Wendy A Gers (PhD)
Curator, modern & contemporary ceramics, Princessehof National Museum of Ceramics, the Netherlands. Activist scholar, artist coach & mentor, environmental entreupeneur. Founcer, Clean Green Ceramics and Ceramics Coach. Winner of numerous prizes & accolades, she serves ceramics artists & institutions by advancing their practices, & pushing the bundaries of the medium & the field.
Gers is a Research Apost-Doctoral Research Fellow at Tshwane University of Technology, South Africa. She was founding Co-Director of La Céramique Comme Experience (CCE) at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d'Arts, Limoges, France.
Recent curatorial projects include ‘Cont{r}act Earth’, The First Central China International Ceramics Biennale, Henan Museum, China (12/2016-03/2017) and ‘Post-colonialisms?’,, Israel (11/2016-01/2017). She was the curator of the critically acclaimed ‘Terra-Nova’ edition of the Taiwan Ceramics Biennale, (05-10/2014), which attracted over 660 000 visitors.
Laureate of the City Press’s prestigious annual award for 100 ‘World-Class South Africans’ 2014 in the category 'Newsmakers and Shapeshifters', Gers was included in the 2014 Marquis Who’s Who in the World, International Biography.
Gers is the recipient of a PhD from the University of Sunderland, BA; Advanced University Diploma in Information Studies (AUDIS), & MA in History of Art (cum laude), from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
Internationally recognised for her pioneering research in the domains of ceramics history, design and theory; Gers has organised panels at international conferences & been invited to deliver numerous keynote addresses and guest lectures at Biennales and Colloquia in Africa, Australia, East Asia, Europe & the USA.
She is the author of various museum catalogues and over 30 scholarly journal articles as well as other texts (translations, book and exhibition reviews etc).
Her 2016 publication on Southern African Potteries 1880-1980 (395 pages), Scorched Earth (Jacana Media), is a landmark text, and is sold out.
Gers has also contributed to the pioneer volume, The Ceramics Reader (Bloomsbury Academic Press 2017).
Current research interests include the environmental impact of ceramics, OHS, scenography, and post-colonial studies.
Supervisors: Prof Andrew Livingstone (PhD Supervisor) and Dr Alexandra Moschovi
Address: https://www.wendygers.org/
Gers is a Research Apost-Doctoral Research Fellow at Tshwane University of Technology, South Africa. She was founding Co-Director of La Céramique Comme Experience (CCE) at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d'Arts, Limoges, France.
Recent curatorial projects include ‘Cont{r}act Earth’, The First Central China International Ceramics Biennale, Henan Museum, China (12/2016-03/2017) and ‘Post-colonialisms?’,, Israel (11/2016-01/2017). She was the curator of the critically acclaimed ‘Terra-Nova’ edition of the Taiwan Ceramics Biennale, (05-10/2014), which attracted over 660 000 visitors.
Laureate of the City Press’s prestigious annual award for 100 ‘World-Class South Africans’ 2014 in the category 'Newsmakers and Shapeshifters', Gers was included in the 2014 Marquis Who’s Who in the World, International Biography.
Gers is the recipient of a PhD from the University of Sunderland, BA; Advanced University Diploma in Information Studies (AUDIS), & MA in History of Art (cum laude), from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
Internationally recognised for her pioneering research in the domains of ceramics history, design and theory; Gers has organised panels at international conferences & been invited to deliver numerous keynote addresses and guest lectures at Biennales and Colloquia in Africa, Australia, East Asia, Europe & the USA.
She is the author of various museum catalogues and over 30 scholarly journal articles as well as other texts (translations, book and exhibition reviews etc).
Her 2016 publication on Southern African Potteries 1880-1980 (395 pages), Scorched Earth (Jacana Media), is a landmark text, and is sold out.
Gers has also contributed to the pioneer volume, The Ceramics Reader (Bloomsbury Academic Press 2017).
Current research interests include the environmental impact of ceramics, OHS, scenography, and post-colonial studies.
Supervisors: Prof Andrew Livingstone (PhD Supervisor) and Dr Alexandra Moschovi
Address: https://www.wendygers.org/
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Curatorial Portfolio by Wendy A Gers (PhD)
Modern & Contemporary Ceramics by Wendy A Gers (PhD)
The first ground-breaking fundraiser, held in August 2020, included an online exhibition, professionally curated by Dr. Wendy Gers, a program of speakers & demonstrators organized by Joshua Collinson, and a global fundraising raffle of art and pottery overseen by Vipoo Srivilasa.
