Randy Johnston's woodfired pots at the Pucker Gallery in Boston are satisfyingly rugged and substantial. And, as always, it's good to see them there, where they can be hefted and handled and the broken and crawled woodfired Shino glaze and the rough clay body can be felt under the hand.
I sure do like Johnston's pots. There's very little precious about them. They're all about strength and weight and the happenstance of slip, glaze and wood flame.
The Wisconsin potter's show, "On the Edge of Chaos," is in the gallery on Newbury St. through Jan. 30. (As is Marguerite Robichaux's exhibition of landscape paintings.) It's well worth seeing, even if many of the show's original pots have been sold and replaced by other wonderful pots from the Pucker inventory. (And it's worth remembering that when a new show goes up in the downstairs gallery, the pots that didn't sell go into inventory upstairs. The gallery employees are happy to take you up to look at and handle them.)
We visited Boston Sunday, in part to see "Hugo" in 3D (go see it; a great film), but also to see the Johnston show. We met our friend Janet there and went over the pots together, occasionally in minute detail, particularly the lovely nuka-glazed pots.
Go see the show. Or check out the wonderfully photographed catalog in pdf form at puckergallery.com. And for more pots by Johnston and his wife Jan McKeachie Johnston, go to mckeachiejohnston.com.
The photos: Pretty self-explanatory. I wish I'd brought my camera, but had to make do with the iPhone version. Still, they get the idea across.
5 comments:
what a way to spend a Sunday--- he does make some handsome pots.
I receive the catalogs from Pucker and must say that these are some of the best pots I've seen grace their catalog pages. Even better than RJ's last show at Pucker. I wish I could heft a few of them! The platters with the "grasses" are very inspiring.
Alas, I guess I'll just look.
Thanks for taking some pictures of the exhibit.
Well, since I cannot get there, I sure do appreciate the photos! It looks like an amazing exhibit- would LOVE to have one of the platters!! Delicious :)
Man, I love Randy's pots, they are so gnarly and so lucious. Randy's the man, I bought a few of his pots back in 99 when they were relatively affordable. It bums me out that they're so expensive but hey, good for him!
love his pots... and jan's as well.
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