Abel Contemporary Gallery Exhibits

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courtesy Abel Contemporary Gallery

A ceramic work by Sandra Byers

media release: February 27-April 11, 2021: Abel Contemporary Gallery presents Meticulous: Reid Schoonover and Sandra Byers; Clever Birds; and Carryon by Cate Richardson in no. 5.

Due to the health risks posed by the Covid 19 Pandemic, we will not be hosting an in-person reception. A virtual opening took place on Feb. 27 for Reid Schoonover and Sandra Byers. We will broadcast a virtual opening for Clever Birds on Saturday, March 20, at 1pm through Facebook Live and our website, abelcontemporary.com. The reception will include a virtual walkthrough of the show installed in the gallery and conversation with the artists in their studios. We will talk about the inspiration and process behind some of the many pieces in the show, and will take questions form the audience.

Meticulous: Reid Schoonover and Sandra Byers

Wisconsin based artists, Reid Schoonover and Sandra Byers, create meticulously crafted semi-functional ceramics. Schoonover’s highly tactile works are reminiscent of implements used in East Asian Tea Ceremonies, using a variety of woods in tandem with traditional Shino glazed, wood fired ceramics. Byers’s exceedingly delicate hand-built porcelain sculptures and vessels reference forms found in nature, elevating minute organic details through careful observation. 

Clever Birds: Group Show

Few creatures have captured human imagination like those belonging to the Corvidae Family. These highly intelligent and social birds are among the only animals who have been observed making and using tools, and participating in complex rituals and games, owing in part to their incredible brain to body ratio, rivaled only by great apes and whales. While most are familiar with the largest species in this group, crows and ravens, their smaller cousins, jays, rooks, jackdaws, nutcrackers, and magpies too possess the family’s unique intelligence and curiosity. Their ubiquity, being found on every continent and climate with the exception of the polar icecaps, has also given corvids a special place in our collective consciousness, playing a significant role in nearly every culture’s mythology and folklore. This exhibition features work in all media inspired by birds in the Corvidae family. Artists in this exhibition include Barry Roal Carlsen, Craig Clifford, Mary Hood, Kelli Hoppmann, Richard Jones, Lynne Hobaica, John S. Miller, Ryan Myers, Wendy Olson, Tim O’Neill, Allan Servoss, Jonathan Wilde, Kelly Connole, Debbie Kupinsky, and Erica Schlueter. 

In no. 5: Carryon by Cate Richards  

Cate Richards creates objects that work in tandem with the body, often treating the human form as a landscape in its own right, pulling notions from ritual, history, and the sublime. Her work is an exploration into how human products such as war, worship, and survivalist culture can both transform and fail to transform the natural landscape and the human body.