Margie Hughto Exhibition

Internationally known ceramic artist, Margie Hughto was the Artist of the Month for June, 2005 at the Connelly Gallery in Binghamton, NY, and has agreed to "stay in residence" for an unprecedented second month as Artist of the Month for July 2005. Although Ms. Hughto, who is a Professor in the College of Visual and Performing Arts at Syracuse University, was born and raised in nearby Endicott, NY, this is her first exhibition in her hometown area.

Ms. Hughto, who did her undergraduate work at the State University of New York at Buffalo, got her MFA degree in ceramics from the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Her work has been widely exhibited, including at the Everson Museum of Art, where curator Peter Doroshenko calls Hughto, "a unique and paradoxical artist. Her works are alternatively monumental and intimate in scale, mute and garish in color, objectively descriptive and purely abstract in subject matter; her glaze application can be flat and smooth or thickly built-up."

Margie Hughto is known for richly textured and colorful ceramic wall reliefs and paintings, and ceramic tile murals, often of architectural scale. Her work is primarily abstract although -- like Summer Elements at right -- sometimes tempered by the imprint of natural objects including marine life, vegetation, stones and fossils. Her work has earned Ms. Hughto numerous grants and awards, including the 2001 Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award. It is placed in many private, corporate, and museum collections including those of Charles Schwab, Prudential Insurance, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Mayo Clinic, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and the Cincinnati Art Museum.

Ms. Hughto has executed commissions for a number of public artworks, including Seasons, the large-scale ceramic painting for a Buffalo, NY subway stop and ceramic tile murals for the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) of NYC. A small section of her panorama, Trade, Treasure, and Travel for the Cortlandt Street MTA subway station is seen at left. The complete work consists of twelve interconnected ceramic murals ranging up to 30 feet long and featuring ships, keys, coins, and -- with a nod to Wall Street -- a bear and a bull. The piece was installed in 1998 two levels beneath the World Trade Center. "After September 11th, I didn't know for months if it was OK," Hughto says. "When I finally got a look at it, it was like going into King Tut's tomb. There was all this art -- and not a scratch on it." That, she says, is "the power of ceramics."

Margie Hughto's exhibit opened at the Connelly Gallery on Friday, June 3, 2005 as part of Binghamton's First Friday Art Walk for June. Chris Mollo entertained at the opening with vocals and guitar, and Patrice Peterson, LMT of Feel Better Thru Massages provided mini-massages. The exhibit and the fun at the Connelly Gallery continue from 6:00-9:00 p.m. on Friday, July 1, 2005 as part of the First Friday Art Walk for July. In honor of the Nation's Birthday, Debra Burke of GingerScraps Arts &Crafts will demonstrate scrapbook projects in red, white and blue to the music of jazz guitarist, Taze Yannick. The exhibit and sale will continue through July 29, weekdays from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and at other times by appointment (Telephone: 607-722-9593).

Click on an image to start a slideshow of enlargements.

Artist's Statement

"The ceramic tablets and the large wall reliefs are about color and filled with color. Essentially the work could be described as paintings made of clay and glazes. My work is basically abstract but can convey to the viewer a particular feeling or sensation, such as warmth, romance or playfulness. More than anything, I like my work to transmit qualities of good, beauty, magic, and wonder. I try to cut through time and space, excite the mind and somehow go beyond."