Exhibitions > 2017 Post Painted Pottery

This exhibition was supported by the Gansu Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs and was held in the Lanzhou City University Art Department Gallery, in Lanzhou China. It was the culmination of the work done over two months by four visiting ceramic artists, Keaton Wynn, Matthew Courtney, Steven Driver and David Hooker. The work of Matthew Courtney is shown below. The title of the show references the very famous painted pottery found in the region and infers the question, what sort of relevant ceramics can be made after the Gansu painted pottery. Lanzhou was a hub along the Silk Road and was a point of intersection between the west and the east. It was our mission to make artwork in ceramics about Gansu Province. The Gansu Provincial Government and Lanzhou City University are interested in how westerners see Gansu Province as well as how westerners make art.

Here is a quote from the Gansu Provincial Museum web site regarding Gansu Painted Pottery: Located in upper reaches of the Yellow River, Gansu Province is one of the cradle lands of Chinese Civilization, which is abounding in rich ancient cultural relics. A birthplace of Chinese painted pottery, Gansu enjoys the fame as Home of Painted Pottery with pottery in most types, richest shapes, most exquisite skills, most gorgeous patterns and greatest artistic values. In Gansu Provincial Museum, painted potteries are collected from Dadiwan Culture (6000BC-5000BC), Yangshao Culture (5000BC-3000BC), Majiayao Culture (5100BC-4700BC) and the Chinese Bronze Age (2100BC-500BC). The most celebrated collections in the museum are tripodia painted pottery with broadband patterns, a painted vase with a human-head-shaped mouth, and the famous Dadiwan Drawing.