Shircliff Gallery Artist Talk and Reception

Material Conversations is a two-person exhibition that challenges traditional perceptions of painting and ceramics. Harding explores the relationship between two-dimensional pictorial space and three-dimensional physical reality, which manifests in compositions that transform the traditional four-edged frame. Harding fuses drawing, sculpture, and painting, to design artworks that appear as twisted digital screens into alternate spaces. He engages the space with the formal language of minimalism and pop art through his use of saturated bright colors, finished with machine-like precision, in glistening plastic surfaces.

Knoche has developed a technique of firing dry powdered ceramic materials in molds to their peak temperature to create his sculptural pieces. His use of bright colors, asymmetrical compositions, and tactile textures seduce and draw viewers in for a closer look. After looking at the work long enough, one can’t help but wonder how the sculptures were made.