Art at first Blush

The art exhibition Blush; A Soirée for the Self, and with Each Other (2022), a show of new ceramic work by Tab Link, the current artist-in-residence, is up now at the Sonoma Community Center. 

The show runs through July 21 in the Center’s Gallery 212.

Tab Link is an emerging artist from the Midwest. Ceramic vessels have an innate human connection, Link believes.  “We are the only ones who create things to hold”. 

Utilizing familiar objects offers a baseline connection to their audience, and allows the viewer “a place to explore queerness, interpersonal relations, and the labor required for both.”

Over the last six months, in tandem with developing a new body of work, Link has worked to see to the completion of the center’s new atmospheric Soda Kiln, dubbed “Julia”. 

They work fluidly together, the kiln’s atmosphere and flame interacting with the Link’s calculated decisions on form to realize beautifully soft, interactive, and relational surface designs. 

The Blush show is an installation of functional ceramic objects displayed within the context of a formal sitting room. Such formal spaces can be fraught with fear, Link believes, and can prompt a fraught process of self-curation, a sort of public performance the queer community inhabits daily. 

“By displaying queered functional objects in this setting, the audience is invited to meditate on personal moments. These are moments in which we blush, whether it be because we are nervous or because we are seen.”

The gallery is open daily to the public in Gallery 212 (upstairs) through July 21, 10am -7pm or by appointment through the Director of Ceramics, Meg Billingham: [email protected].

The Artist in Residence program at the Center specifically seeks to uplift the voices of and support the professional development of artists from diverse backgrounds sharing unique perspectives around art, culture, and community.