GREENVILLE CITIZEN-TIMES

ARTISTS DEBUT DINNERWARE COLLECTION AT ART & LIGHT

Aug. 15, 2016

Two Asheville artists are sharing their collection of ceramic dinnerware at the Art & Light Gallery in Greenville, South Carolina. Eva Magill-Oliver and Laura Cooke began working together in the last year, and this is the first time their collaborative works have been seen by the public. “Their work is very fresh in style,” said Teresa Roche, owner of the Art & Light Gallery, where the show opened Saturday. “It’s very contemporary and right on trend with what’s going on in housewares in the market today.”

About 40 pieces are on display, including platters, vases, and salad, dessert and dinner plates. Prices range from $45 to $125. Magill-Oliver, the primary designer, favors a clean, minimalist style with a color palette of white, sage green and deep blue. “All of her designs are inspired by nature but they become very geometric,” Roche said. “Her leaves are very angular.” Cooke is a ceramics artist while Magill-Oliver is primarily a painter. Cooke creates the plates and helps to realize Magill-Oliver’s designs. “I give most of the credit to Laura,” Magill-Oliver said. “She does a lot of the work.” From the beginning, the two full-time artists enjoyed a smooth collaboration, Magill-Oliver said. “Laura and I clicked immediately,” she said. “We’re very much on the same path. We both have the same taste and vision.” The two artists hope eventually to market their dinnerware to large retailers. Magill-Oliver studied art and drawing in college, later working as an in-house artist with a fine arts publishing company. Cooke grew up in North Carolina and received her bachelor’s degree in studio art with a photography concentration from Furman University in 2006. She learned to create pottery in the hilltop town of Cortona, Italy, and fell in love with it while living in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. She decided to pursue pottery and moved to Portland, Oregon, to study in the ceramics program at the Oregon College of Art and Craft. Later, she established her own pottery business.