Todd Merrill Antiques  |  65 bleecker street | new york | ny | 10012 | tel: (212) 673-0531 | fax: (212) 677-6068
TITLE
Earthly Delights
DESCRIPTION

Beth Katleman
“Earthly Delights”
2012
USA
Unique
Porcelain figurines on a mirror finished brilliant yellow lacquered 3-tier shelf. 

“Earthly Delights” is the latest installation by artist Beth Katleman, whose witty, 3-D homage to toile wallpaper, “Folly”, received raves at last year’s fair. A deliciously subversive take on the curio shelf, “Earthly Delights” features dozens of white porcelain figurines piled high on a lacquer shrine the color of artificial cheese dip. Composed of nearly 400 cast individual elements and meticulously handmade flowers and leaves, “Earthly Delights” is a commentary on consumption and desire in our time.The chaste white porcelain belies the hint of naughtiness beneath the surface.  Is that Lil’ Sprout ogling a bikini girl, his intimate thoughts betrayed by the suggestively angled lily at his feet?  And what of the tearful boy scout on a plinth above a naked girl-child in a casket?  Does his shovel suggest a darker purpose?  Even the sumptuous plums in the urn seem to leer back at us. 

Katleman’s sculptures and installations have been described by Ken Johnson in the New York Times as “doll-sized rococo theaters of murder and domestic mayhem.”  Katleman’s work has been exhibited internationally, most recently at Gallery Seoul 12, Seoul, South Korea, the Pavilion of Art and Design/New York, Museum of Arts and Design, New York, Pavilion of Art and Design/London, Design Miami/Basel, Pavillon des Art & Design, Paris, the Jane Hartsook Gallery, New York and the Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco.  Her work has garnered critical attention in the New York Times, The Art Economist, American Ceramics, Ceramics Art and Perception and Sculpture Magazine in the U.S., and in La Tribune e Moi, Paris, The Art Newspaper, Basel, Grand Design Magazine, Shanghai, Cacao Magazine, Taiwan, and numerous other publications.  She is represented in the collections of the M.H. de Young Museum, San Francisco, CA, the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, WI, Kohler Company, Kohler, WI, the Kamm Teapot Foundation, Sparta, NC, the Archie Bray Foundation, Helena, MT, Ci Kim Arario Gallery Collection, Seoul, Korea, and many private collections both in the U.S. and abroad.  Her installation, “Folly” was awarded Best Decorative Piece at the Pavilion of Art and Design/New York in 2011.  Katleman holds a BA in English from Stanford University, an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art and an MBA in Arts Management from UCLA.  She has taught at Pratt Institute, New York University and Greenwich House Pottery in New York.  Born in Park Forest, Illinois, Katleman lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

In the Fall of 2013 Katleman will have a large-scale exhibition at Lever House, New York City, inspired by her work “Folly.”

Dimensions: 30” H x 18” D x 6’W (76 cm H x 46 cm D x 183 cm W) 

PRICE
on request