Belger Crane Yard Gallery presents Holidays at the Belger Crane Yard Gallery opening Friday, November 4 at 2011 Tracy Avenue, Kansas City, MO 64108. The exhibition will remain on view through December 31, 2022.

Holidays at the Belger Crane Yard Gallery is an annual tradition. Artists from across the country are invited to create artwork for the holiday season that make the perfect gifts for family and friends. Shoppers can choose from an array of unique ceramics, glass, metal, and more. Artworks will be available for purchase through December 31, 2022.

This year’s artists include Rachel Akin, Miguel Alaniz, Nicole Aquillano, Ian Bassett, Conner Burns, Mike Cerv, Kate Clements, Josh Dickens, Chris Dufala, Genevieve Flynn, Annette Gates, Josh Goering, Bianka Groves, Pierce Haley, Katie Hogan, Annie Honn, Brian Horsch, Nell Hull, Tyler Kimball, Caroline Meek, Jacob Meer, Joe Meinecke, Didem Mert, Kelsey Nagy, Dan Ohm, Brent Pafford, Ashley Pedone, Ronan Peterson, Will Preman (Yum Yum Ceramics), Justin Rothshank, Jamin Shepherd, Lilah Shepherd, Melanie Sherman, Lauryl Sidwell, Amy Smith, Madeline Steimle, Mike Stumbras, Wanda Tyner, and more. For the most current list of participating artists please visit BelgerArts.org.

Passages includes more than 40 sculptures, prints, paintings, and drawings by Robert Stackhouse, all from the Belger Collection.

Stackhouse was born in Bronxville, NY, in 1942, and moved to Florida as a teenager. He was one of the first students enrolled at the University of South Florida and graduated with a degree in studio art in 1965. He later earned an MFA from the University of Maryland.

His two-dimensional artwork often documents large-scale outdoor sculptures that were created with his students and volunteers. Many of them were of a scale where visitors could enter and pass through the installations. Often A‑frame wooden structures, the sculptures were literal passageways through art. Frequent imagery in Stackhouse’s output includes boats and ships (reflecting earthly and spiritual passages) and snakes (symbolic of regeneration and death). He was also especially intrigued with the process of a snake shedding its skin and slithering away afresh.

Early in his career Stackhouse maintained an active studio in New York City, while commuting to Washington, D.C., to teach at the Corcoran School of Art, and working on outdoor sculpture events throughout the country. In the mid-1990s he moved to Kansas City, teaching at the Kansas City Art Institute, continuing to create outdoor installations locally. Stackhouse and his wife and collaborator, Carol Mickett, have resided in the Tampa area for two decades. They continue to work on national public installation projects involving volunteers during the fabrication and installation process.

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.

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.

Holiday events and gift-giving are just around the corner! To add a bit of sparkle to the season, I would like to invite you to a holiday celebration at my Kansas City Crossroads Sculptural Jewelry studio on Friday, 12.2.22. My showroom will be open from 6:00 to 10:00 pm for those wanting to shop for gifts.