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       Artomatic | Frederick  

With over 350 participating artists and a month-long event schedule featuring bands, performances, and demonstrations, Artomatic Frederick was a great experience and a boost to the local arts scene.

 

Taking place in a deserted school building, my installation space was in the dilapidated gym on the top floor with worn plaster walls, original wood basketball flooring, and huge windows with a view of one of Frederick's largest church bells.

The charred wood (Shou sugi ban) torii gate structure and charred wall pieces I custom built for the space allowed visitors to interact with the exhibit and sample the tones of each style of bell. 

 

 

     Hodson Gallery Exhibtion 

"Shaping Sound" was an exhibition of nearly 50 large porcelain bells resulting from two years of studio experiments completed for my MFA thesis. The historical research and studio experiments were presented in a 200 page book with a comprehensive exploration of the aesthetic and acoustical variables involved in making clear-ringing contemporary ceramic bells. 

     Gallery Neptune | Bethesda 

My first professional show at the beautiful Gallery Neptune (run by the ever-encouraging Elyse Harrison) was a pairing with DC painter Joan Belmar and sculptor and painter Marie Ringwald.

 

The following was taken from the exhibition's review: 

"Cameron Petke's work is an exploration of the aesthetic and acoustical variables involved in making clear-ringing contemporary ceramic bells. Influenced by the classical beauty of marble sculpture, Petke fashions his bells with porcelain clay which is finely sanded and left unglazed to mimic the surface quality of polished stone. Similar to the outer-inner symbolism portrayed in Joan Belmar’s structural paintings, Cameron Petke uses the bell as an artistic object that retains the solidity of its form as it rings with the purity of an ephemeral vibration."  

     In the Home + Garden

It is always exciting to see how collectors, friends, and family are displaying the bells they have purchased. They've been given as wedding gifts, presents for couples expecting new babies, and used as interior and garden design pieces.

 

I also make the charred wood display stands, wall mounts, and hand-turned striker mallets. Bells are rung with striker mallets instead of with interior clappers; just as temple bells are struck on the exterior by swinging soft wooden logs called shumoku.

      The Hirshhorn Museum  

The Washington Project for the Arts, in partnership with the Smithsonian, sponsored a pop up exhibition at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden during the Smithsonian Holiday Festival.

 

It was an honor to be asked + an exciting opportunity to install my work with 20 other Washington, D.C. area artists.

 

Lisa Gold, the Hirshhorn’s director of public engagement, expressed, “I’m excited about the opportunity to collaborate with (the WPA) an organization that supports such talented artists and I look forward to developing future projects with artists in our community.”

      The WPA Select Show  

The Washington Project for the Arts curators invited 100 artists to exhibit pieces at Artisphere in Roslyn for the WPA "Select 2015" Exhibition.  It was an honor to be included and to enjoy a high energy night at Artisphere while collectors bid on the work at the opening auction event.

S e l e c t  E x h i b i t i o n s

+ I n s t a l l a t i o n s

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