Ceramic funk, a 1960s art movement that pokes fun at everyday endeavors, is the theme of a new exhibit at the ASU Ceramics Research Center.
"Humor, Irony and Wit: Ceramic Funk from the Sixties and Beyond" opened to the public Sunday and will be on display until June 5.
Peter Held, ceramics curator for the center, said the ceramics movement drew inspiration from surrealism, pop art and the Beat Movement, an American literary and social movement that began in the 1950s.
Peter Selz coined the term "funk" in 1966 for a show he organized at the University of California Art Museum in Berkeley, Calif., Held said.
"The movement itself was over pretty quickly, but some characteristics of it remain in today's ceramics, like aesthetic techniques and freedom to let the art be more playful and expressive," Held said.
"Ceramic funk was the beginning of art being less serious, more about pop culture and familiar objects," he said.
One artist present at the opening was Patti Warashina, 63, who lives and works in Seattle.
Her contribution to the opening was a ceramic and Plexiglas creation titled "What's that Falling From the Sky?" and was described by Warashina as surreal and dream-like.
The sculpture is an all-white car with women hanging out of it, with shards of Plexiglas piercing the skin of the car.
"The human form interests me," Warashina said. "This car has the soft lines and characteristics of a person's face."
Warashina said her work is autobiographical: the pieces usually have a story around them and are not to be taken just at face value.
Phoenix art collectors Joyce and Jay Cooper donated most of the pieces in the collection, Held said.
Sunday's public opening was the end of a weekend of events celebrating the collection: Warashina gave a lecture Friday and the center held a benefit gala Saturday.
Sarah Walsberg, a ceramics sophomore, said, "It's fascinating seeing all these artists' work put together like this."
Reach the reporter at annemarie.moody@asu.edu.
