There's a saying that the finger of god moves over the surface of the world and where it occasionally stops history is made. I think about this sometimes not in spiritual terms but in connection with cities emerging as leaders in the art world. By extension it can apply as well to art schools. The Southern California dominance of American art education in recent decades--Cal Arts, UCLA--was preceded by a decade or more of genius in Northern California, at UC Davis in fact, from the early 60s to the mid 70s and beyond.

At one point Davis had on its faculty Wayne Thiebaud, William Wiley, Robert Arneson, Manuel Neri, Roy De Forest, and others, and produced many notable students including Bruce Nauman, Deborah Butterfield, Richard Shaw and dozens of others. Stanford University curator, Hilarie Faberman, working with collectors Paula and Ross Turk, has put together a wonderful show of highlights of the work produced by the ceramics department under the visionary leadership of Arneson.

Arneson, along with Peter Voulkos and James Melchert at Berkeley, were at the forefront of a movement to claim ceramics as a sculptural material as opposed to a utilitarian craft material. Arneson's legendary studio, TB9, is still in use today and is a beloved shrine to his ornery genius. You can search the gallery but you won't find teapots or plates; you will find a disgusting shit-brown toilet by Arneson and a pretty funny brain floating in water by Clayton Bailey. The imposing classical pile that is the Cantor Arts Center is host to these works of art in the way that a standard poodle is host to small beasties living in its fur. That is, the ethos of Davis at the time was strictly antiauthoritarian, contrary, self-mocking, bohemian and ill-mannered. It is inevitable but a little disconcerting to see the work both tamed and elevated.

Running through February 26th, the show has a knockout group of small vessels by Kathy Butterly that are in the same perfectionist league as Ron Nagle. The late and deeply under-recognized Marilyn Levine has a pair of signature trompe l'oeil old boots. Richard Shaw is represented by works that, as always with this master, amaze us at the human capacity to approach perfection. David Gilhooley's frog Queen Victoria makes the party too. Arneson is the star, as then, as ever. Long live the kink.