BLU Time: Ceramics by Deighton Abrams

Deighton Abrams’ Artist Talk on Thursday, February 19 at 2pm as a closing for his exhibition BLU Time.

BLU Time is disorienting by design. The first gallery or “Black Room” is organized to call to mind a cabinet of curiosities. Finely crafted lustrous black vessels sport crude, other-worldly attachments that resemble familiar objects but are intentionally indistinct. In contrast, other black vessels are fabricated as unrefined, vaguely familiar forms. The vessels are tightly gathered in a nightmarish but playful grouping intended to mimic our current absurd politics and environmental corruption.

The second room or “Blue Room” continues the exploration of “our current predicament” with increased emphasis on spiritual/landscape narratives. Deighton explains, “Through sculptural scenes, I explore the anxieties and disillusionment born from a landscape of political turmoil and ecological crisis.” Deighton’s material choices of cheap lumber, ubiquitous pink insulation board are all intentional environmental symbols. He contrasts these basic building materials with the preciousness of clay embellished with delicate brushwork that records his symbolic clouds and indistinct landscapes. The spirituality of BLU Time culminates in “Autonomy Stone and Altar” as it commands the end wall of the “Blue Room” surrounded by niche sculptures. There is no spiritual peace in BLU Time only unsettling, off kilter, fore shadowing that portend no catharsis.

Deighton is a ceramic sculptor and educator. He is currently a lecturer in art at Auburn University. He completed his MFA in Studio Ceramics at Clemson University and his undergraduate studies Magna Cum Laude at Armstrong University (now Georgia Southern University) in Savannah, Georgia. Though originally from Alaska, he has spent an equal amount of time in the South including Georgia, Texas, and South Carolina. He has shown work both nationally and internationally. Thank you, Deighton, for not only delivering your work but also generously coming to GTC to give a Gallery Talk on February 19.

BLU Time is on view now through February 19 in the Department of Visual Arts, Greenville Technical College. The Benson Campus Galleries at 2522 Locust Hill Road are open to the public Monday – Thursday, 9am – 7pm and Friday, 9am – 2pm. Visit www.gvltec.edu/dva for more information or call Pat Owens, Gallery Assistant at 864 250-3051 or email Fleming Markel, Gallery Director at [email protected].