CHOY GALLERY
FLOW II: ELINA TOPERMAN

JUNE 28 - JULY 26, 2008
GALLERY HOURS:
MONDAY - SATURDAY
10am - 4 pm

Opening Reception:
SATURDAY, JUNE 28, 2008
6 - 8 PM

Flow II is an extension of Elina Toperman's MFA thesis project, Flow, which she completed last spring at the State University of New York at New Paltz. Through her experiments with plaster and porcelain casting slip, Elina has managed to create compelling architectural works that merge the opposing forces of permanence and fluidity. Elina plays with the fluid nature of glaze in its molten state, allowing gravity to be a tool in the firing process that completes the work. Before the works go into the kiln, they are static and precise, with two layers of glaze applied in a meticulous pattern. When they emerge from the kiln, they are transformed, with lines and colors fused together and then frozen mid-movement, seeming to capture a moment in time.

In her artist statement, Elina Toperman writes: "The idea for this project has appeared as a result of my experiments with plaster and porcelain. I am interested in the collaboration of ceramics, architecture and interior design, specifically the integration of precise architectural geometry and the freshness of the ceramic material as manipulated in my design. I create surface and structure that work in collaboration with architectural elements and can be easily installed inside and outside of buildings.

"I am interested in the visual and physical fusion of spontaneity and precision. I investigate and collaborate these two terms through visual images, content and the process of making ceramic tiles.   In the tile design I combine spontaneous movement and precise line application. Sometimes the surface of the tile captures the fluidity and freshness of wet ceramic materials and sometimes it has a carefully thought out, precise line pattern. These tiles are created in order to create a specific environment in architectural projects."

Born in Russia, Elina Toperman attended the College of Fine Art, majoring in S culpture and

Teaching in Penza. She then moved to Israel and acquired her B.F.A in C eramic D esign at the Bezalel Academ y of Art and Design in Jerusalem. In 2004, Elina came to the United States to pursue her education in ceramics, and became a s pecial student in Ceramics at SUNY New Paltz, where she also completed her M.F.A. in 2007.  

HENRY'S PROJECT
SASSY SURFACES

Sassy Surfaces will feature the works of NY clay artist and CAC instructor Liz Biddle as well as the talents of ten of her students: Tomoko Abe, Reina Mia Brill, Dariel Buszak, Barbara Delaney, Ellen Fagan, Louise McQuade, Francis Reed, Arlette Warner, Jackie Welsh and Jennifer Zern.    Liz's class, entitled Alternative Surface Techniques, has inspired her students to explore other methods for completing their expressive works.