Review: 'Bright Abyss' tells the story of Robert Sperry's innovative works

One of the things I love about going to the Bellevue Arts Museum, with its emphasis on craft, is that I know that the work on view will usually be well-made. I'm a fan of concept and theory in art, but it can be a treat to really look at materials and forms and marvel at how things are made.

The current retrospective of work by American ceramic sculptor Robert Sperry (1927-1998) does not disappoint in this regard. The museum must have been filled with potters and ceramics aficionados on the day I visited because everyone was tilting their heads from one side to the other, looking at and talking about glazes, textures and surfaces covered in slip.

This careful looking is needed to understand the goal of the show: The overview of Sperry's techniques and forms is meant to communicate how these techniques and forms were innovative for their time and place.

If you find yourself thinking that you've seen these techniques before, or that some of the work looks dated, you're exactly right. But keep in mind that Sperry was among the first American artists to embrace a handcrafted quality in ceramics (he was particularly inspired by Japanese folk pottery) and to experiment with different glazing techniques, popularizing these approaches during the 1960s and '70s.

From the Asian-inspired pots of the 1950s and the hand-built "funk" pieces of the 1970s, right up to the organic- geometric discs of white, gray and brown of the 1990s, there is an earthy, crafty vibe that took me right back to the art shows I used to go to as a kid with my groovy-artist dad. On the other hand, the surface-oriented, dense quality of Sperry's work made it hard to connect with individual works in ways that weren't technical or art historical.

There are some layout problems that stem from where the show sits within the museum; it's tricky to present a chronological overview when there is more than one entrance to the show (via the elevator and the grand stairwell). However, Bellevue Arts Museum did an admirable job of taking the exhibition, originally organized by the American Museum of Ceramic Art in Pomona, Calif., and fleshing it out with pieces from Northwest collections and with references of interest to Northwest viewers. Sperry was, after all, intimately connected with the region, having taught at the University of Washington for more than 30 years.

The strength of the show lies in its cumulative effect: The variety of Sperry's work and the educational materials build an impressive case, proclaiming Sperry's valued position in the world of ceramic art.