ZEN OF BEAUTY
Mette Augustinus Poulsen, Anne Mette Hjortshøj and US-Potters
Exhibition 7 January – 27 February 2016
Danish ceramists meet American potters from 'Mingei-sota - Minnesota.
The exhibitors represent known and unknown, older and younger, differences in background, but they all work with the ideology of making traditional hand-thrown pots for daily use - 'Mingei'.
Danish Mette Augustinus Poulsen and Anne Mette Hjortshøj exhibit with the Amarican potters: Warren MacKenzie, Randy Johnston, Robert Banker, Linda Christianson, Guillermo Cuellar, Samuel Johnson, Jan McKeachie and Steven Rolf.Bernard Leach wrote: The Unknown Craftsman - A Japanese Insight into Beauty
A book about Yanagi's Japanese perception of beauty and value of anonymous everyday things, 'Mingei'. This book has for potters and admirers achieved an almost religious status.
The Japanese appreciation of beauty and tradition of ceramics, travelled in the 20s with the blossoming of folk art via the philosopher Yanagi and ceramic studio of Hamada in Japan to Bernard Leach in England.In the late 40s, American Warren Mackenzie worked as assistant to Bearnard Leach and passed on the tradition to the US. He settled in Minnesota, which is still called 'Mingei-sota.
The tradition is forgotten or - loved by some and oppressive to others.
Around the world, the ceramic development has sprung from meetings between studio potters. Industrialization challenged the craftsmen, and they became fewer, poorer, - and also more valuable.Ceramicist's mutual needs of large kilns, apprenticeships for craft experience and technical development have made them new citizens of the world.
Some have maintained the tradition of craftsmanship in everyday objects that follow the past craft and function rules. Others, in various ways, have moved away from tradition, but still hold the traces and words of the old ceramic doctrines.The exhibiting traditional potters represent 'the Beauty of Zen'.
The two Danish potters exhibit a selection of their works, whereas the Americans each show a personal choice of cups.The object's texture and function set of rules are connected to the making process, malleability of clay and possibilities of hands, - both for making and holding the objects in use.
It is sometimes in the finest detail, like in diversity of signatures, there is to be seen - and recognized the personality and originality of things.
Thanks to The Danish Arts Foundation's Project Funding in 2016.
BEAUTY OF ZEN – THE EXHIBITORS – Photos, interviews and bibliographies
Mette Augustinus Poulsen: "They are jars that do not make a fuss.
Working on the jars is continuous and for the exhibition they are selected after the last firing.
The pots are thrown in sandy West Jutland red clay and fired at 1160 Celsius, that is something in between ordinary red clay (melts at 1060 degrees) and stoneware fired somewhat higher.
They are reduced (firing with lack of oxygen) with the help of wooden sticks in an electric kiln. The reduction means a lot to both glazes and clay.
I am inspired by the city, the harbour, nature and of cooperage."
Mette Augustinu Poulsen was educated at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts 1966-70. She has exhibited in Denmark and abroad, including Gallery Björnen, Stockholm 1999; Sigtuna Museum, Sweden 2001; Kaolin, Stockholm 2006.14; Collect, Saatchi Gallery, London 2010,11,12,13; SOFA New York 2012 .. Represented in museums, public and private collections in Denmark, Europe, USA and Japan. Has received several grants and awards from the Danish Arts Foundation, National Bank's Jubilee Foundation, Ellen and Knud Dalhoff Larsen Foundation, Ole Haslund Artist Award, The Art Association of Aug. 14...
www.mette-augustinus-poulsen.dk
Anne Mette Hjortshøj: "I work as a potter and look more backward than forward in getting the pieces to make sense from one firing to the next..The marvels of details, texture and balance between form, surface and function are apparently a 'never ending' addiction. - The need to cut elements and preserve the essence of a story, where the balance between nature, culture, geology and mystery are the key elements, - is the goal.
However, I must admit that I am most of all just trying to make beautiful things in a beautiful tradition. I am happy when it occasionally succeeds.
I had during the previous 10 years only worked with salt glazing. Since we built the two-chamber kiln - by now almost five years ago, the challenge has been to learn what the two chambers have been able to add.
In one chamber of the kiln, in which I work with glazes, I have used the opportunity to work with different Bornholm types of clay and other local raw materials, like quartz, feldspar and ashes. It is a difficult process, but leaves precisely these nuances.
