Jonathan Kaplan: The Crux of the Biscuit: New Ceramic Constructions

Plinth Gallery

3520 Brighton Boulevard, Denver, CO 80216

November 3, 2023-January 27, 2024

Admission: Free

Review by Danielle Cunningham

Gallery owner and exhibition artist Jonathan Kaplan “leaves dogma to religion” rather than ceramics. [1] Instead, he believes design possibilities are limitless and adapting to one’s environment is crucial to the creative process. A self-taught mold-maker—he’s even written a book about his process—Kaplan creates molds from found objects like birds and donut-shaped children’s toys that he casts and combines with repeatedly-used whiteware forms. [2] These primarily resemble vessels, many in the shape of inverted obelisks, though Kaplan says he has always had the forms in his mind. [3]

The artist Jonathan Kaplan in Plinth Gallery with his exhibition, *The Crux of the Biscuit.* Image by *DARIA*.

This exhibition, The Crux of the Biscuit, is the artist’s first body of work since 2021 and showcases his decades of work as a bike builder and potter, as well as his training as a ceramicist. Kaplan has a true knack for bringing disparate parts into a whole that is not only cohesive but whimsical. Reinforcing the whimsy, many glazed surfaces glitter, while others prominently feature a gradient, which Kaplan notes is the “identity of the glaze” rather than an intentional process. [4] The ability to exert artistic control while recognizing and even encouraging the seeming personality of his materials is one of many ways in which Kaplan is an artist to his core and operates best between states of being.

Jonathan Kaplan, *Three By Three*, 2023, slip cast whiteware with glaze, 18 x 18 x 2.25 inches. Image by *DARIA*.

An installation view of Jonathan Kaplan's exhibition *The Crux of the Biscuit.* Image by *DARIA*.

Though he is certainly concerned with form, Kaplan also experiments with the ways in which various processes impact viewer perceptions. In his large installation ROYGBIV, Kaplan arranges numerous rainbow-colored half-spheres in a tidy, color-coordinated grid, with each color traveling in repeated diagonal paths. A smaller version of a 216-piece installation, this work is approachable with its scaled back but familiar semi-globes and bright hues reminiscent of childhood.

Jonathan Kaplan, *ROYGBIV*, 2023, slip cast whiteware with glaze, 48 x 48 x 4 inches. Image by *DARIA*.

Compounding their appeal, the spheres of ROYGBIV are coated with a commercial glaze, allowing for identical, shiny coatings while hearkening to Kaplan’s work as a potter of mass-produced pieces. This is the only work in the exhibition that uses this type of glaze, revealing the artist’s tendency to balance control and precision with play and serendipity.

A view of works in Jonathan Kaplan's exhibition *The Crux of the Biscuit*. Image by *DARIA*.

Several works in the exhibition feature Kaplan’s inverted obelisk form alongside spheres, small birds cast from craft store objects, and tubular pieces cast from a multi-ringed office chair component. The cast elements in these works echo elements of ROYGBIV, as well as Kaplan’s formal training, his past work experiences, and his inexplicable attraction to specific shapes and figures.

Jonathan Kaplan, *Tall Vase with Birds*, 2023, slip cast whiteware with glaze, 24 x 12 x 5 inches. Image by *DARIA*.

Less than two feet high, Tall Vase with Birds is centered around a non-functional vase that towers over the center of a sphere, connecting multiple spaces. Framed by two birds that could act as handles if they were functional, this work only hints at Kaplan’s past as a creator of functional pottery, in contrast to ROYGBIV. He anchors the work in a domed base covered in wavy, etched lines, intuitively made, which appear in many other works.

A detail view of Jonathan Kaplan’s *Tall Vase with Birds*. Image courtesy of the artist.

More than the birds and obelisk, the sphere is a critical part of this sculpture as it joins each of the other pieces, establishing enough distance to distinguish them from each other while ensuring cohesion throughout the sculpture. Also, the glaze Kaplan mixed for this work is significant, though perhaps less dominant than other parts. It is a strong color, an opaque teal that glitters when thick but loses its luster where it thins out, most noticeably at the obelisk’s seams.

Johnathan Kaplan, *Vase with Triangle Appendages*, 2023, slip cast whiteware with glaze, 15 x 12 x 5 inches. Image by *DARIA*.

Unrestrained by Kaplan, the glaze creates longitudinal lines throughout the sphere’s surface, adding dimension and visual interest. Both the glaze and the sphere show Kaplan’s light touch; he guides the work and channels certain elements while never forcing pieces together. Instead, he allows components to decide for themselves how subtle or dramatic a role they will play in the finished work.

Johnathan Kaplan, *Teapot Quintet*, 2023, slip cast whiteware with glaze, 24 x 9 inches. Image courtesy of the artist.

Another striking subset of work in the exhibition is Kaplan’s collection of teapot-like sculptures called Teapot Quintet. At first glance, these appear as ordinary, identical teapots, though glazed in chalky black, with somewhat oddly shaped bodies, and installed vertically on the wall. On the surface, which resembles a chalkboard, Kaplan has appropriately made childlike marks using pastels, mostly in primary colors but also in white and gold. He describes the appearance of these marks: “I don't know where it came from. It just started to happen.” [5]

A detail view of the colorful marks and circular handle on Jonathan Kaplan’s *Teapot*, 2023, slip cast whiteware with glaze, 9 x 9 x 6 inches. Image by *DARIA*.

Each one is affixed with an unusually round, large handle, something one might see in a fractured fairytale and presumably difficult for most people to grasp. Kaplan almost seems to reject his past in commercial pottery with these works, rendering a hostile design unsuitable for human use while still hovering between tradition and contemporaneity. Adding to their oddity, the bulk of the teapots’ bodies are cast from a fluted cake pan, alternately bulging and receding, playful but, like Kaplan, unquestionably non-traditional. There are other teapots in the exhibition, too, some straying even further from conventional teapot form with tunnels running through their centers and Kaplan’s signature wavy marks covering the surface; non-functional, non-sensical, non-temporal.

Johnathan Kaplan, *Pink Teapot*, 2023, slip cast whiteware with glaze, 15 x 10 x 6 inches. Image by *DARIA*.

The various shapes, figures, and glaze personalities combined with Kaplan’s very welcome inability to separate his past work experiences from his present creative endeavors lead to striking, personal objects. Filled with sensitivity, memory, and humanity, Kaplan’s sculptures are nostalgic without becoming trivial. They are marked and even weighted by the passage of time. Yet, they never extract themselves from the fun of it all—a characteristic that comes directly from the artist, without which these would be merely another series of ceramics mired in dogma, too attached to tradition, and incapable of progress. Thankfully, Kaplan exists in liminality, which shows in every sculpture he makes.

Johnathan Kaplan, *Constructed Vase*, 2023, slip cast whiteware with glaze, 18 x 9 x 6 inches. Image by *DARIA*.

Danielle Cunningham (she/her) is an artist, scholar, and independent curator. She writes about science fiction, gender, sexuality, and disability, with an emphasis on mental illness. The co-founder of chant cooperative, an artist co-op, she holds a master’s degree in Art History and Museum Studies from the University of Denver.

[1] From my conversation with the artist, January 4, 2024.

[2] Whiteware is a class of ceramics that is made from clay and other materials. It includes earthenware, stoneware, and porcelain.

[3] From my conversation with the artist, January 4, 2024.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid.