Paul Scott and Ferrin Gallery
Shelburne Museum Exhibition
By: Ferrin - May 20, 2024
In fall 2012, Leslie Ferrin and Paul Scott met for the first time in Adelaide, Australia as presenters at the Australian Ceramics Triennale Subversive Clay. It was their shared interest in printed ceramics, and one particular plate that brought them together. Paul, well established, internationally known as an artist, educator, scholar and author of several books (including Ceramics and Print ) was introduced by artist Stephen Bowers to Leslie, dealer and specialist in contemporary ceramics. Paul was holding a proof copy of his book Horizon: Transferware And Contemporary Ceramics, developed from an exhibition at National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo, Norway. Within it was an image of a souvenir plate featuring Views of the Mohawk Trail and Hairpin Turn (detail below). Leslie, also a collector of souvenir plates, promptly invited him to visit the site, close to Ferrin Contemporary and Project Art in Western Massachusetts.
A year after that serendipitous meeting, Paul was to be a visiting artist at The Clay Studio in Philadelphia. They began planning an itinerary to meet with museum curators exploring museum collections of 19th century transferware, and to visit Project Art, later to become his part time US studio. The work he created in 2013 reflected this new American research and featured images from Philadelphia, New Jersey and New York. This American Scenery series debuted at the New York Ceramics Fair, immediately attracting the attention of a number of museums that acquired his work for their permanent collections. The Alturas Foundation also bought works and later provided funding for a multi year artist residency in the US. Initially guided by the images depicted in the historic transferware, Paul traveled to cities, explored natural landscapes, met collaborators and produced a substantive body of work New American Scenery. First shown in 2019 in the newly renovated porcelain room at RISD Museum, the exhibition traveled next to Albany Institute of History & Art in 2022. Selected works were featured in exhibitions at other locations in the US and UK, with four iterations open now in the USA.
In 2024, we are pleased to share Paul Scott's newest commissioned work "Cumbrian Blue(s), New American Scenery, (Sampler Jug No:10), Shelburne & Sugar", featured above as the centerpiece of his solo exhibition at the Shelburne Museum curated by Kory Rogers - CONFECTED, BORROWED & BLUE: TRANSFERWARE BY PAUL SCOTT.
"You can roam where fancy leads you Over hill and dale
But you haven't seen America
'Till you've seen the Mohawk Trail."