Flights of Fiction Exhibition Opening Reception

Flights of Fiction: A duo exhibition featuring the ceramic plates of Adam Chau and Howard Kottler. Both Adam and Howard’s work propose a gay utopian ideal as a fictional flight away from the real-world erasure and hidden culture of queer people. Howard Kottler (1930-1989) was an artist working from the 1960’s – 1980’s. Howard kept his homosexuality a secret until reaching a tenure track position at the University of Washington. Throughout his career, Howard’s ceramic sculptures were produced in a hidden queer-coded manner, best known seen in his collaged-decal works on commercially produced porcelain plates. Collected by the Smithsonian, MAD Museum, Bellevue Arts Museum and many other institutions, Howard Kottler’s artwork was avant-garde for using “ready-mades” in a time where studio-ceramics was prioritizing handmade wares. Adam Chau’s series, Generated Love, uses the same ready-made blank porcelain plates and combines it with images of gay Asian men in traditional Chinese blue-and-white aesthetics with AI technology. Adam has lectured and exhibited internationally, with his education in both fine art and industrial design leading him to blend both mass-produced objects and conceptual art. Solo exhibitions have included Harvard Ceramics, Taoxichuan (China), and Manchester Craftsman’s Guild.