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Press Releases
| 4/05/06 |
| 4/15/05 |
| Lekas & Levine Public Relations, Inc. Joanne Levine 847.327.9530 RON STARR TO EXHIBIT AT SOFA CHICAGO 2003 OCTOBER 16 – 19-Navy Pier At Chicago’s Annual International Exposition of Sculpture Objects and Functional Art (SOFA) on October 16-19, the work of local sculptor Ron Starr will be on display. Kraft Lieberman, a dealer of 20th century and contemporary artwork, will feature a selection of Starr’s large, abstract clay vessels in their gallery space. There will also be a special area in which eight clay sculptures, which Starr has dubbed “Zorbs”, will come to life. A small opening in the top of each piece will reveal a one-of-a-kind DVD video being played along with a signed by the artist DVD. With titles such as “An Eye for Art” and “Let’s Talk,” these silent videos are close-ups of human eyes, mouths, etc., filmed by Starr as they observed and contemplated artwork. Starr sees the combination of the sculptures and videos as “organic— almost lifelike”. Inspired by the abstract expressionist style of “founding father” Peter Voulkos, Starr studied under reknowned artists Don Reitz and Bruce Breckenridge as he worked to develop his own high-energy, freestyle approach to clay sculpture. A combination of earth-tone hues, interesting textures, decorative marks, slashes, gashes and unrestricted form are his unmistakable trademarks as he strives to carry on the art form. SOFA CHICAGO will celebrate its l0th anniversary at Navy Pier with over 85 galleries from 12 countries exhibiting one-of-a-kind, three- dimensional artworks which bridge decorative and fine arts. To view samples of Ron Starr’s artwork, please visit his website www. ronstarrart.com. For further information or to interview Ron Starr, please contact Lekas & Levine. Photos available. |
| 10/1/03 |
Starr combines ceramics, video into 'Zorbs' BY ROBERT LOERZEL DIVERSIONS EDITOR As artistic forms, ceramic sculptures and DVDs don't usually go together. But Ron Starr, a Buffalo Grove resident with a studio in Lake Zurich, has combined the seemingly disparate forms into a new genre of art. "He is taking one of the oldest art forms, ceramics, and combining it with video, which is one of the news art forms," said Jeff Kraft, owner of Kraft Lieberman gallery, which is showing Starr's work Friday through Sunday at SOFA Chicago 2003, an international exhibit at Navy Pier. Starr said he used a digital video camera and his computer to shoot and edit some footage. He then incorporated DVD players into several of his ceramic sculptures, which he has dubbed "Zorbs." (Starr says he jjust made up the term.) One is called "Self-Portrait," and appropriately enough, it features video footage of Starr peering out of the yard-tall barrel-shaped form. "It's me, looking like I'm trying to escape," Starr said. Is that an indication that Starr sometimes feels trapped inside his art? He acknowledged that he felt the need to escape from the routine he had fallen into as he developed his abstract ceramic style after he quit the business world and became a full-time artist in 2000. "It was a kind of a trap that I've been in, in my work, that I've been able to get out of," Starr said. One way Starr got out of his rut was the idea of using video. By including silent close-ups of human eyes and mouths and other images on a DVD screen, Starr said he can add whole new levels of meaning to his work. "It becomes very difficult in abstract work to express myself with a message," he said. "This gives me a way to express realism within an abstract artwork." Starr's work has also evolved away from open vessels. After some struggle, he said he found a style of "closed" ceramic shapes that appealed to him. Some of the new works resemble perfume or cologne bottles, with pieces that look like stoppers closing up their holes. "They're abstract versions of perfume vessels," he said, adding that some look feminine while others have more masculine shapes. Kraft, a dealer of 20th century and contemporary art, said he chose to represent Starr because his large-scale ceramic sculptures convey a sense of strength, without any of the fragility that is often seen in ceramic art. "His work is very powerful," Kraft said. "His pieces are very sculptural, very textural." Last week, Starr was still working on a large piece he hoped to have ready for SOFA, the International Exposition of Sculpture Objects and Functional Art. The eight-foot ceramic tower will feature four video monitors displaying coordinated images. "I'm a big believer that when you're doing an exhibition, it's important to bring out new work," Starr said. SOFA Chicago 2003, the International Exposition of Sculpture Objects and Functional Art, takes place 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and noon-6 p.m. Sunday at Navy Pier, 600 E. Grand Ave., Chicago. Admission is $12 for one day or $20 for a three-day pass. One-day tickets are $10 for students, seniors and groups of 10 or more. For information, call 1-800-563-7632 or visit the Web site www.sofaexpo.com. To view examples of Ron Starr's artwork, visit www.ronstarrart.com. |
