About Charles Krafft...

"Never Look a Gift Shoppe in the Mouth" intones the inscription on one of Seattle artist Charles KrafftÕs porcelain collector plates. So, it should come as no surprise that the creator of delft Disasterwaretm; took advantage of a gift -- in the form of a grant jointly administered by the NEA, the Citizens Exchange Council, and the Soros Foundation -- to travel to the battle-scarred remains of the former Yugoslavia. His diplomatic mission to the Balkans was the topic of discussion at the February installment of Reflex magazineÕs superb Third Tuesday presentations at the Two Bells Tavern.

Krafft has toiled for years in obscurity as a painter and writer in the Northwest, earning himself the dubious distinction of being "The oldest promising young artist in Seattle." Five years ago he joined a guild of lady china painters and acquired the skills to launch a line of hand painted disasters in delft. His career has since taken off like the space shuttle Challenger. Collector plates are something weÕve all seen in souvenir shops, or advertised in the back pages of supermarket tabloids and Sunday papers, Krafft explains.After wading through the usual swill of bad news and lurid gossip, you can usually find one of those limited editions of a maudlin portrait or a rhapsodic pastoral scene to send away for. But you never find the pictures of the gritty life most of us are living in the late 20th century on ornamental china because no one would want to hang it on their walls, much less eat off it.

While that may be true for many people, a growing number of adventurous patrons soon discovered the twisted irony of his Disasterware tm; resulting in a burgeoning international reputation for this often overlooked Northwest master. His plates debuted at the Davidson Galleries in 1991, and much to the artistÕs surprise, they were instantly snapped up by some of SeattleÕs most prestigious collectors. Following a few more successful shows in the Northwest, including a "Metropolitan Mobile Museum" show mounted in the back of a traveling semi-truck, Krafft turned to the traditional method of marketing these curios, creating a mail order catalog that he sent to dealers across the country. The response was phenomenal.

     
He was commissioned to create a series of plates commemorating the tragic relationship between the late Sinclair Lewis and Dorothy Thompson for permanent display at their former Vermont estate, now a bed and breakfast inn. The catalog also generated interest among some of America's most prominent galleries, and led to a one person exhibit at the Garth Clark Gallery in New York. His work is currently included in a traveling exhibit of printed pottery, and is slated for display in London Crafts Council this Spring.

Krafft's quirky sensibilities eventually came to the attention of an equally eccentric group of artists in the former Yugoslav Federation. Neue Slowenishe Kunst (NSK) is a Slovenian artists collective whose activities were inspired by the Socialists regimeÕs banishment in 1983 of the provocative Slovenian industrial rock band Laibach. In response to the government edict, a group of young artists, actors, designers and writers collectively called what their activities Laibach Kunst, to keep the name of the band before the public. As Laibach achieved international acclaim, they became a source of national pride, and the ban was grudgingly lifted after four years. The rebellious collective then became known as NSK.

NSK contains several diverse elements: LAIBACH, the Music Department; IRWIN, the Painting Department; a Theater Department known as NOORDUNG; NEW COLLECTIVISM Graphics; and the Department of Pure and Applied Philosophy. In accordance with the Eastern European trend of the time, NSK formally declared itself an autonomous transglobal state in 1993, complete with their own passports, currency, postage stamps, diplomats and embassies. To date, embassies have been established in Moscow, Ghent, Berlin, Venice and most recently, Sarajevo. The primary purpose of Kraftt's residency with the group was to help create commemorative china for use at official NSK embassy functions and state occasions.