Over 10K USD were raised & donated to international organizations that support
Black Lives Matter, Anti-Racism, Human Rights, and dignity for all.
https://www.ceramicsforcharity.com/
This article is intended as a critical companion to the exhibition Blanco Esteka, which was held from 23 October 2014 in Sala de Arte de Las Condes Centro Civico, Santiago, Chile. The exhibition alludes to whiteness, an important field of aesthetic and theoretical investigation for Modern and contemporary western artists and art theorists. After an initial presentation of the formal characteristics of whiteness as related to artistic practices and materials (most notably in respect to paint and canvas), as well as spatial configurations (such as the ‘White Cube’). The article then explores the ideological significance of whiteness. Post-Colonial Studies and the nascent field of Whiteness Studies provide methodological tools for considering some of the more transgressive works exhibited on the Blanco exhibition. Ruth Krauskopf and Benjamin Lira’s terracotta sculptures defy a literal interpretation of Blanco. It is argued that these works may be associated with new expressions of Interculturalidad within Latin America. In association with this post-colonialist reading, a critical Materialist reading was developed, that advances the agency of the artists. It was concluded that these works may suggest an infinite latent possibility for the reconstitution of alternative tropes and norms, within contemporary art in Chile, and perhaps beyond.
The first ground-breaking fundraiser, held in August 2020, included an online exhibition, professionally curated by Dr. Wendy Gers, a program of speakers & demonstrators organized by Joshua Collinson, and a global fundraising raffle of art and pottery overseen by Vipoo Srivilasa.
Over 10K USD were raised & donated to international organizations that support
Black Lives Matter, Anti-Racism, Human Rights, and dignity for all.
https://www.ceramicsforcharity.com/
This article is intended as a critical companion to the exhibition Blanco Esteka, which was held from 23 October 2014 in Sala de Arte de Las Condes Centro Civico, Santiago, Chile. The exhibition alludes to whiteness, an important field of aesthetic and theoretical investigation for Modern and contemporary western artists and art theorists. After an initial presentation of the formal characteristics of whiteness as related to artistic practices and materials (most notably in respect to paint and canvas), as well as spatial configurations (such as the ‘White Cube’). The article then explores the ideological significance of whiteness. Post-Colonial Studies and the nascent field of Whiteness Studies provide methodological tools for considering some of the more transgressive works exhibited on the Blanco exhibition. Ruth Krauskopf and Benjamin Lira’s terracotta sculptures defy a literal interpretation of Blanco. It is argued that these works may be associated with new expressions of Interculturalidad within Latin America. In association with this post-colonialist reading, a critical Materialist reading was developed, that advances the agency of the artists. It was concluded that these works may suggest an infinite latent possibility for the reconstitution of alternative tropes and norms, within contemporary art in Chile, and perhaps beyond.
This dissertation elucidates the historical development, key personnel, the ceramics, as well as relevant technical information related to the Kalahari Studio, Drostdy Ware and Crescent Potteries.
This dissertation analyses the broader socio-political and ideological paradigms that framed South African art-making, as well as the international design trends that influenced the local studio ceramics sector. The establishment and demise of the South African studio ceramics industry and requests for tariff protection were considered within this context.
Significant primary research was conducted into the present status of South African studio ceramics from the 1950s in the collections of our heritage institutions.
Wares of all three of the studios reveal a predilection for figurative imagery, especially images of indigenous African women and iconography derived from reproductions of Southern San parietal art. Imagery of African women is considered within the framework of the native study genre in South African painting, sculpture and photography from 1800-1950 and Africana ceramics from 1910-1950.
Similarly, images of San parietal art are investigated within their historical context of a growing public and academic interest in the Bushmen and a surge in publications containing reproductions of San parietal art. Some images of African women and San parietal art conform to pejorative and theoretically problematic modernist cannons of the'other', while some are subversive and undermine the dominant pictorial and ideological artistic conventions.
The traditional Korean technique has been used for 2000 years and is known for its high quality. Treated with Ott, objects become antibacterial, water- and insect-repellent. The resin of the lacquer tree dries in the air and does not need to be fired, and it has the special property of evaporating when heated. In this way, pure clay can be recovered and the ceramic recycling process is completed.