Ceramics as sculptures at Mag:net Gallery

Mag:net Gallery Makati this month presents an exhibition of handmade ceramic pieces by three resident artists of the Pettyjon-Mendoza Pottery School. Entitled "Centering," this three-person exhibition will feature both functional and non-functional works by potters Pete Cortes, Monique Agatep-Ignacio and Hadrian Mendoza.

The show features around 20 pieces for each artist. Deriving its title from the initial stage of constructing a pottery piece, "Centering" becomes one in an emerging series of sculpture shows that aim to establish the medium as a legitimate means of artistic expression. Normally associated with casted tableware, objects that hold utilitarian and decorative purposes, ceramic art is a discipline long since undervalued and underappreciated. However, Mendoza, Agatep-Ignacio and Cortes, along with a small yet growing number of ceramic artists in the Philippines, are gradually attempting to dismantle archaic dichotomies between what constitutes art and craft.

Their handling of the medium presupposes a surge of internal discipline needed to sustain any artistic initiative. Clay is a material with soul, as they describe it. They recognize that apart from the numerous technical aspects of creating pottery, one has to be centered, psychologically and physically in order to create. The numerous variables at every stage of production that may positively or negatively affect the work furthermore makes the art of ceramic-making a "humbling experience," as Mendoza says.

Their first group exhibition together, "Centering" showcases their individual concerns as artists and potters. All strive for a keen awareness of aesthetics and form, trying to delineate an art where chance and intention, form and function intersect.

Known for his ceramic sculptures derived from bamboo forms, Mendoza now addresses concerns related to the structured abstraction made possible by the medium. In this series, for instance, Mendoza aims to produce fired stoneware forms that intentionally teeter on the verge of collapse, exhaustion, and suspension, as if attempting to make visible the gravitational pull of clay. Making stoneware slump on purpose, however, is not as facile as it seems, as the artist constructs his work while the clay is still wet. Cortes, meanwhile, continually attempts to deliver the "perfect throw," as he terms it. Still in the stage of honing his construction technique, Cortes has works that display a concern for incorporating and fusing forms derived from functional ceramics into new shapes and vessels. Agatep-Ignacio, meanwhile, is more inclined to do non-functional work that bears influences of abstraction, creating a terrain where seemingly random crackles, glaze drips, and shapes of forms result in visually interesting juxtapositions.

All three artists first met at the Pettyjohn-Mendoza Pottery School in Makati, where Cortes and Mendoza eventually devoted themselves to teaching full-time. Nobody probably plans to be a potter, they say, having been involved in vastly different disciplines before. A self-described "accidental potter," Cortes worked as a furniture design consultant before devoting himself full-time to ceramics, while Mendoza previously hopped from fine arts to other involvements before finding a formidable medium of expression in pottery. Monique Agatep-Ignacio, to date, still finds time to create ceramic works in between breaks as an advertising practitioner.

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"Centering" opens on February 12 at 6:30 p.m. at Mag:net Gallery Makati at the G/F, Paseo Center, Paseo de Roxas cor. Sedeno St., Makati City. It runs until February 28. For inquiries, call Malou at 410-0995, 817-7895 or e-mail magnet@info.com.ph.