Ceramic Artist Stephen Braun to Discuss New Art Book at Whitefish Review Event

To celebrate the release of ceramic artist Stephen Braun’s new book, “Hindsight & Foresight is 20/20,” the Whitefish Review is hosting an event this Friday, May 3, at 101 Central in downtown Whitefish, featuring live music, a discussion featuring the artist, and opportunities for both audience questions, and book purchases and signings.

Braun’s new book, which was published by the Whitefish Review, is centered around the art works featured in the 2020 show at the Missoula Art Museum, from which “Hindsight & Foresight is 20/20” draws its name. The Whitefish artist first began studying ceramics at the University of Montana in the late 1970s, and has been creating ceramic sculptures for more than 40 years.

The doors open at 6 p.m., live music from the jazz combo Blues Avenue will go from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m., and then the main event will start at 7:30 p.m. For that portion of the night, Braun will be in conversation with Scott McMillion, editor of Montana Quarterly, as well as writer and conservationist Michael Jamison, and Underscore Art gallery owner Monica Pastor.

“We’re honored to have published this groundbreaking book by a true artist of our time,” Whitefish Review editor Brian Schott said in a press release announcing the event. “Stephen’s art provides a deep commentary on the age we are living in as a society and can be a guidepost for the future as we wrestle with environmental, social, and political issues.”

Many of the ceramic human figures depicted in Braun’s new large format book are painted over with icons, symbols, logos and designs that stamp them permanently with the subjects of Braun’s concern and critique. Others are buried under stacks of tires, burdened by Pinocchio-style noses, or bear unsettling growths, like extra eyes, mouths, heads, or in one case, tree stumps that sprout all across one seemingly helpless ceramic face.

“Overconsumption, addiction, environmental degradation, racism, rampant consumerism, viruses and politics are tearing our society apart,” Braun writes in the book’s introduction, adding that the 2020 show touched on those topics, and more.

In describing the show further, Braun describes its examination of history, or hindsight, something he sees as an unreliable record written by the victors, often replete with lies, or influenced by agendas rooted in politics or patriotism.

Looking forward, Braun sees foresight as a likewise unreliable vision, saying that it is “clouded by hope and the need to find stability, meaning and direction in one’s life.”

“Our culture is rooted in shady confidence men who have instituted a big economic con game where all the resources and money are vacuumed up to the top,” he writes.

Jamison, one of the event’s discussion participants, wrote of Braun’s 2020 show that, “It’s easy to get lost in the imagery of destruction, of absolute power corrupting absolutely, of loss and grief, and, finally, of righteous indignation. But Braun’s work, provocative as it may be, is ultimately a desperate defense of beauty. He’s pulling back the curtain on what is, so that we can imagine what might be.”

The upcoming event with Braun is the second Whitefish Review event of 2024, after the journal opened up the year with a January 2024 event featuring “Powder Days” author Heather Hansman. In 2023, the Review hosted events featuring author David James Duncan” in conversation about his new book “Sun House” and a discussion with the photographer Susan Bridges, which highlighted photos she took on the set of the 1980 movie “Heaven’s Gate,” in which her husband Jeff Bridges had a role.

For more information go to https://www.whitefishreview.org/index.htm.