News
A-B Projects is hiring a part-time Projects Assistant
The part-time Projects Assistant (20-35 hours/month) supports the Director in areas of communications, marketing, programming, and gallery operation. This position requires a highly organized, detail-oriented, collaboratively minded, and flexible individual who is an excellent writer and clear communicator. Experience with Photoshop, Illustrator, social media, and basic bookkeeping is necessary. The ideal candidate will have experience with administrative work and gallery preparation, strong belief in the value of community-building, and a passion for contemporary ceramics.
Apply by June 10!
Ashwini Bhat discusses the ABCC with Nicole Seisler for Studio Potter
“I see all of Seisler’s works (whether it's her artwork or the programming she creates for A-B Projects) as a way of exploring the language of clay, investigating our personal relationship to this material, and its ability to connect us to others in the community. A-B Projects has recently launched a new program, the A-B Projects Ceramics Certificate (ABCC). I sat down with Seisler to talk about this new and exciting program and about ceramics education in general.”
- Ashwini Bhat for Studio Potter
Nicole Seisler discusses teaching ceramics online during the pandemic
In April 2021 Nicole Seisler was in conversation with artist Nicki Green at the Berkeley Art Center for online programming in conjunction with the exhibition Origin Stories: Expanded Ceramics in the Bay Area, curated by Tanya Zimbardo. Nicole and Nicki discussed pedagogical approaches to pandemic ceramics.
Nicole Seisler publishes Recipes for Conceptual Clay (in the time of covid-19)
In Spring 2020, the established means by which we teach, learn and connect underwent a seismic fracture. Ceramic educator Nicole Seisler responded to these circumstances by developing a series of experimental and experiential exercises (brought to life on the page by Georgie Flood’s pictures!) intended for university students, educators, and independent makers interested in engaging emotionally and conceptually with the current state of the world through the language of clay. Each exercise is cast as a culinary recipe, which individuals can adjust or tweak according to the availability of space, materials, tools and their own particular tastes. The publication is available as an eBook or:
CUT by Phoebe Cummings is reviewed in the LA Times
Leah Ollman writes the debut review for A-B Projects in the Los Angeles Times.
"The show is grounded in the elements: earth, air, fire and water. Beyond a deep sensory connection, the exhibition elicits the transcendent. Cummings’approach to the experiential lies somewhere between poetry, physical science and speculative fiction."
CUSTOMS DECLARATION by Cathy Lu is reviewed by Beth Fiedorek
"In Cathy Lu’s installation, a grid of slip-cast tropical produce sags from approximately six-foot-high anchor points. It feels like a particularly lugubrious hammock made from ceramic fruits. When I walk into A-B Projects, which is about a quarter of the size of a New York bodega, Lu’s work overwhelms me with its heft of shiny, purplish, lumpy surfaces."
PLOT LINES is reviewed by John P. Murphy
John P. Murphy PhD, Curatorial Fellow at the University of San Diego’s University Galleries, writes, “A pair of human-scale ceramic “curtains” frame the plate glass window to the recently relocated A-B Projects. They register as manifestos, these domestic trappings turned monumental totems: dripping, stained, cinched in the middle. By sculptor Jackie Rines they anchor PLOT LINES, the inaugural exhibition in A-B Projects’ new gallery space in downtown’s Bendix Building. Director and curator, Nicole Seisler, imagines contemporary ceramics in an expanded field, exhibiting work that uses, in her words, “ceramic history and traditions to bolster experimentation, critical commentary, and the metaphoric capabilities of materiality.”
Maake Magazine interviews Nicole Seisler about A-B Projects
Can you talk a bit about the ceramics scene in Los Angeles right now? How has it changed since the gallery had its first show in 2015? “There is an incredibly rich legacy of ceramics in Los Angeles but it has been historically dominated by men. More recently there is increased visibility and influence of women across the field, from exhibiting artists and university faculty members to arts writers and gallery owners….”
A-B Projects launches successful Kickstarter campagin!
In 2018 the gallery moved from Claremont, CA to Downtown Los Angeles. We exceeded our Kickstarter campaign goal by $4000, raising enough funds to build out the new space and support its future programming.
Leah Ollman mentions A-B Projects in her LA Times article about the pivotal role of ceramics in Los Angeles
According to Seisler, "What Voulkos and Soldner did was revolutionary, the deep dive into materiality. Now we get to move past that, take it and run with it, add content to it, marry material and metaphor, materiality and concept."
Evan Senn writes about A-B Projects for Art & Cake
“Müller has shown all over the world, but his latest endeavor ended up at a small project space in Claremont on the campus of Scripps College called A-B Projects, directed by Nicole Seisler. The exhibit, “Where’d you get that banana?” has two large pieces in it, and nothing more. A bare, small, silent space at the far end of a hallway connected to the other large gallery spaces at Scripps, the space feels like a secret, which lends to the odd and inquisitive nature of the pieces on view.”