In its fifth year as a national competition and exhibition, the 2014 NCECA National Student Juried Exhibition hosted by the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design is the largest in number of works presented, exhibiting 59 works by 57 artists from across the USA. Juried by Tara Wilson and Jeffrey Mongrain, the NSJE showcases authentic and relevant art created by the emerging talent in the academic ceramics scene. Expressive, experimental and emotionally charged; the desire for a deeper, more profound understanding of personal and cultural identity is the exhibition’s dominant theme, finding voice through figurative, abstract and functional genres. Seeking to make a cultural impact through communication, connection and community involvement; hope threads through a variety of strands that resonate with student artists such as psychology, science and technology, design and function, sustainability, play, natural and built environments. Presented in formats that range from large-scale installations to the intimate cup, self-reflective works full of skill, humor, wit and beauty offer insight into the private lives of the artists, while their historical and global references display the artists’ education, experience and motivation in finding their place in the larger culture and age-old ceramic story.
Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design will host the 2014 NCECA National Student Juried Exhibition,
March 4 – March 22, 2014. Public reception Thursday March 20 6-9pm.
As NCECA’s Exhibitions Director, it has been my pleasure to oversee the expansion of our student exhibition from a regional to more inclusive national competition that offers an international platform for emerging talent at the annual NCECA conference. I am very excited to share in the effort to create our first NSJE stand-alone catalog. As always I want to acknowledge and offer gratitude to the many people who worked to make such an exhibition possible. Thank you to the exhibiting artists, as well as the many other artists who were not accepted, but helped form a strong talent pool and are the fertile soil from which the next generation of ceramic art will spring. Thank you to their teachers and mentors. Deepest appreciation goes to our jurors, Tara Wilson and Jeffry Mongrain for selecting a dynamic and vital exhibition. My heartfelt gratitude to Mark Lawson and his staff at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design for hosting this large and diverse exhibition. Another note of thanks goes to our award sponsors. And much gratitude goes out to the NCECA staff and board, especially Josh Green for his leadership, support and detail work in editing and catalog design, to Kate Vorhaus for her support and work with our artists and Candice Finn who has earned a special acknowledgment for her smart catalog design. It has been a pleasure to work with our Student Directors at Large and I would like to acknowledge the efforts of Kevin Ramler and Maccabee Shelley for their roles in bringing the 2014 NCECA National Student Juried Exhibition to our audiences.
