Chronicles the history of the last half century of ceramic art as seen through the works of some 70 artists from the Marer Collection. Essays discuss artistic and historical issues such as the unity of the designer and maker and new stylistic avenues from the 1960s to the present. Includes color plates and a checklist of the entire collection. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

With an artistic career spanning four decades, Virgil Ortiz (Cochiti Pueblo) is one of the most innovative artists working today. Not one to be limited or categorized, Ortiz's artistry extends across mediums and boundaries--challenging societal expectations and breaking taboos. Ortiz was taught traditional pueblo pottery techniques passed down from a matrilineal line of renowned Cochiti potters--grandmother Laurencita Herrera (1912-1984) and mother Seferina Ortiz (1931-2007). Virgil Ortiz: reVOlution is a midcareer retrospective that presents a view into Ortiz's transformative pottery and art to illuminate his creative and artistic manifestations. With a vision that merges apocalyptic themes, science fiction, and storytelling, Ortiz's ingenuity as a contemporary artist, provocateur, activist, futurist, and preservationist extends to his creativity working across media including pottery, design, fashion, film, jewelry, and décor. This beautiful book features more than 200 works of art selected by Virgil Ortiz as well as his artist statement. Curator Karen Kramer contributes a compelling portrait of the artist in the foreword to Charles S. King's biography. In addition, this book represents a unique collaboration between book designer and artist with Ortiz leaving his imprint on each page.

A thrilling new Victorian-era urban fantasy for fans of Kevin Hearne’s Iron Druid Chronicles, the Showtime series Penny Dreadful, and the Sherlock Holmes movies featuring Robert Downey, Jr. They are the realm’s last, best defense against supernatural evil. But they’re going to need a lot more silver. As fog descends, obscuring the gas lamps of Victorian London, werewolves prowl the shadows of back alleys. But they have infiltrated the inner circles of upper-crust society as well. Only a handful of specially gifted practitioners are equipped to battle the beasts. Among them are the roguish Simon Archer, who conceals his powers as a spell-casting scribe behind the smooth veneer of a dashing playboy; his layabout mentor, Nick Barker, who prefers a good pub to thrilling heroics; and the self-possessed alchemist Kate Anstruther, who is equally at home in a ballroom as she is on a battlefield. After a lycanthrope targets Kate’s vulnerable younger sister, the three join forces with fierce Scottish monster-hunter Malcolm MacFarlane—but quickly discover they’re dealing with a threat far greater than anything they ever imagined. Praise for The Shadow Revolution “Team Griffith creates a number of really compelling characters whose exploits will keep readers glued to the pages! Terrific!”—RT Book Reviews “A fast-paced, action-filled dark fantasy that is just sheer fun to read . . . The Shadow Revolution kicks off the Crown & Key series in spectacular fashion!”—Fresh Fiction “Werewolves, mad science, and plenty of smiting. Pass the popcorn.”—Emma Jane Holloway, author of The Baskerville Affair series "A thrilling read! Clay and Susan Griffith have crafted a gritty, action-packed Victorian-era fantasy world full of dark creatures, mystery, and magic—a must read for steampunk fans!”—Shawntelle Madison, author of the Coveted series “What happens when you kick off a new urban fantasy series with a fantastic setting and unique characters, and you throw in some dangerous, supernatural creatures, evil madmen, murder and mayhem? You get a kick-ass book to read. . . . I want more, please!”—Book Swoon “If summer blockbuster action movies existed back in the Victorian era, they would look a lot like The Shadow Revolution. This book doesn’t mess around. . . . Highly recommended.”—The BiblioSanctum “One hell of a read . . . [With] unforgettable characters and magic around every bend, this truly was a breath of fresh air.”—My Guilty Obsession “The story is pretty fast-paced, the mystery intriguing and refreshingly surprising, and the action thrilling. [The Shadow Revolution] pulls you in and barely lets you up for air, and I love the intensity of that kind of storytelling.”—Refracted Light “So good that I won’t be surprised if this book series is opted to be a TV show or movie with an accompanying video game! Great storytelling, great plot and most of all great book!”—Marienela

This groundbreaking book is the first to provide a critical overview of the relationship between contemporary ceramics and curatorial practice in museum culture. Ceramic objects form a major part of museum collections, with connections to anthropology, archaeology and other disciplines that engage with the cultural and social history of humankind. In recent years museums have provided the impetus for cutting-edge artistic practice, either as a response to particular collections, or as part of exhibitions. But the question of how museums have staged contemporary ceramics and how ceramic artists respond to museum collections has not been the subject of published research to date. This book examines how ceramic artists have, over the last decade, begun to animate museum collections in new ways, and reflects on the impact that these new initiatives have had in the broad context of visual culture. Ceramics in the Expanded Field is the culmination of a three-year AHRC funded project, and reflects its major findings. It brings together leading international voices in the field of ceramics, research undertaken throughout the project and papers delivered at the concluding conference. By examining the benefits and constraints of interventions and the dialogue between ceramics and museological practice, this book will bring focus to an area of museology that has not yet been theorized, and will contribute to policy debates and art practice.

Clay's Tectonic Shift focuses on artists John Mason (b. 1927), Kenneth Price (1935-2012), and Peter Voulkos (1924–2002) and their radical early work in postwar Los Angeles where they formed the vanguard of a new California ceramics movement. The three artists broke from the craft tradition that emphasized the function of a piece. Experimenting with scale, surface, color, and volume, their work was instrumental in elevating ceramics from a craft to a fine art. Earlier exhibitions and publications stated that key innovations in this new ceramics movement were made at the Otis Art institute and that its direction was defined by a group of students surrounding the charismatic leader Voulkos. The truth is that the new trend in ceramics was driven by the works that Price, Mason, and Voulkos made in a subsequent, independent phase when they were working as professional artists in Los Angeles, and the goal of Clay's Tectonic Shift is to correct that misperception. These three artists followed individual paths as they willfully propelled a new use of the medium into the mainstream professional arena, where it was widely recognized and documented. An exhibition of the same name will be on view at the Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery at Scripps College from January 21 through April 8, 2012, as part of Pacific Standard Time, a collaboration of more than sixty cultural institutions across Southern California to tell the story of the birth of the Los Angeles art scene.

Welcome to the new future of involvement. Forming groups is easier than it�s ever been: unpaid volunteers can build an encyclopaedia together in their spare time, mistreated customers can join forces to get their revenge on airlines and high street banks, and one man with a laptop can raise an army to help recover a stolen phone. The results of this new world of easy collaboration can be both good (young people defying an oppressive government with a guerrilla ice-cream eating protest) and bad (girls sharing advice for staying dangerously skinny) but it�s here and, as Clay Shirky shows, it�s affecting � well, everybody. For the first time, we have the tools to make group action truly a reality. And they�re going to change our whole world.

As French consul to the Carolinas and Georgia, Citizen Mangourit was dispatched in 1792 to capitalize on the fledgling alliance between the young republics as opportunity to spread the French Revolution into Spanish holdings in the Floridas and Louisiana. In his analysis of the public and clandestine activities of Mangourit during his short tenure in Charleston, Alderson presents a case study of the challenge given to U.S. republicanism by its French counterpart. Mangourit tapped into a wide range of support for the French Revolution and its implications for South Carolina, drawing support for his cause from well-off planters and disenfranchised groups of backcountrymen, slaves, and women..In the end he was recalled before the invasion projects could be carried out. French and American republicanism quickly diverged, and the French lost their best opportunity to reclaim their empire in North America. Aldersons study shows that the tension between republicanism and self-interest could be resolved at the local level, but republicanism could not be the only basis for national relations.