A catalog accompanies the exhibition with a statement by the artist about storytelling in her work. She states “It took me a long time to realize that paint could be as important as the words in the story. That I could do something with dramatic lighting that is as expressive and as clear as “ the princess saw the prince.” Further she states: When I tweak them, like Susanna in the Hammock—my Susanna, she’s an active participant. Everyone in the world has painted Susanna (and the Elders) and usually she’s painted either unaware of people looking at her, or huddled in a ball, a shamed maid with people poking at her. When I paint I get to put Susanna in a position where she’s relaxed, safe and guarded.

Roberta Smith wrote in 2018, “[Staver’s] scenes from Greek mythology and occasionally the Bible unfold with a combination of visual humor, fast, toothy brushwork and a complex allure that is new and entices you to look and look again, thinking through what’s  happening, in paint, compositions and story.” Though not strictly linear in their preparatory role- her works on paper elucidate the complex theater in the process and development Staver’s picture making.

Born and raised in Minnesota, Staver got her MFA from Yale University in 1987. In 2015, she was awarded the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship and the American Academy of Arts and Letters Purchase Prize. She is a member of the National Academy of Design. She had a solo exhibition at Galerie RX (Paris). She showed with Zürcher Gallery in 2020 in the Armory Show (New York), The American Academy of Arts and Letters (New York), The National Arts Club (New York), The McEvoy Foundation (San Francisco), and Portland Community College (Portland, Oregon). She showed with Zurcher Gallery in 2018 and 2020.

Catherine White: A Landscape of Form

In our rear gallery, SHFAP presents an exhibition of ceramics by Catherine White titled, A Landscape of Form. The show includes a selection of work  mostly from the June 2021 firing of her anagama kiln. The objects represent a pared down approach. The heat and ash in the wood kiln are interwoven with the forms of the objects to speak in a somber minimalist language.

Over the years White has combed museums and books for historical and contemporary sources of inspiration. This exhibit aims to sink below the radar of technical sophistication so that the objects exist as if found in nature exuding irregularities, variety and directness to motivate a user into appreciative creativity.

White describes her wood fired ceramics as a collaborative result of earth formed with her mind, touch, and the natural improvisation of glazing by heat and ash. The pots come to full fruition through the choice of clay, the forming of the shape, the stacking, the firing, the cooling of the kiln, and finally how they are used. This group of wood fired objects reflects a landscape of forms as well as a family of shapes with a multitude of possible uses. They could be used as markers for a memory, containers for food or flowers, or perhaps some personal ritual. Ceramics and use are aesthetically fused.

The anagama (hole or cave) kiln has a gentle slope which creates a strong natural draft as if a chimney were lying on its side. White fires the kiln with her husband and fellow ceramic artist Warren Frederick. It usually takes three days to stack the kiln. How objects are placed affects how the ash will flow and what markings will be created. There are stacks of plates with dust prints placed on the cooler sand floor. The large jars in the very front become partly covered by the large coal bed created during the firing. Other pots are upside down, often stacked on each other, leaving distinctive shadow markings from the collaborative deposits of natural ash. Ash carried by the long flame as it flows through the kiln adheres to the pots as they become molten hot. They compare the flow to a rapid coursing stream filled with boulders and rocks that cause the sediment to settle. Firings usually begin Friday morning after an overnight preheat. There is someone in constant attendance, feeding the proper amount of wood every fifteen to twenty minutes until sometime Sunday afternoon some 56 hours later. It takes one week for the kiln to cool before we can unstack. Each firing holds around 500 objects. Each firing engenders excitement and disappointment.

The exhibition also includes a small group of collaged paintings. White’s collaged paintings utilize the accumulated painted papers that are created as one component of her studio process. Pages of color, line and texture accumulate like fall leaves falling off trees. These accumulated pages are layered with glue and acrylic medium on wood panels. Sometimes they incorporate additional acrylic coatings of clay, local mud, or found ochre. The strips of paper often capture a geologic quality as if the visual language was part accretion and part abrasion. Layers are built up and then sanded, revealing patterns and surfaces that become ghosts of the clay work and reflections of wild material research.

Catherine White is a studio artist in Warrenton, Virginia. White has been in many exhibitions in fifteen states, most often exhibiting in New York City and Washington, DC. Her work is included in both the Renwick and Sackler Galleries of the Smithsonian in Washington, DC. Since 1983, she has had yearly commissions for OMEN, a Japanese restaurant in Soho, New York City (affiliated with OMEN, Kyoto, Japan). White has had commissions with the US Department of State for plates gifted by President Obama to Liberian President and Nobel Laureate Ellen Sirleaf, as well as tea canister gifts from First Lady Michele Obama for the 65th UN General Assembly.

White originally established a studio with her husband, Warren Frederick, in 1984 in Dayton, Maryland. They moved the studio and their home to Warrenton, Virginia in 1989. White teaches ceramics at the Corcoran College of Art + Design in Washington, DC. She has also taught ceramics at Penland School of Crafts, Penland, NC, American University, Washington, DC and Hood College, Frederick, Maryland. Her articles examining drawing, materials and failure have appeared in The Studio Potter.