Winston Wächter Fine Art

Dirk Staschke

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206.652.5855 jessica@winstonwachter.com www.winstonwachter.com

Northwest ceramicist Dirk Staschke likes to blur boundaries. His work teeters between a wink and a smile and serious contemplation about the value of art. His work is inspired by Flemish and Dutch still life paintings of the 16th and 17th centuries (termed Vanitas or “vanity” paintings), which were created to make the viewer consider their own mortality and to repent upon the exuberance one experienced in their mortal life. Staschke’s over the top arrangements of cakes, pastries, fruit, and wild game explores the notion of gluttony and cultural excess. When the viewer walks around the back of the eight foot stacked table of confections (Confectional Facade), they see only hollow ceramic objects without substance.  

His latest body of work, Executing Merit, takes pleasure in forcing us to look behind the curtain, at the less attractive process of creating beautiful sculptures. At "rst glace his works are re"ned homages to traditional still-life paintings, complete with ornate frames. As you move around, you get full view of the work and the process involved in creating them. Un"nished clay bunches and bulges together to support the carefully detailed fronts. Staschke asks us to consider what part medium plays in the value placed on a work of art, and if knowing the process to create it, adds or diminishes to that value. Such weighty questions might feel somber, but Staschke’s playfulness and sense of humor make the task pleasurable.

Staschke earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from e University of Montevallo, Alabama and his Master of Fine Arts Degree from Alfred University, in New York. His work has been shown internationally and is included in the permanent collections of the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, DC; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX; Icheon Museum, World Ceramic Center, Gwango-dong, South Korea.

Cover: Confectional Façade, 2011, ceramic and mixed media, 102 x 48 x 9 inches

Right: Confectional Façade (Detail)

Wishing Well Knowing, 2011, ceramic and mixed media, 74 x 48 x 48 inches

Wishing Well Knowing (Detail)

Left: Let em Eat Cake, 2013, ceramic, urethane, silver, 22 x 28 x 20 inches

Right: Stagger, 2009, ceramic, 20 x 16 x 16 inches

Harvests End. 2011, ceramic epoxy, mixed media, 84 x 48 x 48 inches

Harvests End (Detail)  

Translation #1, 2014, ceramic, wood, leather, epoxy, 28 x 22 x 8 inches

Translation #1, detail

Translation #5, 2015, ceramic, wood, 20 x 16 x 6 inches

Translation #3, 2014, ceramic, wood, epoxy, 20 x 16 x 6 inches

Bird In Hand, 2014, wood, leather, epoxy, 58 x 40 x 9 inches

Bird In Hand (Detail)

Education 1998 Alfred University, Alfred, NY, Master of Fine Arts Degree 1995 University of Montevallo, Montevallo, AL, Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree

Selected Solo Exhibitions 2015 Executing Merit, Winston Wächter Fine Art, Seattle, WA 2013 Sated, Winston Wächter Fine Art, Seattle, WA 2012 Falling Feels A Lot Like Flying, Bellevue Arts Museum, Bellevue WA 2009 Making Arrangements, Wexler Gallery, Philadelphia, PA 2006 Ornament, Wexler Gallery, Philadelphia, PA 2004 Politics of Clay, Clay Art Center, Port Chester, NY

Wexler Gallery, Philadelphia, PA 2003 John Elder Gallery, New York, NY

Selected Group Exhibitions 2013 e 28th Alabama Clay Conference, Birmingham Art Museum,

Birmingham, AL 2012 Shifting Paradigms, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX

Enough is as good as a feast, Gallery Jones, Vancouver, BC 2010 Bellevue Biennial, Bellevue Arts Museum, Bellevue, WA

Hermaphrodite, Ferrin Gallery/Wexler Gallery, Philadelphia, PA Portraiture Beyond Likeness, Ethel Sergeant Clark Smith Gallery, Wayne, PA

2009 5th World Ceramic Exposition Biennial, Gwango-dong, South Korea New Works, Two person show, Gallery Jones, Vancouver, British Columbia SOFA Chicago, Chicago, IL with Wexler Gallery

2008 Confrontational Ceramics, Westchester Arts Council, White Plains, NY A Human Impulse, Arizona State University Museum, Tempe, Arizona Between, Wexler Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

2006 Edges of Grace, e Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, MA Body and Mind, Garth Clark Gallery, New York, NY

2005 Politics as Usual, e Yager Museum of Art and Culture, Hartwick College, Oneonta, NY Vanitas, Lacost Gallery, Concord, MA Renwick Art Alliance, Washington, DC

2004 Bare Clay, Ceramic Nudes in 20th Century Art, Garth Clark Gallery, New York, NY

2003 Poetics of Clay, Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, Beaumont TX 2002 Ceramic Masterworks, Moderne Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

SOFA Exhibition, Chicago, IL, w/ Helen Drutt Galley Ceramic Artists of the Northeast, e Slater Museum, Norwich, CT New Talent: New Work, e Clay Studio, Philadelphia, PA

2001 Gallery Group Plus, Helen Drutt Galley, Philadelphia, PA Craft at the Turn of the Millennium, e Monmouth Museum, Lincroft, NJ Reunion, Helen Drutt Gallery, Philadelphia, PA e Figure Show, Pewabic Pottery Gallery, Detroit, MI

Collections Birmingham Art Museum, Birmingham, AL Fuller Museum, Brocktom, MA Icheon Museum, World Ceramic Center, Gwango-dong, South Korea ASU Art Museum, Tempe, AZ e Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX e Smithsonian, American Art Museum, Renwick Gallery, Washington, DC e International Museum of Ceramic Art, Alfred, NY Southern Progress Corporate Collection, Birmingham, AL

Grants and Awards 2012 Virginia A. Groot Foundation Grant, third place City of Bellevue

Special project grant, Bellevue, WA 2011 Canada Council for the Arts, Production Grant 2010 Bellevue Arts Museum Biennial winner, John & Joyce Price Award

of Excellence

Consuming Allegory, 2012, ceramic, wood, epoxy, 76 x 64 x 30 inches

203 Dexter Avenue North, Seattle WA 98109

gallery@winstonwachter.com www.winstonwachter.com

Premonition, 2008, ceramic and mixed media, 10 x 28 x 6 inches