Ron Nagle, “Getting to No”

Ceramics used to be considered more of a craft than a fine art, until, that is, the 1950s, when a group of West Coast artists began to treat it as the equal of more traditional methods of sculpture. Ron Nagle played a key role in the California Clay Movement, as it was called, with objects that were part Pop Art, part Surrealism. Irreverent yet oddly impenetrable, these works were also influenced by Nagle’s interest in surfing, rock music and hot rod culture, and while they alluded to the functionality associated with ceramics, they were mostly abstract. His latest show follows suit with a selection of new pieces that are small in scale (measuring no more than six inches in any dimension), yet mighty in impact.