Ken Price

A survey of small works by the brilliant and innovative artist Ken Price will open at Frank Lloyd Gallery on September 26th. With over twenty selected examples of Price's intimate ceramics as well as a handful of prints, the show demonstrates his exquisite attention to scale, color, and sensuality. Since his earliest work in clay, Price pushed the boundaries of the medium with his refined finishes and rich associations, from the primordial and organic to Mexican folk pottery. Price addressed many issues in work that ranged from abstract sculpture to intimate, hand-held cups. By all accounts, Price became known as an artist's artist, forming and meticulously finishing innovative works that helped redefine what it meant to be an artist working with the medium of fired clay.

In mid-September, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art will open a major retrospective on Ken Price (1935-2012). Curator Stephanie Barron describes Price as "unwavering in his approach, he was resolute in his practice while the art world around him was intent on other forms and practices." The New York Times, in an obituary written by Roberta Smith, stated that Price was "…one of the outstanding artists of postwar America."

The Frank Lloyd Gallery show includes several cups, which demonstrate the artist's focus on small scale. A cup is a familiar hand-held object, which connects the tactile with stimulants or sustenance. The intimacy of hand-made folk pottery was also a source for Price, and the current exhibit shows examples of platters and bowls from the period of "Happy's Curios", a mid-1970s series based on Mexican tourist wares.

The value of color in Price's work cannot be underestimated. "For me color carries emotion so I love working with it. It's been a big part of whatever I've been making for over 50 years," stated Price in a recent interview.i "When my work is successful, there's an organic fusion between the surface and the color."ii

The Frank Lloyd Gallery show will open two weeks after the LACMA retrospective, and is intended to provide a complementary view of Ken Price's work.
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i Ken Price, Interview, Scripps College Project sponsored by Getty Research Institute, 2010.
ii Ken Price in conversation with Vija Celmins, Ken Price, Steidl/mm, New York, pg. 7

Please click here to view the digital catalogue for the exhibition on an iPad: