Conference and Event
"The Arizona Republic" on Monday, September 6, 2004. There is an article "Tools of trade: What works best" talk about Junya with her tools.
Xiaoping and Junya have finished 1 hand that is part of a 2-hand project for Mesa Community College (MCC) campus. When finished, there will be 2 13-foot long hands (12 tons of clay) that MCC students, faculty, and visitors can use for sitting and lounging. This project is a result of joint efforts between our selves (Designer) and Linda Speranza (Project Director) with the help of assistants "Purple", Kyle,and some MCC ceramic student volunteers.
The second hand has been started and will be finished in October. There will be a public ceremonial installation in late Oct.This is Xiaoping and Junya first public art in the United States.
August 1 - August 13,2004
Watershed Ceramic Center, in Maine, had a residency and Nan Smith invited Bill Gilbert (NM), Denise Pelletier (CT), Jeffrey Mongrain (NY), Juan Granados (TX), Lisa Marie Barber (CA), Lou Xiaoping (AZ), Neil Forrest (NS, Canada), Nick Kripal (PA), Sadashi Inazuka (MI), Tori, Arpad (FL), Walter McConnell (NY), and Glen R. Brown (KS). The residency was from August 1 ?August 13, 2004. There were also some students and young artists attending.
The artists got together 2 nights to talk about installations of art. There were 2 nights of the residency when the artists showed their slides. The slides were enjoyed by all very much. Glen Brown talked about installation theories. Some of the artists had come with ideas for an installation and half-completed one. Other artists took videos of those making the installations.
Every morning the artists would get up, have breakfast, and talk. They also talked during dinner as everyone was very friendly and shared ideas. The time was short with only 2 weeks for this group.Here is Xiaoping's installation.
July 24,2004-January 30,2005
Sky Harbor Airport purchased Junya Shao and Xiaoping Luo for the phoenix Airports Museum Program's Contemporary ceramics Collection, that are now on display. This exhibition will show to January 30,2005 in Terminal, level 2, north of Starbucks.
Xiaoping Teapots "friendship"collection were shown in the ASU Museum in July,2004.
June 1,2004
Tapio Yli-Viikari, Professor of Cermaic Art at the University of Art and Design Helsinki brought about 15 students to vist Xiaopingstudio in Yixing. Junya demonstrated the making of teapots in the Yixing traditional techniques. Xiaoping showed slides of Yixing teapot history and Xiaopingstudio works. Professor Yli-Viikari aided in having a Xiaoping teapot purchased by a museum in Finland.
January 21,2004
A recent Xiaoping Lou exhibition at the ASU Art Museum for Times Square Series depicted 20 wrold leaders represented in 2-foot-tall sculptures (www.asuartmuseum.asu.edu/xiaoping). Xiaoping sculpture of President George W. Bush was presented to him as a special gift on behalf of Mesa Community College during his visit on January 21, 2004. The sculpture is now in the White House Collection.
Exhibition
August 31st -Nov.19th, 2004
ASU Art Museum will have an exhibition, " Democracy in America", to run from August 31st to November 19th, 2004. There will be a broad representation of works with many interactive or participatory works. Xiaoping will be showing "Time Square Series-2003". The opening reception will be on Friday, October 22, 7-9p.m. (George Bush and Saddam).
April 30 ?May 2,2004
John Natsoulas Gallery hosted the 15th Annual California Conference for the Advancement of Ceramic Art (CCACA) ?2004: The Ceramic Sculpture Conference. The John Natsoulas Gallery invited Sandy Besser, Verne Funk, Peter Held, Ah Leon, Xiaoping Lou and Junya Shao, Joe Mariscal, Amy Evans McClure, Michael McClure, Richard Notkin, Lucian Pompili, Esther Shimazu, Peter VandenBerge, and more.
The artists showed slides and demonstrated their craft. About 1000 people attended the conference.
Xiaoping Teapot was sold to the De Young Museum in California.
January-March,2004
"Master Artist Exhibition" hold in Armory Art Center of West Plam Beach, Junya and Xiaoping also taught a workshop in there.
October 2, 2003 ?February 7, 2004
Xiaoping Time Square Series exhibition was held at the ASU Art Museum ?Ceramic Research Center.
October 9 overmber 8, 2003
Xiaoping exhibition was also held at the Calvin Charles Gallery.Teapots and sculptures made up the exhibition.
Travel
July 1-July 10,2004.
Xiaoping ,Junya and David Bradley brought some artists from the U.S. to visit Shanghai, flew to Chang Du, and changed airplanes to reach Lhasa, Tibet. We ate Chinese medicine for altitude sickness, but some of the people had headaches. After 2 or 3 days, everyone was better. In Tibet, everyone enjoyed the different religious culture and the very interesting people.
We flew, after 6 days in Tibet, to Chong Qing and boarded a cruise ship on the Yangze River. There were 2 people for each room, a restaurant with good food, and bar with good drinks. The view from the ship was wonderful. We went through 3 Gorges and were able to leave the ship 3 times to see the sights. We also went by the new damn being built which will become the largest damn in the world. We left the ship at Yichang to return to Shanghai and then go to Yixing.
June 3-17,2004.
Southeast chinese ceramic tour studied in Xiaopingstudio they also visted Shanghai,Jingdezhen and Suzhou.
The tour began in Shanghai. We spent 3 days there to visit the Shanghai Museum, the old city market for shopping, Waitan river to see the very high and varied architecture of the skyline.
Then we flew to Jingdezhen. The group painted, glazed, and fired some pieces they were able to bring home. We visited an old studio where potters do production work on old style wheels and walked into an old wood-fire kiln. Second day we went to Yaoli town where the raw materials are pounded into clay. We went to the Jingdezhen Museum and porcelain market street.
The train took us to Suzhou to visit one garden and a silk factory.
A bus took us to Xiaopingstudio in Yixing. There were 4 demonstrations the group watched; teapots by 2 of Xiaopingstudio artists, 1 teacher showed the group how to mix colored clay to make clay look like real things; the last demo was low relief using only the hand for a tool. The group watched the Master techniques and then followed so that each person made at least 2 teapots to bring home.
Everyone had a wonderful time. They enjoyed the food, beer, massage, traveling, sights, and, especially making some items to remember the trip.
Store
Tools
Back-to-School Sale at Potter website: xiaopingstudio(China Concept),
you can find many wonderful tools and brushes with low prices for the Back-to-School Sale. Each tool will show you demo with picture.
NEW-Art FashionWe are introducing a new line of fashion that we have designed with both Asian and contemporary motifs. There are different fabrics with unique designs. Jackets, shirts, and pants with quality hand made details: some tie-dyed, batik designs, some hand stamped and hand painted.
Books
"The Traditional Crafts Of Porcelain Making in Jingdezhen"
On sale, the first book which presents a full and illustrated description of the traditional skills and techniques of producing porcelain in Jingdezhen. It has taken about seven years to take the slides, more than 600, for this detailed book. There are pictures of techniques that are no longer used and would not be seen in Jingdezhen. There is historical and instructional information written professionally for the beginner as well as the expert.
Technique Tips
"Spout Bar" is the best tool for making teapot spout.
Make a solid clay cone bar first, the size depends on how big the spout you are making.
Then you put the sharp end of the tool in the large end of the cone ,just to hold the cone.
Hold the tool with the angle of the cone parallel to a flat surface, and, while holding the tool steady, then from left to right roll the cone on the flat the surface.
The tool will open the clay to make the spout.
You roll the cone to the size to match the teapot. Finally, shape the spout to the design of the teapot.
This is a very traditional and special technique.
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