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Artists Gerit Grimm and Gina Litherland mine the fertile territory of literature and myth. Grimm’s uncanny sculptures reinterpret the folk tradition of ceramic figurines as large-scale works in rich brown stoneware, while Litherland’s finely detailed paintings combine humans, wild creatures, and ancient stories in dream-like tableaux.
Gerit Grimm: Eternally Rolls the Wheel of Being
Gerit Grimm’s sculptures draw upon the folk tradition of ceramic figurines, which she reinterprets as large-scale works built from wheel-thrown ceramic elements. The dark, unglazed stoneware she favors has an austere surface that emphasizes the sculptural power of her forms. In developing her figures, Grimm retains ridges and cylindrical forms that reflect their origin on the potter’s wheel, creating a dynamic and poetic association between vessels and the human form. As she describes it, “the result is often an uncanny union—one that evokes all manner of stories about dolls, puppets, and statues coming to life. It is a union at once wonderful, elegant, and fanciful but also at times uncomfortable and awkward.”
Gina Litherland: Curious Encounters
Gina Litherland’s finely detailed oil paintings are dream-like tableaux, dense with literary and mythic references. As in a fairytale, animals and people are equal players: a jaguar accompanies a small boy picking ivy, a blue bird leads a woman to a secret door, and a horse, a woman, and a skeleton play a friendly game of cards. Litherland often paints in response to writers who have inspired her: Cervantes, the Bronte sisters, Goethe, or Angela Carter—or mythic figures like mermaids or the Three Fates. Her quiet, surreal scenes bridge culture, nature, and the imagination; humans, wild creatures, and ancient stories commingle in liminal, timeless spaces.
