Showing September 4 - October 1, 2017

Performing a spectacular pas de deux with pottery, artists produce an encore of twin shakers, creamer sets and everything intimate in a "Table for Two" at the Torpedo Factory Art Center's Scope Gallery.

Partners and pairings take center stage in a production of double the details, mirrored design and complimentary colors. Sushi plates come with matching dishes for soy, tea cups are accompanied with saucers and spoons. Bowls echo each other as they nest in sets.

This is not the show for only the lonely. Fruit and nut servers come in corresponding contoured dishes. Collections of black and white decorative ware is designed to mix and match, resulting in cohesive displays of vases and jars. Starter sets offer partnered plates anchored with a main platter. Rice bowls travel in packs and noodle bowls are complete with chopsticks.

Potters know berry bowls and olive oil cruets are better with saucers. Coffee cups and butter dishes are topped with lively decorated covers. Toast the town with twin goblets and a team of tumblers.

Date night sweeps sculptural forms into a number for two with private conversations captured in clay. Couples twine together or hold gazes creating dramatic tension.

One is fun, but deuce is cuter! Take time to linger over dinner, have a buddy brunch or take tea for two with artistry to mark a cozy creative encounter.

HIROME MINEMURA

If you walk into Scope Gallery and see something that looks good enough to eat— or too good to eat— it is no doubt one of Hirome’s suite of cupcakes. It may be a mug in the form of a cupcake with a lid looking like frosted icing topped with strawberries and whipped cream, or it may be a set for cream and sugar, sugar and jam, or salt and pepper. These are made with the finest ingredients— for clay, that is porcelain!

Hirome uses the same decorating materials and techniques as bakers but to achieve her yummy colors she uses Mason Stains instead of food coloring. Stains are oxides that can be used to color glazes, slips, or clay. Mason Stains are commercial stains that are carefully formulated to be lead free so they are food safe. The color of the fired clay is very close to the color of the stain in its raw state providing a lot of control when certain colors are desired. The colors are most vibrant on white clay, such as porcelain. Hirome likes experimenting with different colors and watching people’s reactions when they look at one of her pieces and simply cannot resist the urge to touch them to see if they are real!

Hirome is one of the most diverse artists at Scope applying her technical skills to making all sorts of tableware, vases, and lamps. Born and raised in the Aichi Perfecture, Japan, Hirome recalls ceramics being an integral part of her life. After high school, she left Japan to attend college in California after which she settled in NYC. It was in NYC that she first took up pottery after she discovered a ceramic studio run by Japanese. Her Japanese instructors shed new light on the traditional Japanese ceramics surrounding her as a child. There she mastered pottery basics, and then went to study at Greenwich House Pottery where she learned additional techniques taking a variety of classes, including carving and slip-trailing as well as learning the intricacies of gas reduction firing. Finding herself wanting to better understand how to achieve certain colors, she decided to attend the Brickhouse Ceramic Art Center in Long Island City, NY. She earned a spot as an associate artist and was able to study glazing and under glazing techniques, using Mason Stains, as well as how to formulate glazes.

In addition to ceramics, Hirome has worked for travel agencies and served as a guide for private tours. She credits her travels as inspiring the diversity in her work.

Fortunately for the D.C. metropolitan area, Hirome moved to Maryland in 2013 and in 2015 was juried into Scope.

For more of her work, please check her website, hiromiceramics.com.