Gallery r features work inspired by China visit

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RIT’s Gallery r will host an upcoming group exhibition by sculptors who returned last year from a Chinese institute.

Gallery r, Rochester Institute of Technology’s metro showcase and learning laboratory for the arts, is hosting an upcoming group exhibition of sculpture that six artists completed during a recent trip to China.

“Liquid Earth” features work by artists including Elizabeth Kronfield, associate professor and program and graduate director of the Fine Arts Studio department within RIT’s School of Art in the College of Imaging Arts and Sciences. The exhibit will take place from Aug. 5 to 23 at Gallery r, 100 College Ave. A free reception, open to the public, is scheduled from 6 to 9 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 7, as part of downtown Rochester’s First Friday ARTWalk.

Kronfield, who was invited to China to complete an artist residency, will display her work along with five other sculptors who returned last year from the Sanbao Ceramic Art Institute in Jingdezhen, China. She and her fellow artists spent the majority of time in Jingdezhen, working among local artisans and craftspeople along with industrial foundries.

“I personally gained through this experience so much knowledge, growth as an artist and friendships,” said Kronfield, who creates her sculpture using cast metal, carved stone, cast concrete and horsehair in addition to working with natural fibers translated into cast iron. “The people that I met and materials I worked with will forever change my life and making.”

She noted that the exhibit represents only some of the work produced by the group “highlighting the materials and displaying some of the similarities along with the differences between porcelain and iron created through heat and fire.”

In addition to Kronfield’s work, the exhibit will feature sculpture by Tobias Flores, John Hachmeister, Vaughn Randall, Isaac Van Houten and Matthew Wicker. Each of the artists worked with porcelain and cast iron—the two materials most commonly associated with the Sanbao and Jingdezhen regions.

“The finished pieces are the result of multiple collaborations with expert craftsmen and foundry men in Jingdezhen and Nanchang and create an intriguing body of work,” she said.

Kronfield is sponsoring the exhibition. For more information, call 585-475-4977.