Contemporary ceramic pieces by Matthew Towers and Paul McMullan are showcased in "New Works Exposed" at the Atrium Gallery through February 28.

The artists will give a talk and slide presentation at 3:30 p.m. Monday in Room 106 of the Fine Arts Building.

Towers, who teaches ceramics at the University of Hartford, makes porcelain pots using function to create a context for his ideas. He rips, tears, splits and cracks the clay, using thick viscous running glazes and blazing colors.

"Some of his works have a humorous, playful and seductive quality," said Denise Pelletier, a visiting assistant professor in UConns art department who teaches ceramics. "He is a magician with the material. He handles porcelain on the potters wheel in an unconventional, experimental manner."

Towers, who earned a master's of fine arts degree in ceramics in 1996 at New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, has shown his work at the University of Hartford and the Germanow-Coffrey Gallery in Rochester, N.Y. His work is in collections at the Museum of Ceramic Art at Alfred University and at the Jingdezhen Museum of Ceramics in China.

McMullan, who teaches at Long Island University, constructs large tile forms and sculpture using earthenware clay. His works are a combination of cast, three-dimensional objects, hand-built elements, drawn images and silkscreen images. They are like journals or books, compiling a personal history.

McMullan also earned a master's of fine arts degree in ceramics at New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, in 1995. He has shown his works at competitive exhibitions at the Habatat/Shaw Gallery in Pontiac, Mich., and the Bedford Gallery at Longwood College in Farmville, Va. His invitational exhibitions include Long Island University's Brooklyn campus in New York City, the Mabey Gallery in Richmond, Va., and the Anderson Gallery at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Va.

His work is in collections at the Ceramic Museum in Alfred, N.Y., and at the Hartzler Art Gallery, Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Va.

The Atrium Gallery, located in the Fine Arts Building, is open Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.

SF