One of the most popular and enthusiastically anticipated exhibitions at the LSU School of Art Glassell Gallery is 8 Fluid Ounces, a national invitational ceramic cup exhibition. Every other spring, more than 150 unique cups are displayed in the gallery. Visitors love to peruse and even take the cups home as treasures—these cups are for sale!

Keeping up with tradition and demand, the LSU School of Art ceramics program and the Glassell Gallery will host the sixth edition of 8 Fluid Ounces, January 25–March 9, 2014, at the Glassell Gallery at the Shaw Center for the Arts, 100 Lafayette Street, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

The installation will feature ceramic vessels that literally or conceptually address the idea of cup. Artist and guest curator Mark Cole selected 24 artists from across the United States to exhibit up to 10 cups each, along with a supporting vessel such as a teapot or pitcher.

Cole described his criteria for inclusion in this exhibition: “I would like to focus on technique and materials for the exhibition in an effort to create the greatest variety based on the making process. I believe this is an important and exciting way to highlight the variety of individualistic ways that artists choose to work with the ceramic medium.”

The LSU School of Art ceramics program is consistently ranked as one of the top 10 programs in the nation by US News & World Report, and the ceramic cup show draws distinguished participants from across the nation. The 2014 exhibition features work from more than 20 artists, ranging from Washington, Nebraska, Ohio, Texas, California, Montana, Louisiana, and beyond.

With so many diverse, prominent, and innovative artists participating, 8 Fluid Ounces 2014 will be a key cultural event for LSU and Baton Rouge. Visitors will be exposed to countless variations of ceramic techniques and processes from wood-fired Raku to electric kiln. Glaze, form, and function will be explored in every way imaginable.

On Thursday, February 20, from 6–8 p.m., Cole will be the guest at a public reception and gallery talk at the Glassell Gallery. Cole will be in Baton Rouge to meet and work with ceramic students at the LSU School of Art—offering advice, critiques, demonstrations, and insight.

Visit the Glassell Gallery website at glassellgallery.org for more information about upcoming exhibitions.

About Mark Cole
Mark Cole earned his BFA in ceramics from Northern Michigan University in 2000, and he completed his MFA in ceramics at Ohio University in 2010 with a solo thesis exhibition, The Elaboratous, at the Trisolini Gallery. During graduate school, he participated in the International Workshop for the Ceramic Arts at Tokoname in Japan. Cole has been an apprentice at John Glick’s Plum Tree Pottery in Farmington Hills, Michigan, and a resident artist in the village of Dan Kwian in Nakhon Ratchisima, Thailand, at Umdang Ceramics. He has worked to bring ceramics to the lives of others as an AmeriCorps youth mentor at the McCarthy Alternative Education Center in Crescent City, California, and the Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan. A functional potter and avid trout fisherman, he was fortunate to be a Clay Business intern at the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, Montana, for two years. Cole has held teaching appointments at Interlochen Center for the Arts, Ohio University, and Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia, where he is currently an assistant professor of ceramics and visual literacy. Visit tomcole.dyndns.org for more information about Cole’s work.

About LSU School of Art Glassell Gallery
The LSU School of Art Alfred C. Glassell Jr. Exhibition Gallery is an ultra-contemporary venue that brings artwork of the highest caliber to the Baton Rouge community. The gallery is the School of Art’s “window to the world,” an exciting setting for community engagement that allows visitors to see inside the art program at LSU. A varied programming calendar ensures there is always an attraction at the gallery, from works by contemporary artists from around the world to LSU School of Art students and faculty. The gallery is open Tuesday–Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. Visit glassellgallery.org for more information.