Anne Floche and Hans Vangsø: Parallel Paths

Click here for video from Hans Vansgø

Lucy Lacoste Gallery is pleased to present Anne Floche and Hans Vangsø:  Parallel Paths, April 2 — 30 in Concord MA.  These contemporary Danish ceramic artists are partners in life yet maintain separate studio practices.  Each has shown together and separately at Lucy Lacoste Gallery multiple times, introduced years ago to the Gallery by the Danish connoisseur, William Hull.  Form and color are important to both artists. Their work is harmonic together, though their sensibilities are quite different.

Anne Floche is a bold maker with subtle humor.  She is a minimalist whose forms are primarily hand-built, square edged and architectural. Central to this exhibition is a series of monolithic Tall Bottles in varying sizes and hues, often with an irreverent punch line of color at the bottom.  These can be grouped to form a contemporary cityscape or singularly displayed.  To Floche, clay is a broad canvas and glazes, engobes and slips are her paints.  This is especially demonstrated here with Floche’s flat clay Boards on which she playfully paints.

“My colors derive from terra sigillata.  I very much like the dryness of the engobes and the clay, desert-like, close to the chalk look of whitewashed walls. It is a very simple way of working and it rarely causes any problems technically. It is a language I can use freely; it allows me to concentrate on what I wish to say.” - Anne Floche

Hans Vangsø, is a master working in the Scandinavian lineage of bold simplicity, inspired by the Japanese ceramic tradition, the root and soul of ceramics. Yet he goes far beyond the classic, using unorthodox materials such as metal scraps, salt and seaweed, in repeated high temperature firings honed over the years.  Thus, he creates his own vocabulary of color and texture.  In this exhibition, a variation of blues and greens connect us to the Danish sky and landscape; fiery reds and blacks add excitement, with frothy whites washing over. 

Gutte Eriksen, one of the great originators of Danish studio ceramics and mentor and friend of Hans Vangsø once said, “it is so lovely to see the strength in his shapes; its lovely to see how wild he has been in his firings; and it’s lovely to see something in the pots you didn’t expect at all.”

As Garth Johnson, the noted authority on Danish ceramics and curator at the Everson Museum says, “Any contemporary Danish ceramicists have the conceptual chops to be able to think themselves into the future.” And that includes Anne Floche and Hans Vangsø.

The Opening Reception is Saturday April 2 with both Artists present.  Remarks are at 4:00 pm.  The Artist Talk is Sunday April 3, starting at 2:00 pm.  The public is cordially invited to attend both events.