"True and Real" NCECA Annual Exhibition

curated by Judith Schwartz

​

7 March - 31 May, 2025
Utah Museum of Art

Salt Lake City,

Utah, USA

​

The NCECA Annual Exhibition, True and Real, will run concurrently with FORMATION, the 59th annual conference of the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts, Salt Lake City, Utah, March 26-29, 2025. The NCECA Annual blends impactful attributes of invitational and open juried models of exhibition development. Exhibition curator Judith S. Schwartz's organizing concept is brought to life through the work of five invited artists. The curator will select additional works and artists for the exhibition through an open call for submissions.

Schwartz shares the following about her vision for the exhibition:

Life in the twenty-first century has witnessed enormous social change. While each generation perceives increments of change, this century, propelled by advances in technology, is generally recognized as one of the most destabilizing and disorienting. Robotics, artificial intelligence, demographic shifts in population, population growth (negative and positive), environmental challenges, social media, self-driving cars, and medical advances, to name but a few, have all contributed to this emotional upheaval.

For millennia, the medium of clay has chronicled the human condition and has often borne witness to ethnic, national, gender, and cultural identities. Seen in this light, ceramics’ place in contemporary art is becoming more and more valued as a transformative medium that is intimately human, unassuming, and distinctively expressive.

As new technologies, including Artificial Intelligence, blur the distinction between artifice and reality, people of imagination are seeking - no - demanding that which is True and Real. This quest has never been more urgent.


True and Real seeks artists and artworks that highlight issues that resonate with the complexities of the current condition…the concerns, fears, and issues that create a common ground to which we can all relate. The art might reveal an empathic voice that responds to who I am, what I value, and how I can be seen, heard, and understood. It invites narrative content, representation, and figuration on ceramic form in all its variations. The intent is to strengthen the power of art to convey personal values and the social condition - to appreciate broader-based understanding, appreciation, and tolerance for our cultural diversity, personal interests, values, and priorities.

ABOUT THE CURATOR:

Judith S. Schwartz, Ph.D., is a Professor Emeritus from New York University and president of The Museum of Ceramic Art - New York (MoCA/NY). During her tenure at NYU, she served as head of the Sculpture in Craft Media area for forty years. As a curator, Schwartz’s exhibitions have garnered national and international attention. Notable exhibitions include NYNY: Clay, All Fired Up, InCiteful Clay, and Confrontational Ceramics, for which she also authored an eponymously title book. Learn more at www.judyschwartz.com.

ABOUT THE MUSEUM
The Utah Museum of Contemporary Art (UMOCA) believes in the power of the art of our time. Through programming, advocacy, and collaboration, we work with artists and communities to build a better world.

Since 1931, UMOCA has been a gathering space for artists and creatives in our region. Today, UMOCA’s exhibitions, art education programs, community engagement, and one-of-a-kind artist residency support local artists and communities while showcasing art from across the nation and globe.

UMOCA is a seven-time recipient of funding from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and a two-time recipient of the Art Works Grant from the National Endowment for the Art.