Exhibit open: June 3- July 3, 2022    Fri. & Sat. 12-6, Sun. 1-4
Artists’ Reception: Friday June 24 from 6-9 pm
Artist’s talk: Saturday June 25, 11 AM

The Sum is Greater Than Its Parts

Pyro Gallery is pleased to announce our June show curated and co-created by John McCarthy. McCarthy is a ceramic sculptor and art educator and is highly involved in public art and community access to art. Thus, it’s not surprising that in addition to showing his own art, McCarthy is inviting the community of PYRO artists to join him in this show. Those members are: Keith Auerbach, Katherine Corcoran, Tad DeSanto, Susan Harrison, Anne Huntington, Kathleen Loomis, Bob Lockhart, Debra Lott, Corie Neumayer, Jessica Robinson, Dessie Spears, C.J. Pressma, Suzanne Sidebottom, and Tia Wells.

McCarthy’s ceramic sculptural pieces reflect organic shapes inspired by nature, with an emphasis on texture and subtle glazed surfaces. These hand-built and highly manipulated parts are joined to form the sum of a greater whole. In recent years McCarthy has challenged himself to add less familiar “parts,” reaching beyond his usual materials and techniques to work in different ways – using glass, wood, metal and different glazes and colors to create one-of-a-kind, striking compositions.

For this show, McCarthy has also challenged his PYRO colleagues, his community, to join him in exploring the theme of this show, “The Sum is Greater Than Its Parts,” pointing up the fact that sometimes each unique part of an artwork adds up to a brilliant new work! In fact, reaching beyond using unfamiliar materials and techniques, some PYRO members exhibiting in this show have pushed their comfort zones even farther, collaborating by incorporating a piece created by another artist into their own unique art work. McCarthy says:

“Choosing to work this way may nudge us, as artists, to the edge of our comfort zone and to broaden our experience.  Moreover, creating work in collaboration with another artist is exciting and fun, letting two artists’ approaches add up to a unique new whole.”

Given their mutual love of color, texture and form, PYRO artists who work in textile, painting, drawing, photography, pastels and sculpture and who often work in isolation, agreed to make the Sum of the Parts the focus of this show. This broad theme would allow them the freedom to document, simplify, abstract and use new materials and techniques, independently or in collaboration, to invent new ideas. These creative offerings may be factually detailed or abstracted, but they all reflect the exciting sum of the parts – experimenting with new materials, techniques and collaboration to create unique and transformative sums. For a preliminary view of the show click here to see James Norton’s documentation of the show.

PYRO Gallery is located at 1006 East Washington St. in Louisville, KY
Exhibit open: June 3- July 3, 2022    Fri. & Sat. 12-6, Sun. 1-4
Artists’ Reception: Fri., June 24 from 6-9
Artist’s talk: Sat., June 25, 11:00AM