50 Bowls, 50 States, 50 Woodfires, includes 50 porcelain bowls made by artist Elaine Olafson Henry. Each thrown bowl was made using the same amount of clay from the same clay block, the same building and shaping process, and the same glaze. Curious about the effects of firing circumstances in different environments, Henry sent a bowl to a ceramist in each of the 50 states to be woodfired. The resulting bowls are products of the types of wood and variety of kilns used (Anagama, Arch, Bourry Box, Noborigama, Tube, and Train), the length of firing, and temperature reached. Henry explains “…like the human story [where] we all start out as a blank slate…it’s what happens to the bowl in its lifetime that changes it. Each bowl tells a story of what it went through.” The bowls will be presented with technical details, including names of wood firing team members, providing insights into each collaboration and the various nuances acquired during the firing process.

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An Enduring Legacy is a comprehensive survey of the career of Peter Callas, an internationally renowned artist, and master of the Anagama kiln wood-firing process. Callas considers the Anagama kiln, “the centerpiece for experimentation that records the passage of time.” The exhibition showcases Callas’ experimentation and innovation over 30 years of creative production and includes expressionist ceramic sculptures, abstracted container forms, intimate tea bowls, and works on paper. A film about the artist will also be on view.

Born in New Jersey in 1951, Peter Callas graduated from the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, WA. Callas traveled to Japan in the 1970s, visiting ancient kiln sites and exploring wood-fired glazing techniques. While there, he also helped build a traditional Anagama wood kiln. His visit to Japan inspired him to build the first Anagama kiln used in North America in 1976, an early career accomplishment. Numerous accomplishments followed throughout his 50-year career. Callas worked with Peter Voulkos in the 1980s and 90s, producing some of the most important ceramics of the twentieth century. Callas has exhibited extensively in Museums around the world including at the Mashiko Museum of Ceramic Art (Japan), The Powerhouse Museum (Australia), and the Daum Museum of Contemporary Art. His work can be found in over 30 international collections, including the Gotoh Art Museum (Japan), the International Museum of Ceramic Art (Hungary), and the Minneapolis Museum of Art. He’s also the recipient of grants from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation (2018 and 2021) and the Windgate Foundation (2018).

Peter Callas: An Enduring Legacy is organized by the American Museum of Ceramic Art. An accompanying catalog, funded in part by a Windgate Foundation grant, includes essays by Jo Lauria, Glenn Adamson, and an artist biography by Glen Brown.

Join us for “laid-back beers that tap into your wild side” — stop in to enjoy locally crafted beer, art, and the live plants taking over our Beer Conservatory!

This First Friday we have a special meet and greet and beer launch party with Pet Resource Center of Kansas City staff for the Local Motive Honey Wheat Ale we brewed in collaboration. Every pint of the Local Motive Honey Wheat gives $2 back to support the Pet Resource Center’s mission of keeping pets and people together.

Also onsite will be Mom’s Empanadas with fresh, authentic Argentinian empanadas 5 – 9pm. They are awesome and have both meat and veggie options available!

There are those who will tell you that abstract art and contemporary art are the same thing. Though the terms are often used interchangeably, their meanings do differ. As our recent shows have shown, contemporary art is a classification of art. The classification of abstract art is not particular to any one period and that is the essential difference. Rather than describing a specific art movement, the phrase ‘abstract art’ is a very broad umbrella term encompassing a huge range of styles and approaches. Because abstraction first appeared in the early 20th century, the term is usually applied to modern and contemporary art made during and after this time, including the art of today. Modern art refers to the beginning of Impressionist period that happened around 1870 and were not always abstract. Thus the use of modern art to describe abstract art is a fallacy. Ultimately, the evolution of abstract art — like the evolution of modern art more broadly — has been a series of responses to the experience of life in the 20th and 21st centuries