Across Time & Cultures: Ceramic Vessels from the Collection is on view in the Lora Robins Gallery of Design from Nature from September 20 through May 8, 2020.

For more than 25,000 years, humans have shaped, decorated, and fired clay, and vessels are a universal theme in ceramic traditions. Looking across time, global locations, and cultures, the exhibition features a selection of more than forty objects from the collection of the museum to highlight the remarkable universality of ceramic vessels, ranging from an ancient Greek vase made circa 550 B.C.E. to sculptural vases made by a contemporary Japanese artist, from Native American and pre-Columbian bowls to nineteenth-century British and American pitchers and vases, from Oceanic vessels to late Qing Dynasty Chinese porcelains, from traditional Japanese tea bowls to contemporary American vessels.

“Ceramics have been an all-cultures, all-the-time phenomenon for thousands of years,” wrote New York Times art critic Roberta Smith in 2002. “The continuity of the medium stems also from the slow but steady development of different clay bodies, of slips and glazes, of the potter’s wheel, of stamping and molding techniques.” She goes on to emphasize, “It encompasses social habits, myths, and religious beliefs, and economies of both local industry and foreign trade, as well as the impulse to decorate and depict the world.”

Organized by the University of Richmond Museums, the exhibition was curated by Richard Waller, Executive Director, University Museums.