Jim Matson's Intersection @ Cardinal Stritich University

Ceramics enlivens art through many forms to incorporate various techniques and materials, whether porcelain or clay, cast, molded or hand-shaped, and fired with or without glaze. Cardinal Stritch University hosts a provocative exhibition demonstrating ceramic art in “Jim Matson {Intersection},” which continues through December 10 in the Northwestern Mutual Art Gallery outside the Joan Steele Stein Center. Well over fifty pieces express his surrealist perspective to art created in ceramics and mixed media.

Along several walls in the University gallery small wall reliefs resembling altarpieces display Matson's Relic Series and reference iconic phrases, pop culture, and eccentric concepts. The six inches tall, rounded top reliefs often imagine witty proverbs or illustrate a singular theme. By juxtaposing found objects with wood frames and ceramic trinkets, Matson explores the meaning to different measures in Time Out, a relic that connects pulleys, tiny clock faces and reclaimed levels. Other titles in this series include Waiting for Godot, Radio,Card Trick, Shoot Out and Big Apple. Studying each miniature diorama engages the viewer with a sly smile.

Matson explains in an artist's statement that his sculptures express an inner human struggle that relates to classical and primitive art. His recent personal experience with his mother's death now influences his artwork in a profound way. These struggles imbue his two five feet male/female ceramics with this hint of conflict although  he titles each Dialogue. The very thin, white, African art like figures (similar to female fertility figures) turn away from each other, standing on colored mosaic platforms. A large black X scratches the man's chest, while an O inscribes the woman's protruding belly. In a related pair also in the gallery, colored figures face each other, the male and female splattered with black markings like tiny injuries on the skin's surface.

Other busts reference sculptural antiquities with contemporary inferences. The heads feature a variety of textures evoking the emotion written in the pedestal with bold capital letters: Scorned, Fire,Sincere and Leap of Faith. Fire portrays a man's elongated head, riddled in black, gray and white texture, similar to burn tissue, with a long black scar on one cheek.

Other artworks fascinate the viewer with their combination of ceramic and mixed media. A large installation/sculpture titled Shelter places tiny television screens inside a six-feet high wooden house where a large bust (perhaps a self portrait?) arises from the roof. A set of six small statues standing on thin pedestals invite the viewer to envision meaning from the ceramic wall reliefs behind them. Three of these create a feminine triptych, with a star of David, a cross, and crescent moon inscribed into a ceramic wall relief behind them.  

Outside the Joan Steele Stein Center, Gary John Gresl's 90 Day Lawn Ornament highlights three interpretations to a kitschy cultural icon reminiscent of pink plastic flamingos and large metallic silver balls on cement stands. Gresl's three free standing sculpture gravitate towards the darker side, with ominous overtones, that perhaps reference environmental decay.

A silver and blue pair of worms or snake like forms intertwine very close to the ground in one sculpture. A concrete, bare boned tree swirls with black and white bark as it's copper branches protrude from the ends, an apprehensive fairy tale vision, where one is unsure what might come from this vegetation.  The tree appears to be dead, or waiting for rebirth, that creates a dual uncertainty.  Finally, two interconnected steel pipes spew a black liquid towards each other in a decorative spiral, perhaps the most interesting of the three installations. Viewed all together, exhibition and installation, visit the University to admire Matson's extraordinary ceramic art and arresting human figures while contemplating Gresl's trio of lawn ornaments.