NEW YORK.- The Museum of Arts & Design presents Terra Nova, Sculpture & Vessels in Clay, through April 3, 2005. This selection of important works in ceramics highlights the achievements of international masters, both established and emerging, that have entered the Museum of Arts & Design's distinguished collection since the Millennium. The exhibition will present works by 26 artists from Canada , China , Japan , The Netherlands, Sweden , Taiwan and the United States . Many of the works are exhibited at the Museum for the first time.

The artists illustrated at left demonstrate the range of styles included. Marilyn Levine's Anne's Jacket (1990) demonstrates her mastery of the art of trompe l'oeil , replicating every detail of the garment – from its folds to the marks, scratches, and signs of wear – as it hangs on a wall peg. Swedish artist Eva Hild experiments with positive/negative space in her delicately pierced stoneware Complex 1 (2004).

The rich heritage of the ceramic tradition serves as inspiration for many artists. Michelle Erikson's Pair of Tulip Pagodas (2002) incorporate fanciful juxtapositions of past styles and techniques, including the rich, fluid patterns of English slip and iconography from ancient Chinese porcelain. Famous for her photographic self portraits, Cindy Sherman, in her Madame Pompadour Breakfast Service (1990), further investigates this artistic convention by imposing an image of herself, disguised as Madame de Pompadour, onto the porcelain body. Based on an original design commissioned by Louis XV in 1756, each piece of this limited edition breakfast service was silk-screened and painted at the Limoges Porcelain Factory in France

These masterpieces testify to the important and evolving cultural role that clay plays in both the United States and abroad. “Transforming earth, water and fire into ceramics is one of the oldest arts, dating back millennia to the earliest civilizations,” says Ursula Ilse-Neuman, curator of the Museum's collection and organizer of the exhibition. “The audacious explorations on display in Terra Nova explore new territory in this ancient and ever-changing art form. We are proud that the Museum has created a significant and expanding collection of some of the world's finest and most daring ceramic masterworks.” This exhibition was underwritten by the Collectors Circle —a leading support group of the Museum.