Exciting Art Exhibit

Renowned clay artist Mark Gordon is the featured artist at Sunset River Marketplace this month.

Mark Gordon, formerly the associate professor of art and design at Barton College in Wilson, North Carolina, will be the featured artist at Sunset River Marketplace in Calabash from Wednesday, December 2 through Saturday, January 9, 2021.

“Mark’s work is exciting and organic, and I’m thrilled to show it here at the gallery,” says gallery owner Ginny Lassiter. “Included in the show will be a number of Mark’s innovative cube spheres, which are assembled ceramic sculptures made in a unique clay-working technique that Mark calls ‘dry-wet-dry.’”

The process, according to Gordon, is this: “The bone-dry modules and inner matrix form are united with a ‘mortar’ of wet clay, and then quickly dried. The clay mixture includes a large percentage of sawdust to decrease shrinkage, as well as to provide a rough surface for adhesion. The finished clay piece is fired to 2,300 F and then fired again to 2,100 F with the glaze.”

Gordon received his Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and Physical Education from Oberlin Collect in Ohio and an MFA in Studio Art from Ohio State University. He has worked in clay for 45-plus years, and his work is exhibited regionally and nationally in galleries, universities and museums.

The artist has traveled to 24 different countries to document pottery-making traditions throughout the Mediterranean and Caribbean. Fluent in Spanish, he was a 1991 Fulbright lecturer at the Universidad Nacional in Obera, Argentina. He has given clay-work demonstrations in Caracas, Cairo, Madrid, Amakusa (Japan), Jerusalem and La Romana (Dominican Republic).

Photographs of Gordon’s work have appeared in American Ceramics; Ceramics Monthly; the New York Times; American Craft; Clay Times; The Journal of Ceramic Trends and Technique; Revista Internacional (Spain); and Ceramics: Art and Perception. He was featured in a career interview and images of his work were included in the 2010 Davis Publications textbook Experience Clay by Maureen Mackey. His work was also featured on a 2009 cover of PotteryMaking Illustrated with the article “Pushing the Envelope” on his process of wet/dry assembly.

Other selected honors include the Lincoln Financial Excellence in Teaching Award, Barton College, 2018; lecture-demonstration, Amakusa Maruo Pottery, Kumamoto, Japan, 2018; Core Grant Review Committee, Fulbright Commission, Council for International Exchange of Scholars, 2013 to present.

Located in coastal Brunswick County, Sunset River Marketplace caters to both tourists and a growing local community of full-time residents seeking fine art for their homes and businesses. Featuring work by approximately 150 North and South Carolina artists, the eclectic gallery is well known in the area for its collection of oil paintings, watermedia, pastels, photography, hand-blown glass, fused glass, pottery and clay sculptures, turned and carved wood, unique home décor items and artisan jewelry. Two onsite kilns and five wheels are used by the gallery’s pottery students. Art classes are currently being offered on a limited basis. Call the gallery for details.

Special COVID 19 Notice: To meet North Carolina State mandates, Sunset River Marketplace requires that patrons wear face coverings and requires the use of hand sanitizer plus 6-foot social distancing between gallery visitors and at the cash register. The gallery staff conducts thorough cleaning of surfaces upon opening and closing and during the day and has placed complimentary hand sanitizer throughout the gallery for visitor use.

Want to go?
Mark Gordon Exhibit
December 2 to January 9
Monday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Sunset River Marketplace
10283 Beach Drive SW, Calabash
(910) 575-5999
sunsetrivermarketplace.com