1/1/2023 0 Comments Woody de othello![]() ![]() Breath and breathing are ideas often expressed in Othello’s vessel-like forms covered in mouths. Othello draws on African nkisi, or objects that are believed to be invested with spiritual energy. The Arts Center is thrilled to be showing these works for the first time,” said Laura Bickford, curator, John Michael Kohler Arts Center. But the saliency of this newest body of work speaks poignantly and pointedly about the time we are living in, reaffirming the role that artists can play in articulating a kinder and more just world for us all. “Woody De Othello’s work has always been prescient in its combination of humor, history, and composition. The residency was cut short by several weeks and forced Othello to bring home some of the molds to continue his work. While he was in residence, the world outside the factory began to shift with the beginning of the pandemic. Many of the sculptures were produced using molds that Othello created during his Arts/Industry Pottery residency at the Kohler Co. Courtesy of the artist and Jessica Silverman, San Francisco. Woody De Othello, Closed Reflection, 2021 ceramic and glaze. For Hope Omens, he presents an entirely new body of work. Woody De Othello is best known for his large-scale sculptures of familiar domestic objects, which are often imbued with a kind of human personage. 2 3 4 5 Contents 1 Early life and education 2 Career 3 Exhibitions 4 Collections 5 References Early life and education edit Wood De Othello was born in 1991 in Miami, Florida. He lives and works in the San Francisco Bay Area, California. #Woody de othello seriesLet’s take some cues from De Othello’s vessels: life demands a bit of contortion, which is to say a little imagination.Woody De Othello: Hope Omenspresents a series of nearly 20 large anthropomorphic vessels based on African spiritual objects that, among other things, address the tumultuous nature of the last year. Woody De Othello (born 1991) 1 is an American ceramicist and painter. We’ve been encased in overwhelming cruelties. ![]() Perhaps that was you one morning amid this relentless year. How glum, you think, as you encounter its central green figure crumpled in a running shower. The sculpture finds its equivalent in the painting Private Moment (2020), just one of a few paintings in the show. Hanging Light (left) and Mourning Day and Night (right). Is the confinement externally or internally imposed? Or both?įrom left to right: Self Containment (2020), In Thought Picking Which One To Mask (2020), and When Under Pressure, Relax Pose (2020). Unwieldy chains subdue the sober vessel of Self-Containment (2020). But that humor is occasionally deflated by a sunken mood. For instance, take In Thought Picking Which One to Mask (2020): a bright red comb charmingly perches atop the vessel’s head, its wriggly teeth falling like strands of hair. De Othello’s brisk humor glints throughout, too. The works are burnished in a brooding, somber blue-black glaze that glints in the gallery. Woody De Othello, Private Moment (2020): Oil on canvas 38.5 x 30.5 x 2.5 inches. De Othello dispenses with tidy symmetry, relishes uncanny proportions. Much of the show’s fascination springs from this metamorphic duality. The lineaments twist and turn as you circle the works: a hand passes as a mouth a nose swells into a hand. Installation view of Woody De Othello, Coming To Light at Nina Johnson in Miami. Installation view of Woody De Othello, Coming to Light at Nina Johnson in Miami. Each vessel, playful and even pensive, evinces the penchant for distortion that has marked De Othello style’s for some time now, since leaving his native Miami to study in California, where he now lives in Oakland. Woody De Othello, In Thought Picking Which One to Mask (2020): Ceramic and glaze on tiled pedestal sculpture, base, and pedestal 49.5 x 31 x 24 inches.Īt the heart of the show are De Othello’s characteristic vessels, arrayed on tiled pedestals. We glimpse all the familiar objects (chairs, light fixtures, glasses, curtains), but a lively strain of anthropomorphism (notice those jutting ears!) stirs here and there. The show invites us into De Othello’s vision of wonky domesticity. So it’s refreshing to take in Coming to Light, an exhibition of new works by Woody De Othello at Nina Johnson Gallery in Miami. The domestic is too often imagined in dull, monotonous ways. ![]()
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