Future Archaeology, Bryan Czibesz and Shawn Spangler

Installation view, Future Archaeology, 2017. Photo: courtesy of Greenwich House Pottery. Photographer: Alan Wiener.

Future Archeology
Bryan Czibesz and Shawn Spangler
February 17 – March 17, 2017

Future Archaeology is a collaborative two person exhibition with Bryan Czibesz and Shawn Spangler. Together, they assemble human and machine-made vessels by utilizing the potter’s wheel and a custom 3D printer. Czibesz and Spangler draw inspiration from archaeological vessels. They reinvestigate these forms with their own wheel or 3D printer as a way of integrating objects into a new context. The aesthetics of Czibesz and Spangler’s work echo their creative methods and tools for production – altogether presenting fluidity, geometry and precision.

Both the potter’s wheel and ceramics 3D printer function as fresh tools of invention, bringing undiscovered opportunities for the material. For Czibesz and Spangler, their tools become an extension of themselves. Czibesz fabricates and customizes his 3D printer, instructing the machine how to mold the clay with digital scans, designs and alterations. Spangler uses the potter’s wheel as an efficient, tangible method for forming vessels. His manipulation of the material leaves impressions on the clay. With this unification of two contrasting tools, Czibesz and Spangler demonstrate the intersection between past human activities and cultural materials of the future. Spangler states “we bestow these objects with the power to narrate our experience…” guiding us to locate “where we once were and where we are going.” Together, they question authorship, explore artifacts and present us with dazzling emblems of this process.

Bryan Czibesz earned his MFA from San Diego State University and has shown his work at the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, the Riga Porcelain Museum and the Ceramics Annual at Scripps College. He has been an Artist-in-Residence at The International Ceramics Studio in Kecskemet, Hungary, c.r.e.t.a. Rome, the Clay Studio in Philadelphia and the University of Hawaii at Mānoa. He is currently Assistant Professor of Art in Ceramics at SUNY New Paltz.

Shawn Spangler holds an MFA degree from Alfred University in NY and has been an Artist-in-Residence in Jingdezhen, China, Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts and the Clay Studio in Philadelphia. Spangler is a founding member of the artist collective, Objective Clay and currently serves as Assistant Professor of Art at the University of Hawaii.

Czibesz and Spangler have previously collaborated for exhibitions at Houston Center for Contemporary Craft in Houston, TX, The Center for Craft, Creativity & Design in Ashville, NC and the United States Department of State in Karor, Palau.