FLUX - wood fired vessels by Dan Murphy & Robin DuPont

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Robin DuPont, "Lidded Jar," 2016

Robin DuPont, "Lidded Jar," 2016, woodfired porcelain with quartz inclusions, natural ash glaze.

The Willock & Sax Gallery presents “FLUX,” an exhibition of wood fired vessels by Dan Murphy and Robin DuPont that establishes context as a contributing factor of ceramic practice.

In this exhibition, Murphy and DuPont explore how the circumstance of their respective practices - the clay, the wood, the kiln, the time of year, the weather, the colleagues who help fire – affect the pots that emerge from the kiln. They are motivated by how the specific context of particular firings produces distinctive results.

Both artists are in Banff to conduct a Banff Centre residency (Kiln Raising, May 30 to June 24) on wood firing processes and kiln construction. Their aim is to build and fire The Banff Centre’s first wood fired Train Kiln, named for its elongated rectangular shape suggestive of a rail car.

Hence, what better time to present their stoneware vessels from prior firings in Robin DuPont’s own anagama kiln as well as Dan Murphy’s studio in Utah and the Red Lodge Clay Center, Montana. Explore the effects of wood firing techniques: ash deposits, flashings, natural glaze surfaces, the tones and textures characteristic of wood fired vessels.

Dan Murphy is an artist and associate professor of art with twenty years of experience firing wood-burning kilns. Robin DuPont specializes in atmospheric wood fired pottery; a process that reveals subtle and inexplicable tones, surfaces, and effects.