Atlanta potter Rick Berman retired from teaching ceramics at Pace Academy last year after 15 years at the Buckhead school, but he hasn’t stopped educating or learning.
This spring, Berman taught at the University of Georgia’s Studies Abroad Program in Cortona, Italy, and was so inspired by all the art he saw everywhere he traveled over the 12-week semester, that he created a new body of work.
Seventeen of these pieces will be shown in the exhibition “Rick Berman: Italian Influences,” opening Aug. 30 at the Oconee Cultural Arts Foundation (OCAF) in Watkinsville.
The exhibit hits at a time in the year when OCAF transforms into pottery central while hosting “Perspectives: Georgia Pottery Invitational,” a show and sale of more than 5,000 pots by 50 Georgia potters. It, too, opens Aug. 30, with a gala reception and preview sale from 6 to 9 p.m. Aug. 31 ($10 admission).
And that’s not all: Berman also has curated another concurrent exhibit at the arts center near Athens: “Made in Japan,” an exhibit of 30 works by master Japanese potters including Shoji Hamada (1894-1978) and Tatsuzo Shimaoka (1919-2007).
The long-time Atlanta artist said he and UGA students saw tens of thousands of works of art this spring while touring Rome, Venice, Florence, Luca, Pisa, Assisi and other stops.
“I realized early on that almost every Italian work of art, whether it be made of wood, stone, paint, or bronze, had one thing in common, the created illusion of draped fabric,” said Berman, 69. “It almost seemed to be a competitive quest between artists of the times to see who could create the most illusory examples of draping.”
All that illusion gripped Berman’s consciousness, and he said he became obsessed with the possibilities that draping could have using soft clay.
“I started by rolling out a thin circular slab of clay and then lightly letting it settle over a cardboard tube form with a sponge stuck in the opening at the top so it wouldn’t be too sharp,” he said. “It naturally started to make folds, and with some coaxing with the dull parts of my hands — no fingertips — the result was some of the most beautiful forms I have ever made.”
The pottery exhibits and “Perspectives” (including a connected exhibit of two pots by each of the 50 potters plus one pot from each of their private collections) continue through Sept. 18. Related programming includes gallery talks (1 p.m. Sept. 8 and 15) and self-guided pottery studio tours in the Watkinsville-Farmington area (1-5 p.m. Sept. 15).
Gallery hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. Free. 34 School St., Watkinsville. 706-769-4565, www.ocaf.com.
LITERATURE
‘Grey Album’ golden for Kevin Young
Emory University professor of creative writing and English Kevin Young has won the 2013 PEN Open Book Award for his book “The Grey Album: On the Blackness of Blackness.”
The award is given by the PEN American Center “for an exceptional book-length work of literature by an author of color” published in 2012.
Judges called “The Grey Album” (Greywolf Press, $25) “an ambitious, exhilarating, impassioned work of black literary and cultural criticism, unlike any other — an inspired, sweeping book that deserves to be savored and celebrated.”
Earlier this year, “The Grey Album” was a finalist in the National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism.
More information: www.pen.org/literature/2013-pen-open-book-award.
FILM
LGBT festival announces titles
The lineup for the 26th Out On Film festival, planned Oct. 3-10 at Landmark’s Midtown Art Cinema, has been announced.
The opening night film will be Darren Stein’s “G.B.F,” a comedy, described as a gay “Mean Girls,” about a high school student (Michael J. Willett) whose coming out sends repercussions through the school. The supporting cast includes Megan Mullally and Natasha Lyonne.
The closing night film is Linda Bloodworth-Thomason’s (“Designing Women”) “Bridegroom,” a documentary about Shane Bitney Crone, who lost his partner Tom Bridegroom in an accident and was banned from the funeral by his partner’s parents. Crone made a YouTube video about the incident titled “It Could Happen to You” that went viral and lead to Bloodworth-Thomason’s film. He is expected to attend the screening.
The eight-day festival will feature more 75 feature films, documentaries, short films and premieres from U.S. and international cinema.
Other screenings include Daniel Radcliffe (“Harry Potter”) portraying Allen Ginsberg in “Kill Your Darlings”; and “The Rugby Player,” Scott Gracheff’s film about United 93’s Mark Bingham and his relationship with his mother, Alice Hoagland. Gracheff and Hoagland are expected to attend.
Information: 678-237-7206, www.outonfilm.org.
DANCE
Emory focuses on evolution of movement
Emory Dance Program’s just-announced 2013-2014 season, including performances, lectures, workshops and screenings, explores the evolution of movement languages. Highlights include:
- Nov. 21-23: Emory Dance Company's Fall Concert, an evening of contemporary dance created by dance faculty members Anna Leo, George Staib and Lori Teague and guest artists Emily Johnson and Kristin O'Neal. The Spring Concert, April 24-26, will feature new works created by students.
- Dec. 6-8: In "pre-suf-fixes," Gregory Catellier, artistic director of Catellier Dance Projects, looks back at previous work and forward to its next evening-length work, "Corpus Mysteriis."
- April 3-6 and 9-13: "Free/Fall: Exploration of Inner and Outer Space," a collaboration between Theater Emory artistic director Janice Akers, choreographers Staib and Teague and composer Kendall Simpson.
Information: 404-727-5050, http://bit.ly/14zgqz6.
