ART REVIEW : PORCELAIN AND JEWELRY AND QUALITY

“Porcelain Today” and “Jewelry Design” are ravishing exhibitions of art. They continue a tradition of excellence that the Wita Gardiner Gallery (535 4th Ave.) has maintained since its arrival last year.

The current exhibitions evince a respect for quality, appreciation for variety and attention to detail that we wish all museum curators, not only dealers, had.

The exhibitions include the works of 14 artists, 11 ceramists and 3 jewelers, each of whom has a distinctive, mature style.

A respect for tradition appears in the hand-thrown vessels of Catharine Hiersoux, which show the classic influence of the Orient in their forms and glazes. A related influence appears in Virginia Cartwright’s inlaid porcelain and celadon hand-built utilitarian forms with folded seams.

A contemporary expression of tradition is also the hallmark of Dorothy Feibleman. The self-taught jeweler hand carves porcelain beads, which she assembles with 18-karat gold parts into gloriously beautiful works with Egyptian motifs. Feibleman also makes inlaid porcelain bowls ranging in diameter from about 3 to 6 inches. Her “Purple and Orange Millefiori” (whose pattern is well known in traditional inlaid glass) is a tour de force. Her “Black and White Large Spiral Form” looks like a sophisticated work of Op Art. Her masterpiece in the show, however, is the “Blue and White/Yellow Geometric Form,” which in its subtlety is related to the poetically reductive paintings of Agnes Martin, Max Cole and Harriet Korman. The irregularities in its vertical parallel lines and horizontal bands of triangles--evidence of a human touch--make it great.

Of equal beauty are the high-fire, eggshell-thin cup and cone forms of Joanne Spamer. The artist, inspired by the shapes of sea creatures, hand builds her ceramic works and airbrushes them with rose-coral colored acrylics. Some are textured; others, pierced. Despite their appearance of vulnerability, they are physically strong forms. Works like these could not be made in any other medium.

Lyn Haxton and Sana Krusoe specialize in porcelain forms rolled within one another. Coille Hooven, Peter Care and Karen Massaro make works that have a playful component. Jeanne Otis and Deborah Horrell use clay as painted and marked sculptures and wall reliefs.

Jeweler Eva Eisler’s geometric works are distinctive for her use of slate; Pavel Opocensky’s, for his use of organic materials. Both make elegant works of art in small formats.

San Diego jeweler Steve Brixner’s works, however, are brilliant. Combining common materials like polished granite with precious materials like sterling silver, the artist blends traditional elegance with an American (perhaps even peculiarly Californian) freshness of vision, as in his ‘Ripple Series” of bracelet, buckle, necklace and pin and in his “Deco Chain.” Brixner does not copy old styles. He uses them in contemporary expressions.

These exhibitions, which are as instructive as they are pleasurable, continue through April 18.