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Hudson
Register-Star
"The work
of ceramicist Frank Colson is featured for July at the
Hudson
Valley Arts Center, 337 Warren St., Hudson. His work is
a unique fusion of modern ceramic aesthetics and ancient
designs. Colson's work is drawn from the design of the
ancient Chinese Han Horses. He uses a combination of
bold glazing techniques and color combinations...a
subtle variation on this approach is his use of pit
firing which plays on more of the ancient design, and
provides a softer feel to the work. Boththe pit firing
and his bold two-tone glazing techniques have an
abstract nature to them that works well with the
established form of the Han Horse.
Pittsburgh
Tribune-Review
"Animal,
Vegetable, Mineral," on display at Gallerie Chiz in
Shadyside... has a large display of horse sculptures
that gallery owner Ellen Chisdes Neuberg has dubbed "for
the horsey set." When I visited the gallery... I was
pleasantly surprised. The sculptures are by Frank
Colson...clay and bronze sculptures of horses based on
designs from China's Han (206 B.C. to A.D. 220) and
Tang (618 to 906) dynasties. Colson has made clay horses
since 1962, but it was not until 1994, when he began
making slip-cast molds based on Western Han Dynasty
burial figures, that his horse sculptures took on
dramatic historical effect. Other works such as "Braying
Horse," with its wildly gestured stance, and "Mane
Horse," with its flowing and extended mane, offer
stylistic flourishes while holding steadfast to the Tang
influence and maintaining centuries-old effects."-Kurt
Shaw
Sarasota
Herald-Tribune
"Taking his inspirations from the art of ancient
cultures, ...Colson develops a distinctly modern and
unique expression of the agelessness and essentially
unchanging continuation of life. Underneath the
whimsical presentation, the features and the bright
colors seems to lie a seriousness of purpose that won't
be ignored." - Rex Allyn
The Pelican
Press
"Colson's
horses are handsomely well-scaled, concise and strong.
There is a nice tension in the arch of their necks and
the suggestion of a primitive history."
- Thyrza Jacobs
Vero Beach
Press-Journal
"He
(Colson) ...traveled extensively throughout South
America and the Pacific and acknowledges his most recent
work is indebted to the arts of the Aztecs, of Thailand,
of Japan...But he does not copy these early arts; his
sculpture is highly original, often humorous, always
intriguing."
Soundings
"Colson's
work speaks of tradition and myth but not through the
traditional pottery forms we're accustomed to. By
combining ancient smoke firing methods with modern art
forms, the works takes on a timeless quality."
- Sandhill Arts Council
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