The Curious Teapot
Co-Curators: Julie McClennan and David Charak
January 13 – March 5, 2006

Curators' Statements

With Lewis Carroll as inspiration and starting point, this teapot exhibition seeks to capture the fantastical, whimsical, distorted, exaggerated, non-rational world that enveloped Alice when she chased the White Rabbit down his rabbit hole. It is a show for teapots that do not take reality too seriously, that invite the viewer’s imagination to whirl and spin in a whimsical, and perhaps not quite so whimsical, manner, and that tease a smile or perchance a frown.

This is Craft Alliance’s tenth exhibition on the teapot. In a sense, the teapot is for artists what literary genres are for writers – a release of the artist’s imagination within a rigidly prescribed syntax, in this case: body, spout, lid, handle. Perhaps it is the rich history of the teapot form and the requirements of obeying or cleverly disobeying certain rules that have so piqued contemporary ceramists to add their own statement to this genre.

Julie McClennan
Co-Curator

This is the third teapot show at Craft Alliance that I have participated in. The Curious Teapot is a collection of teapots that all will enjoy. I have been collecting teapots for over 16 years and teapots from Craft Alliance exhibits have become a large part of my collection. In each exhibition, the artists and their creations exceed themselves and become more and more fascinating. This exhibit presents work from emerging to the well-established artists and I hope that you will find a piece here to add or even begin your collection of these wonderful objects of art. Thank you to Leslie Ferrin for all her guidance.

David Charak
Co-Curator