"Past, Present, Future" is the provocative theme that the New York-based Jason Jacques Gallery has embraced for its debut appearance at the Winter Antiques Show, taking place January 19 to ­January 28 at The Park Avenue Armory. 

Explains Jason Jacques: "Since this is the gallery's first time at the Winter Antiques Show, we intend to make a bold statement in our presentation."

The gallery will display work that is the most bedrock of the gallery, including circa 1900 European ceramics by T.A.C. Colenbrander and a monumental fireplace and chimney piece designed by Hector Guimard for a house commissioned by Louis Coilliot, a manufacturer of ceramic blocks and tiles. Coilliot gave Guimard his first opportunity to design a fully integrated architectural composition. The fireplace is made of enameled stoneware, which is actually reconstituted lava powder fused in molds, similar to cast bronze. Fired at high temperatures, the extremely dense stoneware resembled lava blocks. Coilliot invented this material and the textured enamel on the surface, and Guimard used it to full advantage to advertise his client’s product.

In its original setting, the fireplace stood within an arch formed by the stalk-like elements of an elaborate pear wood buffet. The flanking vestigial piers of the fireplace have flattened capitals that echoed the buffet's flat shelves. Although the Maison Coilliot still stands, most of its furnishings, including this fireplace, were sold at auction in the early 1990s and early 2000s.”

According to Jason T. Busch, gallery director, “We will also showcase work by living artists Rick Owens, Beth Cavener, and Katsuyo Aoki, all of whom have been garnering increasingly significant international acclaim.  “Katsuyo Aoki is best known for her intricately formed and complex ceramic skulls. As the artist states, “skulls express the sacred and vulgar atmosphere of the present age.”

Working almost exclusively in porcelain, Aoki elevates her undeniably macabre subject matter through the use of elegant, organic swirls in a style immediately reminiscent of Rococo interior design. As discussed in Shifting Paradigms in Contemporary Ceramics: The Garth Clark & Mark del Vecchio Collection. Garth (Clark and Cindi Strauss, ed.,Yale University Press in association with The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 2012), Aoki attempts to evoke a feeling of spiritual tranquility and awe in her viewers, and to express the important contradictions of her contemporary time.

About Jason Jacques

Jason Jacques Gallery, the preeminent purveyor of late 19th and early 20th-century European ceramics, has become a primary driver in elevating of contemporary design today. The company mounts exhibitions throughout the year at its 73rd Street and Madison Avenue gallery. On view now is All That Glitters: Jewelry by William Ehrlich paired with Art Pottery by Clément Massier. In addition to participating in the Winter Antiques Show, they recently returned from Design Miami, FOG Design + Art Fair in San Francisco, and will head to TEFAF in Maastricht (March 10-18). Its touted publications include Exotica, a compendium of essays by leading scholars on French master ceramists. Works sold by Jason Jacques Gallery are owned by art museums throughout the country, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Detroit Institute of Arts, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 

The Winter Antiques Show opens on January 19-28 at The Park Avenue Armory, between 66th and 67th Streets in New York City. Hours are Noon to 8 PM. For more information about Jason Jacques Gallery, visit www.jasonjacques.com