Tony Marsh: New Work

Frank Lloyd Gallery
Santa Monica, CA
Sept.5-Oct. 3, 2009

Tony Marsh gets down to basics in his new ceramic sculptures, subject of a solo show at Frank Lloyd Gallery. These are organic, primordial forms reimagined and rendered with unusual skill and soul into polished, modern artifacts that invite us to contemplate—dare we say it?–the meaning of life, or at least life’s elemental properties and processes: germination and growth, reproduction and mutation, in and out.

Marsh studied ceramics at California State University, Long Beach (where he’s been teaching now since 1987), and at Alfred University in New York State. In between, he spent three formative years in Japan as an apprentice to the master potter Shimaoka Tatsuzo, an influence evident in his deep understanding of the vessel, reverence for nature and meditative approach to handwork.

Spare and elegant, with a warm bone-white finish, the 13 still lifes are his latest explorations in a signature series of Perforated Vessels, thin-walled containers that he forms and then, when the clay is leather-hard, meticulously hand-drills with a tight, allover pattern of perfect little holes to create a porous skin or membrane. Ethereally translucent, these pieces wear their maker’s technical finesse lightly and have a sturdy integrity despite being literally half gone.

Each sculpture consists of an open, basketlike container in a symmetrical curved shape (sphere, ovoid, cylinder, scalloped half shell) filled with–or in some cases sprouting on the surface—a variety of smaller vessels that suggest seed pods, gourds, microbes, molecules and other odd, but oddly familiar, abstracted natural forms. The vessels-within-a-vessel are especially engaging; seen from above, nestled together, they’re like an exotic archaeological find, inviting study and play (hand-size and tabletop-scale, they’re meant to be picked up, pondered and rearranged at will). From the side, the commingling of semitransparent bodies in the deeper containers reads as a kind of sonogram, revealing soft, mysterious dimensions of shape and volume.

On the surface, the interplay of perforations and contours allows for some delightful effects, as subtle tones and intricate, moiré patterns emerge with each shift of light or perspective. As splendid as these pieces look in a bright gallery on a sunny Southern California day, one can’t help but visualize the possibilities of different lighting scenarios. Dramatically enhancing shadow and contrast would no doubt take the experience up a couple of notches. Then again, by a window at dusk would be quite satisfying, too.