The pieces in this exhibition are the result of five years of work and many failed firings and a lot of new knowledge about the Bornholm 'underground'.
It is functional ceramics, wood-fired stoneware and porcelain. I work primarily on the wheel, but often with thrown elements that I subsequently assemble into new shapes. Some major pieces are pressed in plaster moulds or modelled.
I use a few glazes, typically made of local Bornholm raw materials, but have a relatively large variation of surfaces by creating works in a large palette of types of clay under the same glaze."
www.goldmarkart.com - See video https://vimeo.com/39375145
MINNESOTA - WISCONSIN POTTERS
Warren MacKenzie: ”Pots shall start with a purpose. The details will follow as your ideas develop. Pots that are used should be good to see and good to touch. All of my work is stoneware, wheel thrown & fired in a gas fired kiln. Inspired by 'Mingei' pottery and Shoji Hamada.” Born in 1924, Kansas City Missouri. Educated at Chicago Art Institute 1942-46.
Went to Japan right after World War II. Worked at Bearnard Leach Pottery two ½ years.
Lived with Bearnard Leach all that time. Met Lucie Rie. International Pottery Conference Darlington England 1952. Met Shoji Hamada. Invited Hamada to St. Paul Minneapolis USA with Bernard Leach for a workshop.”
Publication: Warren MacKenzie American Potter. Published by Kodansha International Ltd. 1991.
Warren MacKenzie (b. 1924) is a North American craft potter still working in his studio in Minnesota. MacKenzie studied and worked with Bernard Leach from 1949 to 1952. He is highly influenced by the oriental aesthetic of Soetsu (Muneyoshi) Yanagi (1889-1961), Shoji Hamada and Korean ceramics, - credited with bringing the Japanese Mingei style of pottery to Minnesota, fondly referred to as the "Mingei-sota style.
MacKenzie has described his goal as the making of 'everyday' pots. His pots are found in major museums and command high prices among collectors. Most of his work is made in stoneware, although he has worked in porcelain at times during his career. MacKenzie is well known as a teacher. Since 1952 he taught at the University of Minnesota, where he is a Regents' professor emeritus. His students have included Randy Johnston, Mike Norman, Jeff Oestreich, Wayne Branum, Mark Pharis, Shirley Johnson..
Robert Banker: “My wheel thrown pieces are carved with traditional chip carving methods usually associated with wooden objects. The textures are experienced with your fingers as well as your eyes. This work is outgrown of my interest in pattern that is suggestive of patterns of growth in the natural world. 
I enjoy transferring ways of thinking about making from one material to another. From simple repeated cuts comes pattern and surface. I am looking at the way different cultures around the world change the surface of objects by relief carving."
Robert Banker teaches at the Rochester Community and Technical Collage and has his pottery studio in Oronoco, Minnesota 2004-present.
He has a MFA University of Minneapolis 1997 - BFA Alfred University, New York USA 1988. Teacher at University of Alaska Anchorage Art Department 1998-2003; Art studies/workshops in the USA, Europe and Denmark;workshop at Tokoname Ceramic Art IWCAT'89 Japan; architecture Ithaca, New York USA 1989-97; Teacher at Langeland Art School 1992/93; Assistant for Warren MacKenzie.
Steven Rolf lives and works as a studio potter in River Falls, WI, creating one-of-a-kind functional pots. His work reflects an ongoing search to unite his ideas with the generosity and the intimacy that the functional pot offers.
“I continually play with shape and surface within parameters set by the intended purpose of the pot. These parameters open a world of exploration for me.”S. C. Rolf holds an MFA from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, a BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute, and a BS in Broad Area Arts from the University of Wisconsin River Falls. He also apprenticed under Wang Hui Ming, a master painter and wood engraver.
He exhibits his work throughout the United States and has received a number of national awards. He also lectures and teaches workshops throughout the country. His work resides in noted private and national and international museum collections, as well as numerous kitchen cupboards.
Samuel Johnson: “I have been exploring darkness in the work as a metaphor. This current work is produced by reducing oxygen from the cooling phase of the firing and bathing the work in smoldering wood embers.. producing bands of color, iridescence, and dark surfaces that seem like shadow or silhouettes. The work is unglazed and raw.. quietly confrontational. Meditative. Still.
