Visions In Clay 2023
Kenneth Baskin
Kenneth Baskin received his BFA from College for Creative Studies in Detroit, Michigan and earned his MFA from University of South Carolina. Presently he holds the position of Professor of Art/Ceramics at McNeese State University in Lake Charles, Louisiana.
Baskin has presented ceramic workshops, lectures about his work and exhibited his ceramic sculptures in solo and group exhibitions both nationally and internationally.
Some of his honors include receiving the emerging artist award by the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA), a solo exhibition of his ceramic sculptures at the Taipei County Yingge Ceramics Museum, Taipei, Taiwan, participation as a visiting artist, workshop instructor and lecturer at the Tainan National University of the Arts in Tainan, Taiwan and the National Taiwan University of the Arts in Taipei. Baskin’s work has also been included in numerous books and journals.
The investigative properties of the Mechanical Movements series are focused upon the mechanical objects or artifacts derived from the advent of the industrial revolution. Through our capacity for invention the anatomy of the machine, laying bare its individual yet integrated mechanical components, became the means of mass production and an accelerant in the performance of human tasks. This interdependence of humans and machines altered cultural conceptions and the two became intimately conjoined.
Within this current body of work, I am exploring the integration of actual and abstracted machine parts into homologous interrelationships. Metaphorically, my sculptures reflect aspects of these interrelations through: balance and instability, domination and submission, tension and ease, opposition and compromise. It is through this dynamic of push and pull, give and take, that the spontaneity and structuring of these interactions takes place.
Mechanical Movements Cradle #12
White Stoneware - Slab Built - Slip and Glaze - Soda Fired to Cone 10
15” x 18” x 6”
2022
$3,400