Sunday, January 30, 2011

Charles Krafft Is Coming to Houston

As I have mentioned a few times before on this blog, I lived in Seattle in the early 90s for about four years, followed by a year in Portland, Oregon. (Portlandia is a treat for me.) I got tangentially involved in the Seattle art scene then, and one of the people I met was Charles Krafft. When I first met him, he was primarily a painter, highly influenced by local Seattle art god Morris Graves. (A town has to count itself as lucky if it has Morris Graves and Mark Tobey as founding fathers of its art scene.) But in the early 90s, Krafft had become interested in employing what seemed like a kitsch craft--delftware--ironically. It may have seemed like just a one-off chuckle at first, but it has turned into his primary means of expression. And in using delft ceramics as a starting point, Krafft has turned himself into a serious craftsman (with a name like Krafft, it seems inevitable).

His work will be part of the exhibit Momento Mori at PG Contemporary (opening on February 5), along with work by Kenn Coplan and Wayne Gilbert. Gilbert and Krafft have one macabre similarity--they both use human remains in their work. This is going to be a very interesting exhibit. I encourage folks to come check it out. Meanwhile, here's a great video portrait of Krafft.





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