx of ceramic artists flocking to New York City and what inner city studio and production issues they faced. The show featured 14 artists and it toured Norway for a year opening in major cities such as Olso, Bergen, Stavanger and Trondheim. It was an eclectic representation of young and mid-career artists and was a sampling of the work of those who live, work, and build their careers in the great city.

The show demonstrated that geography can play a significant role in the practical aspects of setting up a clay studio. For example, urban settings are often impractical locations for wood, Raku, salt, and sometimes even gas kilns. So the ceramic artist in New York City is often willing to suffer space constrictions, zoning ordinances, and other constraints upon working conditions as the price to pay for living and working in a city which both feeds and nourishes the mind and spirit.

Among the clay artists working there is a sense of community, a sort of verification of one's activity and support for it. The loneliness of working in the studio is sustained by the ability to step out of one's environment and instantly be a part of the urban excitement. There are always new exhibitions, restaurants, buildings, movies, concerts and theatre to change a mood, create a new perspective, inspire. And there is always the competitiveness which energizes and, if need be, the many ways to make a living to support the lean times.

Historically the primary form in clay, has, in the hands of James Makins, Raymon Elozua, Kathy Butterly and Matt Nolen, been reconfigured and redefined. Their vessels incorporate minimalist, conceptual, surrealistic, and narrative approaches to effectively extend the meaning of the object while providing a deeper, more contemporary understanding and set of associations.

Marylyn Dintenfass and Patricia Lay have responded to the more formal aspects of contemporary painting and sculpture and have used clay to express symbolic yet personal statements stimulated by their unique vision and the rich art resources of the city. Both artists work in ambitious scale, combining clay with steel and positioning their forms to play off the wall. While the expressive qualities of the clay are no doubt crucial to the viewers' engagement, it is the combination of the formal, technical, and conceptional aspects which define and give meaning to their work.

Arnold Zimmerman and Sana Musasama have exploited the organic aspects of a material which can be coiled, stroked, caressed and touched in ways which exude an emotional connection. Their gutsy, massive, deeply-carved surfaces intentionally show the hand of the artist while the scale of their forms pushes the boundaries of conventional notions of ceramics.

Carole Aoki and Shida Kuo's objects are intense spiritual icons, inspired by the sensual shapes of nature - abstractions of the geological and biological worlds. Their interpretations rely on texture, shape and nuance to solve, like primitive art, symbolic needs. They are simple, soft, evocative forms which affect powerful meaning and reconnect the viewer to the natural world - an event often missing in the concrete and technological world of today.

Finally there are those who work with clay to express intense personal experiences and associations and either engage the figure or make reference to the figure as recurrent themes. Lee Stoliar, Melissa Stern, Marek Cecula, and Toby Buonagurio each, in their own way, reflect involvement with psychological introspection, reflections of the inner self, powerful expressionism, and emotional content. Their work is often confrontational, audacious and provocative, with punky contemporary coloration, sensuously austere white slippery surfaces, or sometimes no surface color at all - just fired clay. Dream imagery, conscious and unconscious feelings, references to past lives, previous times - are all sources for their work. These artists perform their social function and reveal themselves for our enlightenment.

Bilingual English/Norwegian exhibition essay.