Wednesday, December 6, 2023

Roberta Griffith: Trophies
Everson Museum of Art

Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

For 42 years, Roberta Griffith served as a professor of ceramics and drawing at Hartwick College, cementing her status as a Central New York legend. Griffith now splits her time between Otego, NY, and Kaua'i, Hawaii. After receiving her Master's degree from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale in 1960, Griffith was awarded a Fulbright grant that brought her to Spain to study with ceramist Josep Llorens i Artigas, who was then at the height of a 30-year collaboration with painter Joan Miró. Griffith returned to the United States in 1964 and has always retained ties to Surrealism and abstraction.

In 1971, Griffith produced "Trophies," a body of work combining inverted stoneware vessels with ethereal constellations of feathers to evoke both body adornments and undersea organisms. While Griffith's Trophies are in tune with 1970s aesthetics, they also challenged the orthodoxy of a field dominated by men. More than 50 years later, this exhibition celebrates Griffith's work for its bold innovation and continuing ability to shock, surprise, and delight.