Thomas Fougeirol and Tony Marsh

Sculpting in ceramic, Tony Marsh uses the vessel form as starting point for experiments with texture, color, and movement. The geomorphic surfaces of the work are the result of physical interactions between layers of slips, glazes, and fragments built up over months and fired as many as five times.  There is no note taking in this process, making each work an irreplicable product of chance rooted in Marsh’s intensive, decades-long study of the material. 

 

For this first comprehensive presentation at the gallery, Marsh will present a new body of work defined by cascading, vibrant glazes alongside pieces coated with a lustrous black glaze from his ongoing Cauldrons and Crucibles series. The gesticulated forms and surface fissures of Spill and Catch 4, 2020, facilitate the dripping and pooling of polychromatic glaze, in contrast with the austere palate and igneous texture of works such as Untitled Crucible,2020.

  

Thomas Fougeirol’s paintings bear the imprints of his actions, crystallizing moments of fluidity and capturing intermediary states. Fougeirol arrives at his undulating surfaces by ceding control to the forces of gravity and chance. The dramatic drips and sculptural ridges suggest processes of entropy or tectonics, imbuing the work with a sense of recursion. Dichotomies formed between the tactile, coagulated crusts and their atmospheric effects emulate the passing of energy between movement and matter, flux and stasis, within Fougeirol’s process.

 

Fougeirol and Marsh both utilize sets of parameters in their studios to produce forms that emerge through discovery rather than intention. Process is embedded within their forms, mirroring universal laws of nature. Material is deposited and re-formed in the studio with forces analogous to geological processes– the seismic shifting of tectonic plates or the melting and cooling of volcanic rock. Exhibited together, the surfaces of Marsh’s vessels and Fougeirol’s canvases index the artist’s body as a physical, creative force traversing new territories within the boundaries of their respective mediums.