With 90 creative teapots, in every imaginable medium, the exhibition "teapots! 6th Invitational," at Morgan Contemporary Glass Gallery in Shadyside, is the largest teapot-theme exhibit the gallery has held to date.
More than 60 national and international artists were invited to participate in this annual event, says gallery owner-director Amy Morgan. And, "You can't put tea in any of the teapots in this show," she says.
That's really saying something, considering you will find teapots in glass, metal, ceramic, welded and forged steel, wood and various other fibrous materials, such as felt, silk, raffia, even pine needles.
Morgan invites artists from a wide spectrum of backgrounds and concentrations to create works for the exhibit. "I have always striven to have all media," she says.
"I would say that, in this show, only about 20 to 30 percent of the artists have ever made teapots before. Maybe 10 to 15 percent would qualify as teapot makers. The rest are all commissioned, so to speak, to make teapots," Morgan says.
She tells the artist to first look at their past work before coming up with teapot ideas. "I like them to reference their own body of work, and ideally their own collectors will be interested in the teapot," she says. "I don't ask anybody that I don't think could. Whether somebody would or not is another story."
She has had little resistance. For example, woodworker Ron Lakeport of Mt. Lebanon is highly regarded in the wood-turning world for his amazingly intricate wood vessels that incorporate animal themes. Here in this exhibit, just as in last year's teapot exhibit where he exhibited a ram's head-theme teapot, he puts forth a tremendous laborious effort -- a teapot in the shape of a parrot head with brazenly colored red plumage. Titled "Big Ol' Red Bird Teapot" it is made of red oak, accentuated with pigment rubbed into it. Layport says that the piece was inspired by the hand-painted amusement park rides of yesteryear. "It's a far cry from my usual palette," he says, "but I had a lot of fun."
Fun and funky is the theme of Andrea Graham's all-felt teapot "I Spiked the Tea." Like Layport, this is the second year the artist from Odessa, Ontario, has created work for this exhibit. With colorful spots and spiny legs, this gray-wool teapot seems to dance to its own tune. It is sitting right next to another funky, felted teapot by Graham that is just as whimsical and wonderful.
On a much more serious note is Claudia Tarantino's "Tea Tin Two." A trompe-l'oeil-style ceramic teapot made to look like two figs, a biscotti and a napkin casually set atop a floral painted tin, this hyper-realistic piece by this San Anselmo, Calif., artist is a real showstopper.
As her statement reads: "I use the unique properties of porcelain to make trompe-l'oeil sculptures that are refined and detailed. Constructing arrangements that 'fool the eye' of the viewer, I try to evoke a recognition of what is common in our experience."
Another hyper-realistic ceramic piece on display is Margaret Keelan's "Lost and Found," which looks every bit like an antique baby-doll head carved of wood and complete with peeling paint. Keelan, who hails from San Pablo, Calif., is an expert at creating ceramic pieces that have surfaces that look like disintegrating paint over weathered wood. This treatment is, according to her statement, a metaphor she uses "for a life being lived, an exploration of the process of growing up and growing older."
Conversely, Carrianne Hendrickson's "Demure Child Conversing With a Nightmare" needs little by way of explanation, even though this teapot is an allegorical one. Featuring Little Red Riding Hood about to be eaten by the wolf, it's one of two such storybook-inspired teapots by this artist from Kenmore, N.Y., that are real standouts for their figurative qualities and vibrant glazes.
Finally, no teapot exhibit at a contemporary-glass gallery would be complete without teapots by a few glass artists. Among them, two teapots by Jennifer Umphress of Kingston, Wash., made of flame-worked and cast glass emulate the movement of sea life in simple contemporary forms. Both "Under the Tea" and "Spring Fling" ingeniously combine various water associated animal forms, such as octopus arms for legs, handles and tops with cool white, coral-inspired bodies.
Of course, with 90 teapots on display, there is only so much room here to present a few of the incredibly unique teapots on display, which means you simply have to see this exhibit in person to appreciate how one form can be widely interpreted.<