| 8/1/03 |
| Ron Starr, Inc © Copyright 2005. All rights reserved. |
| Lekas & Levine Public Relations, Inc. Joanne Levine 847.327.9530 Good Things Come In Small(er) Packages! Sculptor Ron Starr Introduces New Series of “Mini” Perfume Vessels Artisan Ron Starr, known for his larger-than-life, high-energy sculptures, has recently unveiled an exciting new series of abstract miniature perfume vessels, inspired by the intricate forms of traditional fragrance holders. Like Starr’s full-size pieces, the miniature vessels are notable for their vivid sense of movement, rich natural colors, and raw, elemental textures. “I’ve been fascinated by antique perfume vessels, with their intriguing shapes and stoppers, for a long time,” says Starr, who launched the collection at a recent solo show, “Organic Vessel…Original Favorites.” The scaled-down works—which boast whimsical names such as “Innocenceforwomen” and “minitowercologne” (shown right)—measure 10" – 12" tall. Starr’s full-size works, including larger perfume vessels, typically measure 35" – 50". Designed with the entry-level collector in mind, the mini-vessels boast scaled-down price tags of just $250 - $500. Starr’s works generally range from $3,000 - $10,000. “Art should be accessible to everyone,” asserts Starr. “You shouldn’t have to be wealthy to enjoy collecting art.” Starr notes that painters have the option of creating affordable reproductions of their work, such as prints and lithographs. Because ceramics doesn’t offer a comparable opportunity, Starr created the mini-vessels as a gift to aspiring collectors. Needless to say, Starr’s admirers—both novices and connoisseurs–are snapping up the collectibles quickly. To date, just 13 pieces remain available for purchase. To view photos of the collection, visit www.ronstarrart.com/ministeries.html. For more information or to arrange a private showing, contact Lekas & Levine Public Relations at 847-327-9530 / JoannePR@aol.com or Ron Starr 847-846-4076 / rbstarr@aol.com. |
| Lekas & Levine Public Relations, Inc. Joanne Levine 847.327.9530 Good Things Come In Small(er) Packages! Sculptor Ron Starr Introduces New Series of “Mini” Perfume Vessels Artisan Ron Starr, known for his larger-than-life, high-energy sculptures, has recently unveiled an exciting new series of abstract miniature perfume vessels, inspired by the intricate forms of traditional fragrance holders. Like Starr’s full-size pieces, the miniature vessels are notable for their vivid sense of movement, rich natural colors, and raw, elemental textures. “I’ve been fascinated by antique perfume vessels, with their intriguing shapes and stoppers, for a long time,” says Starr, who launched the collection at a recent solo show, “Organic Vessel…Original Favorites.” The scaled-down works—which boast whimsical names such as “Innocenceforwomen” and “minitowercologne” (shown right)—measure 10" – 12" tall. Starr’s full-size works, including larger perfume vessels, typically measure 35" – 50". Designed with the entry-level collector in mind, the mini-vessels boast scaled-down price tags of just $250 - $500. Starr’s works generally range from $3,000 - $10,000. “Art should be accessible to everyone,” asserts Starr. “You shouldn’t have to be wealthy to enjoy collecting art.” Starr notes that painters have the option of creating affordable reproductions of their work, such as prints and lithographs. Because ceramics doesn’t offer a comparable opportunity, Starr created the mini-vessels as a gift to aspiring collectors. Needless to say, Starr’s admirers—both novices and connoisseurs–are snapping up the collectibles quickly. To date, just 13 pieces remain available for purchase. To view photos of the collection, visit www.ronstarrart.com/ministeries.html. For more information or to arrange a private showing, contact Lekas & Levine Public Relations at 847-327-9530 / JoannePR@aol.com or Ron Starr 847-846-4076 / rbstarr@aol.com. |
| 6/15/07 |
