Winston Wächter Fine Art (Seattle) is pleased to present Executing Merit, our second solo exhibition with sculptor Dirk Staschke. Please join us for the opening reception with the artist on Tuesday, March 3, from 6-8 pm.
Northwest ceramicist Dirk Staschke likes to blur boundaries. His work teeters between a wink and a smile and serious contemplation about the value of art. His latest body of work, Executing Merit, takes pleasure in forcing us to look behind the curtain, at the less attractive process of creating beautiful sculptures. At first glace his works are refined homages to traditional still-life paintings, complete with ornate frames. As you move around, you get full view of the work and the process involved in creating them. Unfinished clay bunches and bulges together to support the carefully detailed fronts. Staschke asks us to consider what part medium plays in the value placed on a work of art, and if knowing the process to create it, adds or diminishes to that value. Such weighty questions might feel somber, but Staschke’s playfulness and sense of humor make the task pleasurable. Staschke earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from The University of Montevallo, Alabama and his Master of Fine Arts Degree from Alfred University, in New York. His work has been shown internationally and is included in the permanent collections of the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, DC; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX; Icheon Museum, World Ceramic Center, Gwango-dong, South Korea.
Staschke will be available to discuss his work at the opening reception on March 3, 2015, from 6-8 PM. If you have any questions or requests for additional information please contact Judith Rinehart at gallery@winstonwachter.com or 206.652.5855.
