Text by Matthew Higgs, Kelly Taxter. Interview by Joanne Greenbaum.
The first monograph on a beloved American ceramicist who has been making joyful and original work for nearly 80 years
Born in 1931, and living in New York, Alice Mackler today is still pushing forward not only her own art but also the boundaries of contemporary art across sculpture, painting, drawing and collage. While long beloved and admired by artists, Mackler over the last few years has finally found the wide and enthusiastic audience she deserves. With a focus on the female figure, Mackler’s work is, as Matthew Higgs writes in this book, “a visceral accumulation of her experiences translated into a material form.”
Mackler’s vibrant, voluptuous ceramic sculptures evoke the Venus of Willendorf as well as versions of the female form by Willem de Kooning, Gaston Lachaise and Niki de Saint Phalle. At the same time, her work is in dialogue with contemporary ceramicists such as Ruby Neri, Magdalena Suarez Frimkess and Betty Woodman. The artist cites Paul Klee as an influence on her paintings, which feel rooted in modernism; her drawings call to mind Alexander Calder, Jean Dubuffet and Saul Steinberg.
While these influences and references are telling, this comprehensive overview makes clear that her vision is genuinely her own. As Kelly Taxter writes in the book’s central essay, “Mackler’s visibility resists the seemingly inevitable invisibility that befalls ageing women.” Now approaching the beginning of her ninth decade, Alice Mackler and her art continue to be as vital, urgent and current as ever.
Featured image is reproduced from ‘Alice Mackler'.
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Thursday, May 20 from 6:30–8PM, Gregory R. Miller & Co., New York Consolidated and Kerry Schuss Gallery invite you to a book event celebrating Alice Mackler. Remarks by authors Matthew Higgs and Kelly Taxter will be at 7PM, after which Mackler will sign copies of the book. Alice Mackler: New Work will be on view at the gallery through June 12. continue to blog
Featured spreads are reproduced from Alice Mackler, the first monograph on the nonagenarian ceramicist whose work has only recently received the critical attention it has long deserved. Launching Thursday, May 20, at Kerry Schuss Gallery, this book is both a hot design object—note the super-satisfying orange paper edges—and a great read, featuring essays by Matthew Higgs and Kelly Taxter and an interview of the artist by painter Joanne Greenbaum—with Mackler’s refreshingly blunt responses scratched back by hand. For example, when Greenbaum asks, “What artists or works of art have been most significant to you and how do they influence how you work today?” Mackler replies, “Klee, Miro, Chagall. Alice does what she wants to do.” continue to blog
FORMAT: Hbk, 8 x 11 in. / 184 pgs / 134 color. LIST PRICE: U.S. $45.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $63 GBP £40.00 ISBN: 9781941366332 PUBLISHER: Gregory R. Miller & Co./New York Consolidated AVAILABLE: 2/23/2021 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Active AVAILABILITY: In stock TERRITORY: WORLD
Published by Gregory R. Miller & Co./New York Consolidated. Text by Matthew Higgs, Kelly Taxter. Interview by Joanne Greenbaum.
The first monograph on a beloved American ceramicist who has been making joyful and original work for nearly 80 years
Born in 1931, and living in New York, Alice Mackler today is still pushing forward not only her own art but also the boundaries of contemporary art across sculpture, painting, drawing and collage. While long beloved and admired by artists, Mackler over the last few years has finally found the wide and enthusiastic audience she deserves. With a focus on the female figure, Mackler’s work is, as Matthew Higgs writes in this book, “a visceral accumulation of her experiences translated into a material form.”
Mackler’s vibrant, voluptuous ceramic sculptures evoke the Venus of Willendorf as well as versions of the female form by Willem de Kooning, Gaston Lachaise and Niki de Saint Phalle. At the same time, her work is in dialogue with contemporary ceramicists such as Ruby Neri, Magdalena Suarez Frimkess and Betty Woodman. The artist cites Paul Klee as an influence on her paintings, which feel rooted in modernism; her drawings call to mind Alexander Calder, Jean Dubuffet and Saul Steinberg.
While these influences and references are telling, this comprehensive overview makes clear that her vision is genuinely her own. As Kelly Taxter writes in the book’s central essay, “Mackler’s visibility resists the seemingly inevitable invisibility that befalls ageing women.” Now approaching the beginning of her ninth decade, Alice Mackler and her art continue to be as vital, urgent and current as ever.
