Fine Arts Faculty Member Selected for Innovative Ceramics Exhibit

For 65 years Scripps College in Claremont, California, has been hosting an exhibition that features U.S. artists working at the cutting edge of contemporary ceramics.

This year Io Palmer (assistant professor, fine arts) was selected by guest curator Adam Davis as one of eight artists to participate in the Scripps College 65th Ceramic Annual, entitled "Wearing It on Your Sleeve: Sympathizers, Empathizers, and Provocateurs" and held in the Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery January 24 through April 5, 2009.

The theme was political in tone, and Davis focused on artists who primarily use clay in works that provoke and challenge viewers to engage with marginalities and marginalized conditions.

Palmer addresses topics including race, privilege, and art in her mixed media work, drawing inspiration from internal and external patterns of language and dialogue.

In the exhibit, Palmer presented her installation "Combs, Brushes, and Hairballs" (2008), a large, wall-mounted grid where tufts and patches of hair are merged with ceramic companion implements, like brushes and combs.

 
"There is a strange chemistry of textures," said catalog essayist Farid Azfar of the metaphorical pairings. "On the surface, she takes things that we would often prefer not to look at—in part for reasons having to do with class and race—and transforms them into objects of extraordinary beauty."

"I use drawing, photography, ceramics, and fabric to produce conceptual objects and mixed-media installations that explore the ephemeral substances of social culture," said Palmer in her artist's statement. "Headdress, hair, and uniform are tropes created to depict the tensions between the domains of the imagination and the public performances of identity."

Palmer, who coordinates and teaches foundation art courses at WSU, received her B.F.A. from the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia and her M.F.A. from the University of Arizona. She has taught at centers and schools throughout the country, most recently as a visiting assistant professor at Georgia College and at the State University in Milledgeville, Georgia.

This summer, Palmer will participate in a month-long artist residency at the James Washington House in Seattle, where she will work with a metal technician to create a new series of sculptures.

More Information

• Io Palmer's Web site
• Serve and Project