The ninth annual "It's Only Clay" national juried exhibit at Bemidji Community Arts Center will feature a lecture Nov. 2 by international ceramics artist Guillermo Cuellar, workshops and more.
Born in Venezuela in 1951, Cuellar, of Shafer, Minn., studied ceramics at Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa, where he graduated in 1976. After working as an environmentalist he returned to pottery in 1980. In 1986 he set up a studio in a village an hour southeast of Venzuela's capital city, Caracas, where he made pots for 18 years.
In 1981 he worked as an assistant to Warren MacKenzie, who was teaching in Caracas, and subsequently regularly shared studio experience with MacKenzie in Stillwater, Minn., from 1984 to 2006. Cuellar's experience includes teaching workshops in Venezuela and Chile and participating in the organization and execution of workshops given by international guest potters in Venezuela.
His work has been on display in the Venezuelan National Art Gallery, Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Caracas Sofia Imber, Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Puerto Rico, The Smithsonian Institution, Northern Clay Center, Mashiko Municipal Pottery Art Museum and private galleries in Minnesota, U.S., England, Venezuela and Chile.
In 1992 Cuellar brought a group of potters together to found Grupo Turgua, a non-profit association to support good craft in Venezuela. Grupo Turgua hosted 28 group sales with from 1992 to 2005 offering Venezuelan native crafts and other creative work.
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In 2005 Cuellar and his family established a home, studio and showroom in the upper St. Croix River valley near Shafer. He makes pots and participates as one of seven host studios on the Minnesota Potters of the Upper St. Croix Valley Annual Pottery Tour.
Cueller will deliver the "It's Only Clay" lecture at 7 p.m. Nov. 2, tracing his personal history from Venezuela to Minnesota and exploring how physical surroundings, hand-made crafts and a spirit of community have influenced his work and enriched his life, a news release said. The lecture is free and open to the public and will be hosted at the Headwaters School of Music and the Arts, 519 Minnesota Ave., downtown Bemidji. Other events:
- The workshop "Techniques For Wheel Thrown Utilitarian Pots" will beNov. 3-4, hosted on at Bemidji State University.
- The opening reception for the "It's Only Clay" exhibit will be from 5 to 7 p.m. Nov. 4 at Bemidji Community Art Center with a brief presentation by Butch Holden and Cuellar at 6 p.m. This will be part of the First Friday Art Walk in Bemidji and free and open to the public.
"It's Only Clay" is cosponsored by the BCAC and the BSU Visual Arts Department with support is provided by Holiday Inn Express Bemidji and the BSU Ceramics Club. This activity is also made possible, in part, by a grant provided by the Region 2 Arts Council through funding from the Minnesota Legislature. Info: (218) 444-7570.
