Opening Reception for A Chosen Path: The Ceramic Art of Karen Karnes

January 28 from 5PM to 7PM Opening Reception A Chosen Path: The Ceramic Art of Karen Karnes  - Free with Museum Membership or Museum Admission . For more than 60 years, Karen Karnes (1925 - ) has been at the forefront of the studio pottery movement. Over her long career, she has created some of the most iconic pottery of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. She has worked at some of the most significant cultural settings of her generation including North Carolina's avant-garde Black Mountain College in the 1950s.

Karnes and her then husband, David Weinrib, were invited in 1952 to head the ceramics program at Black Mountain College. While at Black Mountain College, Karnes sold her pieces through the Allanstand Shop, now part of the Southern Highland Craft Guild. After two years, the couple left Black Mountain and moved to Stony Point, New York. Karnes is noted for her functional pieces as well as her organic sculptural forms. Since 1983, Karnes and her partner, Ann Stannard, have lived on a farm in Vermont.

This exhibition was organized by Arizona State University Art Museum Ceramics Research Center, Tempe, Arizona, and curated by Curator of Ceramics Peter Held. A handsome exhibition catalogue with essays by Christopher Benfey, Garth Clark, Jody Clowes, Peter Held, Janet Koplos, Edward Lebow and Mark Shapiro is available for purchase in the Museum Shop. The exhibition is traveling to only five museums, including the Asheville Art Museum.