If you picture blushing roses on a tea cup when you hear the term china painting, Kurt Weiser is about to alter your thinking.

The Michigan native, born in 1950, is one of the most acclaimed ceramists to have come out of the 1970s studio potter movement.

"Eden Revisited: The Ceramic Art of Kurt Weiser," a mid-career retrospective at the Society for Contemporary Craft, is as remarkable for the stylistic evolution of his work as it is for the artist's technical brilliance.

The exhibition was organized by the Arizona State University Art Museum Ceramic Research Center and comprises 35 objects and drawings. Mr. Weiser became head of the university's ceramics program in 1989 and has been distinguished Regent's Professor of Art since 2000.

A student of the renowned Ken Ferguson at Kansas City Art Institute, Mr. Weiser received a bachelor's degree in fine arts there and a master's at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. From 1979 to 1988, he was director of the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, Mont., a hotbed for innovative ceramic work.

Early on, he made a name for himself with strong functional stoneware forms complemented by handsome glazes that he developed and generously shared with the national clay community.

Plates 26 inches in diameter are enlivened by surfaces that alternately smooth over and highlight the clay's roughness, a masterful blend of control and chance. A blazing orange patterned 36-inch wide earthenware "Plate" from 1982, kissed in the firing by residual salt in the kiln, appears to be coated with glass or encaustic; a "do not touch" sign keeps doubters from confirming suspicions.

Later pieces include altered cylindrical shapes that have a figural aspect, and humorous lidded raku forms, hand built with precision.

Where Mr. Weiser takes a sharp turn from his path, however, is with slip-cast pieces, still vessel-based, upon which he paints enigmatic narratives.

Flowing, partially chance washes of color over grainy clay have given way to a delicate, finely grained porcelain body. Most surprising are the adeptly painted images which would not be out of place on a canvas, and which have art historical and conceptual origins.

The colorful, detailed scenes are innocent and sensual, at once inviting and troubling. Eden is populated with bitten fruit, nudes, intrigue, and flora and fauna.

Gauguin meets the Surrealists in "Iguana" which shows an exotically featured woman in a tropical forest clutching the reptile to her bare breast. On the back of the lidded vessel, a snake, dangling from a blossoming orchid, grasps an ill-fated lizard in its mouth.

More sinister is "The Bird Merchant," his face distorted, the ash from his cigarette about to fall onto the small feathered captive clutched in hand.

"Europa," a large 2005 work that resembles co-joined globes mounted on a bronze stand, turns to mythology. The Phoenician princess is carried off by Greek god Zeus, who has taken the form of a bull. They pause in an expanse of sea and sky that also holds an Asian woman clutching an oversized fish and a sea turtle with a moon on its back. Beneath them is a minutely rendered village with churches, homes, people, dogs and ships at harbor.

"The ideas and subjects of these paintings on the pots are for the most part just a collection of my own history of fantasy and view of reality," Mr. Weiser wrote in his artist statement.

"They are built the same way we dream: Around a central idea, a cast of other characters and environments that just seem to show up to complete the picture."

They are products of a rich imagination indeed.

"Eden" continues through March 20 at 2100 Smallman St., Strip District. An illustrated catalog is $35. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Admission is free. Information: 412-261-7003 or www.contemporarycraft.org.

Mary Ruth Smith, professor of art at Baylor University, Waco, Texas, and Fiberart International 2010 juror, will speak at 7 p.m. Friday at the Society for Contemporary Craft. Topics include constructing and embellishing fabric, and her influences including Korean pojagi and Mbuti barkcloth. Internationally exhibited, she holds a master's degree in fabric design and Ph.D. in art education. (Information: 412-241-5920; $5 admission.)

Admission will be free to Carnegie Museums of Art and Natural History galleries from 3:30 to 8 p.m. Thursdays in March thanks to the Buncher Family Foundation. Parking is $5 after 5 p.m. Current shows include "Whales/Tohora" and "Gods, Love, and War: Tapestries and Prints from the Collection."

To mark its 40th anniversary presentation of "Swan Lake," Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre is inviting local artists to "turn pointe shoes into works of art." PBT will supply the shoes, and artists may use media of their choice. The deadline is April 12. During dress rehearsals and performances, 20 selected artworks will be displayed in the Benedum Center lobby in a silent auction to benefit PBT. Information, including size and weight limitations, at 412-454-9119.

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