The exhibition showcases 59 selected works in drawing, painting, and ceramics, including sculpture, installations, and fired and unfired clay that Griffith has produced over the past 50 years.
Arkell Hall Foundation Professor of Art at Hartwick, Griffith has taught ceramics, drawing, and painting to hundreds of students since joining the Hartwick faculty in 1966. She served as chair of the art department for 17 years, chair of the Humanities Division, and currently is a teaching fellow in the College’s Humanities in Management Institute. In 1995 she was named Hartwick’s Teacher/Scholar of the year.
Reflecting on her career at Hartwick, Griffith admits she enjoys the energy and interaction she shares with her students. "They give structure to my life," she says, "and they spur me on to greater accomplishments."
Lisa Sorensen, curator of the exhibit, agrees. "Roberta’s untiring efforts to challenge her students and the viewing public are evident in her work. Masterful in any media, she combines skill with scholarship to create provocative expressions worthy of our undivided attention. Her vision and voice are manifest in every piece," Sorensen says.
One of the largest pieces in the exhibition is "Nezu Reflections," a seven-foot ceramic and steel architectural installation composed of seven brightly glazed red torii (gates). By painting black calligraphic images—the names of family, friends, and benefactors—on the gates, Griffith celebrates the importance of human relationships. She says the work is a personal interpretation of the torii of Nezu Jinja, a 300-year old Shinto shrine in Tokyo, which inspired her during a trip to Japan in 1997.
Since 1992, when she completed "Haramachi Revisited," a ceramic installation based on images of roasted fish she had seen at a roadside stand during an earlier trip to Japan, Griffith has wrestled with the eternal themes of life and death. Now, since her mother's death, Griffith’s need to find ways to incorporate those cyclical parts of the human condition into her work has continued. Last July, while an invited artist-in-residence at Skidmore College, she began her latest ceramic installation, "Five Intersections Transposed," created with cruciform ceramic markers.
Revealing the depth of her reflection, Griffith’s statement for her newest work examines the meaning of the word "cross"— identified as "an upright with a transverse beam, or the intersection of two directions, as well as the ability to move or pass from one condition to another." With the use of these markers in "Five Intersections Transposed," she suggests that all the definitions of "cross" are inferred in addition to symbolic Christian and pagan interpretations.
After discussing ritual practices connected to life and death since earliest man, as well as the human need to recognize and develop sacred spaces, Griffith notes her anthropomorphic cruciform markers signify a union of the past, the present, and the future.
"Their ephemeral connecting shadows link tangible and intangible associations and definitions and connections," she wrote. "These same shadows enhance and expand the metaphorical sacred space surrounding ‘Five Intersections Transposed.’"
Griffith’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally for more than four decades in 31 solo shows, 92 invitational and collective exhibitions, and 71 juried shows. Her artwork is included in museums and private collections in the U.S., Spain, Mexico, Italy, England, Sweden, and Japan.
She has served on a variety of arts council boards, juried several art exhibitions, and received numerous prizes and awards in art, including a Fulbright grant to study art in Spain and a National Endowment for the Humanities grant to study ancient Mesoamerican civilizations at the University of Pittsburgh.
In addition, Griffith serves as the North American correspondent for Cerámica magazine, headquartered in Madrid.
After earning a B.F.A. from Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles, CA, Griffith received an M.F.A. from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, IL.
In conjunction with the exhibition, Griffith will present a gallery talk for the public at 7 p.m. on Thursday, February 20. On April 1, "Roberta Griffith: Drawing on the Artist Within," a 30-minute video, will be installed as part of the exhibition. A 156-page catalog of the artist’s work is available at the museum and through Amazon.com, Half.com, and Axner.com.
The Yager Museum is open Tuesday through Sunday from noon to 4:30 p.m. It is closed on Mondays and academic holidays. Admission is free.
For more information, call 607-431-4480.
