McKenzie Fine Art: Ursula Morley Price Exhibition 2008

55 Orchard Street, New York, New York 10002 212 989 5467 fax 212 989 5642


	Ursula Morley Price November 13 - December 20, 2008
	Price's forms are hand-built in stoneware using a traditional pinch-and-coil method. She initially creates an armature, usually a vessel form such as a vase, bowl or bottle. To this she adds thin, wing- or fin-like shapes that she refers to as flanges. While not literal references, the fineness of the flanges is evocative of stiff, undulant lace collars seen in 17th-century Dutch painting, and of Asian cut-paper ornaments which fold out into circular shapes. The edges of the flanges in Price's ceramics are deckled, however, and in some instances further articulated through the addition of a darker glaze at the periphery. The flanges are remarkable for the rhythm and patterning they create in the work and function as surfaces for the play of light and shadow across the sculpture. They impart a buoyancy, lightness, and delicacy to the work, contrasting with the actual physical weight of the pieces. Newer forms in the exhibition include elegant "fountain" shapes, which evoke the feeling of flowing water through the use of rounded edges on the flanges as they move and dip around the sides of the vessel. In many pieces the flanges are highly exaggerated and pronounced near the opening of the armature and taper narrowly at the foot. Working within a restrained color range of creamy whites, rich dark browns, and greenish bronze tones, Price's sculptures are nearly all monochromatic, and her glazes have a matte, almost chalky surface texture. Ursula Morley Price has been exhibiting her work internationally for nearly four decades. Her ceramics are found in important public collections such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Musée des Art Decoratifs in Paris and the Musée National de Céramique in Sèvres.