Polka Dots

Polka dots, presumably present for quite some time, became common on clothing and as design elements in the late nineteenth century. Their fashionable rise was timed with that of polka music, and for no other reason than this coincidence the design element took the name of the music genre. Fast forward a hundred or so years later, and the polka dot can honestly lay claim to being an enduring cultural icon. Whether you regard them as childish or good fun, playful or in poor taste, hopelessly retro or exhibiting an archetypal timelessness . . .their prevalence and thus popularity is utterly undeniable.

MudFire Gallery has invited a group of ceramic artists who specialize in polka-dotty embellishment. This exhibit will offer subtle explorations, wild reinterpretations, and shameless revelry in the populist dot. Works on display will include traditional stoneware pottery with bashful pinpoint dots, luscious porcelain with 3-D Skittle-like bursts of color, designs from nature executed painstakingly a-la-Seurat, and large wall hangings with entrancing dottified layers of texture and color. These and other wonders will transform the MudFire Gallery into a temporary temple of the dot.