NYAB Event - Svend Bayer Exhibition

Svend Bayer Exhibition

The Jane Hartsook Gallery

This event has ended.

The Jane Hartsook Gallery presents the New York City solo exhibition debut of Svend Bayer. Bayer makes pots of enormous generosity in form and feeling. A deeply reflective pottery that uses tradition as a starting point for making a body of work that is deeply thoughtful and introspective.

“I think a good pot it has to kind of reveal something about the maker. What you find in it is actually not so different than you would hope to find in another person. You would hope to find sort of life and a kind of response – it’s a rightness. I think it is important that you would want to touch it, to hold it. I use to think that there had to be evidence of good craftsmanship. I’m not sure about that anymore; in fact I don’t think it really matters. I think that craftsmanship is simply a tool which enables you to express yourself.”— Svend Bayer

Svend Bayer was born in 1946 in Uganda to Danish parents. He attended
Exeter University, was a pupil of Michael Cardew, and worked as a thrower at
Brannam’s Pottery. In the 1970’s Svend established his own pottery facility at
Sheepwash in Devon with kilns based on structures he encountered during
his year-long travels in Japan, South Korea, and South East Asia. The site was
chosen for the proximity to the North Devon ball clay mines and sawmills.
Since 2000 he has had solo exhibitions at Harlequin Gallery, Beardsmore,
Rufford Ceramics Centre, North Cornwall Gallery, University of Utah,
Northern Clay Center, Sturt Gallery, Gallery Lykke, Slader’s Yard, Goldmark
Gallery, and the Craft Potter’s Association, London. The recipient of the John Ruskin Award and two S.W. Arts Major Awards, Svend has held residencies at Utah State University, Sturt, New London Arts Center and given workshops in Britain, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Francem Canada, U.S.A., Australia, and New Zealand. Svend has designed and built over 18 wood-fire kilns championed for both their beauty and functionality.