Ken Kohoutek Lecture & Workshop: Painting with Glaze on Clay Slabs (TWO DAYS)

Preparatory Lecture

Date: Tuesday, February 18th

Time: 5:30-6:30pm

Workshop

Date: Saturday, February 22nd

Time: 12:00pm - 4:00pm

Cost: $85 per person

Age: 18+
Minimum Size: 6 people, Maximum Size: 15 people

This Workshop will include a tour of Ken Kohoutek exhibition and an introductory class in painting with underglazes on clay slabs. Utilizing a theme of storytelling participants will create realistic or abstract images including layers of colors and patterns. There will be an option of working with black and white underglazes as well.

Artist Instructor: Ken Kohoutek

This workshop is offered in conjunction with the new exhibition, Puzzled Paradise: Ceramic Chronicles by Ken Kohoutek. Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art presents a captivating and visually chaotic exhibition featuring the work of Great Falls ceramic artist, Ken Kohoutek. The body of work on exhibit is the culmination of 8 years of creative expression for the artist. In Puzzled Paradise: Ceramic Chronicles by Ken Kohoutek, the viewer can expect to be thrilled and entertained by an aesthetic that is childlike, 1980’s retro, and futuristic. The imagery is evocative of everyday life experiences expressed through commercial logos, television or movies references, mundane daily events like making morning coffee, or engrained memories of a family trip and recurring dreams.

Kitschy and confused are another way of describing the collaged, bright, and minutely detailed compositions. Kohoutek’s postmodern aesthetic laid bare on ceramic tiles and amorphic vessels reminds us of design and color familiar to the Memphis Group, which has an appeal that is a pastiche of thrift store aesthetics including clashing patterns with colors, and wackiness, combined with figuration and autobiographical storytelling. The presentation of Kohoutek’s work at the museum brings the community an important opportunity to engage in a visual conversation with a significant local ceramic artist whose work is curious and engaging. www.the-square.org/kohoutek