We have a capacity for reason and mathematical precision and yet are also half wild, full of biological and spiritual mysteries which drive our impulses despite existing, often, beneath consciousness. Poets refer to this as shadow – those aspects of our personality, our humanity, which are hidden from us. These cups are unglazed, raw, yet fully functional as drinking vessels.”
Samuel Johnson is Associate Professor of Art at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University. He has participated in several exhibitions and solo exhibitions. His work is in the permanent collection of the North Dakota Museum of Art and featured in the book, Stoked: Five Artists of Fire and Clay, Ceramics Now (2014), and the forthcoming, Mastering the Potter’s Wheel (2016). Samuel grew up on the western prairie of the Red River Valley, outside of Breckenridge, Minnesota in 1973. Before earning his MA and MFA from the University of Iowa (2005), he apprenticed with Richard Bresnahan (1996-1999), studied ceramic design at the Danish Design School in Copenhagen, Denmark (2000), and worked in Japan as a studio guest of Koie Ryoji (2001). He lives in rural St. Joseph, Minnesota, with his wife, Anne, and their four children, Harriet, Jesse, Ingrid, and Francine.
Randy Johnston: “My work has specific modern connotations and addresses the development of abstraction within the aesthetic of utilitarian objects. Essential to a strong representation of each form is a feeling for its overall spatial structure.
Moreover, the surface textures and marks are not an afterthought, but a tangible component of completion and fulfillment.“
High fire reduction firings in wood and gas.
Randy Johnston has been working in ceramics for more than thirty years. He is recognized internationally as an artist, who has pursued functional expression and brought a fresh aesthetic vision to contemporary form, and for his many contributions to the development of wood kiln technology in the United States. He is currently a professor at the University of Wisconsin - River Falls.
His work is exhibited internationally, and he is the recipient of numerous awards including Visual Artist Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Johnston received his MFA from Southern Illinois University and a BFA in Studio Arts from the University of Minnesota where he studied with Warren MacKenzie. He also studied in Japan at the pottery of Shimaoka Tatsuzo who was a student of Shoji Hamada.
Johnston has presented hundreds of lectures and guest artist presentations worldwide. He has work in the permanent collections of the Minneapolis Art Institute, Boston Museum of fine Arts, Los Angeles County Museum, Nelson Aitkins Museum and numerous International Public and Private collections.
Linda Christianson: “My daily practice begins with the making of 4 cups. While seemingly a simple form, the cup contains all the challenges I like: the pairing down of an essential lively form, comfortable feeling yet visually compelling, and a volume that suggests a specific liquid. Being put to the lip, the cup is the most dauntingly personal pot one could make. It has the capacity to change one's daily life. 
In my household, the favorite cups never make it into the cupboard. Their life moves from dish drainer to hand to sink and back to drainer. The best cups always end up in the shard pile, for they are loved to death. Wheel thrown cups, stoneware clay with slip and glaze. Fired in 2 chamber wood kiln.”
Linda Christianson is an independent studio potter who lives and works in rural Minnesota.
She studied at Hamline University (St Paul, Minnesota), and the Banff Centre School of Fine Arts (Banff, Alberta, Canada). She exhibits nationally and internationally, including one person exhibits in London and St. Louis. Her pieces are in numerous public and private collections, including the American Museum of Ceramic Art and the Glenboe Museum. An itinerant educator, Linda has taught at colleges and universities, including Carleton College and the Hartford Art School. She received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the McKnight Foundation. Her recent writing appeared in Studio Potter and The Log Book. One of her goals is to make a better cup each day. - www.christiansonpottery.com
Jan McKeachie: “My intent is that these pieces stand alone as visual objects.. move beyond that to express emotional, sensual, tactile, spiritual, and ritual sensibilities.. enhanced by the communication and sharing that occurs through use. It is important to me that my work be integrated into daily life.. the simplest cup may become a very important and enriching object in ones daily existence.
These cups are made from stoneware clay, thrown on a Leach style treadle wheel, and fired to cone10 in either a gas reduction firing or wood firing. In addition to the Leach/Hamada tradition of ceramics, some of my primary influences are African Art (woodcarving, masks, pottery), gardening, which inspires many vase forms, basketry, Minoan ceramics, and prehistoric art.”
