Photography Credit: Frank Grillo

U T A H   L E D G E

RON LANG
​LANG BONSAI CONTAINERS
North Carolina, USA

​
​Bonsai
1995
Chinese Juniper
Juniperus chinensis "Robusta Green"

Sculptural Container
2000
Created for Juniper
Comprised of 6 Pieces, Hollow
Slab Formed, Carved and Eroded, Glazed
Clay Body and Glazes Formulated by the Artist
Wood-Fired Stoneware, Cone 10-11
​

Rather than attempting to mimic nature, this sculptural presentation references architecture, geometry and geology and the Southwestern landscape that inspired it. A site-specific abstraction, a situation of a lone tree taken root at the foot of a high butte.

Utah Ledge was awarded Second Prize – The Ho Yoku Award, Finest Creative Western Formal Display at the 1st U.S. National Bonsai Exhibition in Rochester in 2008.

H O N O R I N G   ​A   L E G A C Y

In recognition of Ron Lang’s lasting contributions to the bonsai community, and in tribute to the U.S. National Juried Bonsai Pottery Exhibitions that inspired this event, the golden pot logo of the North American Bonsai Pottery Competition features a pot by Ron Lang.

"The magic of bonsai—the marvel and wonder of seeing a real, living tree in an unaccustomed miniature scale—is initiated by the container beneath it. Rather than just being a substitute for the earth, the container is the artistic mechanism, the human element that stages the drama. While some folks want the container to all but disappear, or to be a very secondary character in the play, I don’t see why, in most cases, the container shouldn’t be a more active element—a true creative collaborator. And then, when it all comes together just right, as in all good theatre, we willingly surrender our disbelief."

​- Ron Lang

A B O U T   R O N   L A N G

When he retired in 2008, Ron Lang had 33 years of college level teaching with the last 30 as head of the ceramics program at Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore. The sculptural ceramic work he pursued over his career has been displayed in galleries and museums and private collections nationally and internationally. One example, his work was selected for the traveling exhibition, Contemporary American Ceramics 1950 -1990: A Survey of American Objects & Vessels. Organized and traveled throughout Japan by the National Museum of Modern Art in Kyoto. His figurative ceramic sculpture is featured in the book Confrontational Ceramics by Judith S. Schwartz, Ph.D, professor at New York University.

Upon retiring, Ron and his wife, Sharon, moved to Central Pennsylvania where they set up Lang Bonsai Containers, a studio and wood fire kiln for the production of bonsai, Kusamono and Suiseki related containers. A practitioner of bonsai as well, Ron has worked to vitalize the relationship between ceramic artists and bonsai enthusiasts. His 2002 groundbreaking exhibition, Bonsai inSites: Collaborations between Tree and Container at Baltimore Clayworks and later the U.S. National Bonsai & Penjing Museum in D.C. brought together ceramic sculptors and bonsai artists to create unique sites and experimental display situations for bonsai.

His non- traditional composition, Utah Ledge, won second prize at the 1st National Bonsai Exhibition in Rochester in 2008 in the Creative Western Formal Display category. The same piece placed second in the professional group at the 32nd Midwest Bonsai Society Exhibition in 2009. He won first prize for a container entered in the second National Juried Bonsai Pot Exhibition, non-traditional category sponsored by the National Bonsai Foundation in DC in 2002. He coordinated the ceramics exhibitions, “From the Hand of…” and “From the Collection of…” for the 5th World Bonsai Friendship Federation Convention in Washington, D.C. in 2005 and has served on the board of the National Bonsai Foundation.

In 2015 he served as overall coordinator for the 3rd National Juried Bonsai Pot Exhibition at the U.S. National Arboretum in Washington, D.C. His work along with that of his wife, Sharon Edwards-Russell, is in private and public collections throughout the country including the Kennett Collection, Bonsai Mirai, and the Chicago Botanic Garden. He currently serves as president of the Cape Fear Bonsai Society in Wilmington, North Carolina.

T H A N K   Y O U   T O   O U R   S P O N S O R S

D I S C O V E R   P O T T E R S   I S   P R O U D   T O   S P O N S O R   T H E   2 0 2 5   N O R T H   A M E R I C A N   B O N S A I   P O T T E R Y   C O M P E T I T I O N

For Learning Seminars tickets, lodging, transportation, merchandise, and all other event information, please visit the American Bonsai Society website.

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