Since I set roots in Northern California in 2017, I have been exploring the region as well as meeting new artists in the area. I met KARI MARBOE in 2019 at Nancy Selvin’s exhibition opening at Patricia Sweetow Gallery, San Francisco. I had met Selvin in 2013 at Chris Gustin’s studio and when I moved to Petaluma, she invited me to give a talk to her students from CALIFORNIA COLLEGE OF ARTS. Selvin introduced me to Marboe. I remember sharing basic courtesies and exchanging our email addresses and then the year just flew by. I saw Marboe again a year later, in the same gallery around the same time of the year. This time, I told her, “Let me know when you have an exhibition in the area, I would love to know more about your practice.” Marboe indeed had an exhibition on view, and she invited me to a panel discussion that was taking place a week later.
Most clay people have come across Daniel Rhodes’s books on ceramics. But it is rare that one sees his art work in exhibitions. A week prior to seeing Marboe’s show, I happened to see a special exhibition, California Clay, at the Petaluma Art Centre. There was a Daniel Rhodes sculpture, alongside a Peter Voulkos and Robert Arneson. I thought to myself, "Yes these men have most certainly helped to shape the California clay history, but where are the contemporary makers?” So I was intrigued when I read the premise for Kari’s show. I thought, “Here is a contemporary artist, who is revisiting a historical figure, but is not shying away from experimentation.” The interactive quality of the entire exhibition was so refreshing that I wanted to know more about Marboe’s work. Her show was one of the last shows I saw before the Bay Area went into shelter-in-place. Given the constraints on traveling, I thought a socially distanced interview could be a great way to know more about her work. I hope this interview gives Studio Potter readers a virtual tour of the exhibition, a peek into Marboe’s practice, and a bit of news from the West Coast.
—Ashwini Bhat, for Studio Potter
Ashwini Bhat: Duplicating Daniel started as a collaborative project between you and the Mills College Art Museum (MCAM). Can you tell our readers more about this project?
