Kerry Schuss Gallery

Press Release

Kerry Schuss Gallery is pleased to present Eden a new exhibition by Mary Carlson. Eden is a series of porcelain and stoneware landscapes which refer to paintings and medieval manuscripts of the Garden of Eden. The landscapes are a detail of a larger garden of Eden. Often the detail is outside the garden. Paintings of the Garden of Eden by Bosch, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Rubens and Jacob Savery are referenced along with manuscripts by Jean Fouquet and the Limbroug Brothers.

Mary Carlson has been making her art for close to 50 years. Using a wide range of mediums, materials and subject matter: making everything from hand-sewn American flags, a giant crocheted pink octopus, carved life-sized trees to 'altered' furniture. Her current medium of choice is hand-built porcelain, with glazes formulated and fired in her Walton, NY studio. She has created a ‘saints and demons’ series based on depictions of heaven and hell found in Medieval and Renaissance manuscripts and paintings.

A Guggenheim, Tiffany, NEA, and NYFA award-recipient, Carlson's work was first shown in New York at Leo Castelli Gallery in 1985. She has also shown in the 1995 Venice Biennale, Kunsthalle Wein; Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin; the New Museum; the Aldrich Museum and numerous galleries in New York and around the country. Most recently she was awarded a fellowship at Civitella Ranieri, Italy for September 2021.

Below are some of the reference paintings/manuscripts - Garden of Eden Lucas Cranach, a medieval manuscript by Jean Rouquet, a medieval manuscript by Limbourg Brother and Garden of Eden by Jacob Savery.

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