Opening remarks by Kate Rogers

Darren Emenau understands and embraces the two sides of the ceramic-art coin: on the one side, a loyalty to functionality and on the other,

aesthetic questions of sculpture. Darren employs his respect for the material – clay dug from the New Brunswick landscape – to balance the practical elements of an object with the questions that lies behind the making of good art.

The work in this exhibition embodies the interface point between craft and art that Darren’s work skirts. Moreover, all of the pieces in this show have the sense of objects that might be found on a walk through the New Brunswick woods – where Darren lives currently. One plate might be mistaken for a curled slab of bark, another pot stands and ages like a tree stump, the teapot could be a snow pile hiding something forgotten.

The aesthetic and functional mysteries that Darren embraces are a celebration of material, process, presentation and metaphor. There is no better way to define craft and art.