| The Art of Gesture By Polly Ullrich Ron Starr's poetic gestures enliven every aspect of his art. Starr's stoneware sculptural vessels, wall murals and Glass Trees exude a fluid energy. At every point in the making of his art, Starr exploits clay and Glass's malleability and produces a rich, dense repertory of surface decoration by hand to propel a sense of power and movement into his work. The art fairly vibrates. It is humanistic. With every drip or slash of color, with every twist or slump of the pot as it is formed by the artist or as it endures the vicissitudes of a gas firing at about 2200 degrees Fahrenheit, Starr's art presents itself as a chronicle of human action. This is art which emphasizes the importance of the act of creating as much as the finished art object. It stands as a reminder of the artist Robert Irwin's comment, "There's no such thing as a neutral gesture." Starr, who works out of a 3,000 square foot studio in Lake Zurich, Illinois, has developed his gestural art in Tree vessels, window pieces, wall sculptures and large-scale murals. For the last couple of years, using glass, he has explored the theme of colorful Trees, after understanding the issues of our forests. Starr then produced-not tiny, precious receptacles-but typically loose, large and rangy containers with matching titles. Fall (2007), for example, is 22 inches high-a Tree vessel with uninhibited, beautifully-colored abstract surface and lines which Starr applied to the mold. Extending the jest, he then decided to scale down the bold Trees to a "mere" 12 inches in height-with his witty "Mini Series," producing work such as Little Sprout, a smaller version with a decidedly large presence. Starr, who was born in 1958 in Chicago and graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1980, has been exploring the vessel form for years. After more than a decade of producing open-topped containers, he began to toy with closing them completely. His initial effort was the "Zorb Series," a group of vessel sculptures with closed rounded tops which look as though they are about to pop, as in the 41-inch-tall Blacktower (2003) or the adroitly-named Explosion (2003). These works have a vigorous physical stance that comes from the energy and pressure which is implied from within them. In order to further animate these forms, a second series of "Zorbs"-called "Zorbs Come to Life"-featured tiny DVD video tapes shot and edited by Starr embedded in the puffed tops. One, Eyeforart (2003), featured a video close-up of a human eye. Starr has persisted in closing his vessel forms in yet more idiosyncratic ways. His newest perfume bottles have extraordinary stoppers, some of which are almost as tall as the containers themselves. The stoppers, constructed of torn and manipulated segments of clay, tower over the bases, allowing Starr to emphasize even more dramatically the movement and lively poses in his art. This work represents a cleverly-orchestrated balance of elements: the action of the surface decoration, the energetic posture of the pot and the exaggerated gesture of the stopper all come together in one fluid continuous whole. Starr's murals continue that sense of malleability and gesture which also appears in his vessels. But because of their two-dimensionality, the murals perhaps best show the influence of Abstract Expressionism on his art. This art movement, propounded by a group of American painters including Jackson Pollack in the 1940s and 1950s, relied on the spontaneous, authentic and abstract gesture in large-scale works to convey tragic and grand psychological themes. Perhaps because of the flatness of Starr's murals, they more starkly display that Abstract Expressionist turbulence and exhilaration built into the clay surface by the artist's hand. Starr's murals are incised, dripped on, splashed with colored clay slips, and shaped by hand. The surfaces are sprayed with oxides, wax, soda ash, salt and water. Lately, Starr has investigated the use of glass in his art. His latest murals, titled the "Plank and Panel Series," feature large, ice-like drips of molten glass frozen into place on slabs of fired clay. The sense of freshness and spontaneity in Starr's work is deceptive. Starr relies on improvisation rather than detailed, previously-drawn-up plans to construct his art, working within the moment and responding to the clay in a kind of dialogue as it changes under his hands. In that regard, Starr maintains a truly process-driven art practice that blends both ideas and materials into a single whole. But, perhaps contrarily, it should be recognized that Starr's elusive quality of spontaneity comes primarily from his many years of experience in the studio, and is the result of technical expertise that comes as much from an authentic ability to control the medium as from instinctively knowing when to let it speak for itself. |
Over the years Polly has written analyses and reviews on contemporary art for a wide
number of national and international art publications, including Sculpture magazine, frieze,
American Craft, Keramik Magazine, Bridge, Metalsmith, Fiberarts, Surface Design Journal,
The New Art Examiner and Ceramics Art and Perception. She has lectured about art, served
on panels and juried and curated exhibitions. Before turning to art criticism, she worked as a
freelance journalist, writing for The New York Times, Newsweek, Chicago Magazine, The
Chicago Sun-Times and the Milwaukee Journal.
Ron Starr
Artistic Creations In Clay and Glass
847-846-4076
Artistic Creations In Clay and Glass
847-846-4076