Bryan Hunt: Clay

From June 30 through July 25, 2011, The Drawing Room in East Hampton is pleased to present "Bryan Hunt: Clay." Concurrently, Bryan Hunt‘s earlier bronze sculpture and related drawings are on view at Guild Hall.

Bryan Hunt’s new work in dark clay comprises a spirited collection of small scale, richly textured and glazed vessels. Embracing the spontaneity that hand-building affords, Hunt has invented an eccentric group of sculptural forms, many of which echo the fluid, cascading movement of his large cast bronze waterfalls now at Guild Hall. Leaning and twisting and falling in space, the earlier monumental bronzes manifest gravity as a sheer force of nature. Small Twist II, a majestic bronze also from the late 1970s, will be on view in The Drawing Room garden. By contrast and with a grace of their own, the new smaller ceramic forms are quirky and humble vessels full of personality and humor. This rare opportunity to see the range of Hunt’s expressive forms in three vastly different media in two East Hampton venues is not to be missed.

Marked by the immediacy inherent in Hunt’s direct process, some of these delicate, anthropomorphic ceramic forms evoke mythological chalices and ancient Chinese bronzes. Among the wide range of familiar silhouettes in this body of work 4 to 11 inches tall are teapots, bowls, Greek libation vessels and art nouveau steel work. Even Paul Gauguin's earthly organic clay forms and George Orr’s glazes come to mind. With free association and direct hand building in dark clay Hunt finds a new occasion to explore his love of drawing through a broad array of incising and glazing techniques that enliven and animate the surfaces of these wondrous works in clay.

See below for full press release and selected works.