Guillermo Cuellar: “Utilitarian hand made studio pottery. I believe exquisite beauty can be found in unique pieces made for use. All my work is based on function. Forms, glazes and decoration evolve gradually over time based on variations on functional traditional themes. 
It is unusual to find artwork that is meant to be used and handled and intimately appreciated for tactile qualities as well as visual. Art should not be separate from our lives, confined to galleries, or behind glass. Inspiration is drawn principally from historical work of Korean, Japanese, American and European origin.
Reduction gas fired glazed stoneware pottery.”
Guillermo Cuellar was born in Maracaibo, Venezuela in 1951. He grew up in Caracas and in the early ’60s he traveled to the United States. He studied ceramics at Cornell College, Mt. Vernon, Iowa, where he majored in Art, French and Geology, graduating in 1976. In 1986 he set up a studio in the village of Turgua, southeast of Caracas, where he made pots for sixteen years.
In 1981 he worked as assistant to Warren MacKenzie, who was teaching in Caracas and with whom he regularly shared workshop experience from 1984 to 2006. Guillermo has taught workshops sponsored by the Venezuelan Association of the Arts of Fire and assisted in those given by MacKenzie, Linda Christianson, Randy Johnston etc. His work has been on display in the Venezuelan National Art Gallery, Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Caracas Sofia Imber, Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Puerto Rico, Smithsonian Institution, Northern Clay Center Minnesota and private galleries in the United States, England, Venezuela, and Chile. In 2005 he moved to the upper St. Croix river valley near Shafer, Minnesota. Here he established a home and studio.
BIOGRAHY - ALL EXHIBITORS
BIOGRAPHY - Mette Augustinus Poulsen www.mette-augustinus-poulsen.dk
EDUCATION Jutland Art Academy 1966-70
Eget værksted fra 1970
Medlem af Statens Kunstfonds tremandsudvalg for kunsthåndværk og kunstneriske formgivning 1984-86
Medarrangør af »Dansk Keramik 1991«, Aarhus Kunstbygning
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
NordForm 90, Malmö, 1990
Dansk Keramik 1991, Aarhus Kunstbygning, 1991
Galleri Lejonet, Stockholm, 1994
Deense Keramiek, Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam, 1995
Unika, Kunstindustrimuseet, 1996
Galleri Björnen, Stockholm, 1999
Sigtuna Museum, Sverige, 2001
Kaolin, Stockholm, 2006, 2014
Clausens Kunsthandel, Kbh., 1993, 1995, 2000, 2004, 2010
Collect, Saatchi Gallery, London, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013
SOFA New York, 2012
COLLECTIONS Kunstindustrimuseet - Kunstmuseet Trapholt, Kolding - Keramikmuseet Grimmerhus - Museum Kruithuis, Hertogenbosch, Holland - Schleswig-Holsteinisches Landesmuseum, Gottorp Slot - Birmingham Museum of Art, Alabama, USA - Statens Kunstfond - Ny Carlsbergfondet - Private samlinger i Europa, USA og Japan.
GRANTS AND AWARDS Statens Kunstfond - Nationalbankens Jubilæumsfond af 1968 - Ellen og Knud Dalhoff Larsens Fond - Ole Haslunds Kunstnerlegat, 1990 - Anne Marie Telmanyi født Carl-Nielsen Legatet, 2004 - Kunstforeningen af 14. august Legatet, 2010
BIOGRAPHY - Anne Mette Hjortshøj (b. 1973)
www.goldmarkart.com - Se video https://vimeo.com/39375145
EDUCATION - Glass and Ceramic Art School at Bornholm 1997–2000
EXHIBITIONS
2015 Chawan Expo, Hemiksen, Belgien
SALT, Keramisk Center Höganäs, Sweden
2014 Japanism, Bornholm Ceramic Museum, Hjorts Fabrik, Denmark
2013 The International Chasabal Festival, Mungyeong, South Korea 13, 12, 11, 10, 09, 08.
8 in Jaffa, Contemporary Ceramics Gallery, Israel
2012 SOGO Departmentstore, Tokyo, Japan
“Three Cups”, Vessels for Tea, Dragon Tearoom and Gallery, Colorado, USA
Solo show, Goldmark Gallery, Uppingham, England
2011 Japan/Bornholm, Galleri Vang, Bornholm, Denmark
”Next Generation”, Palæfløjen, Roskilde, Denmark
2010 ”Wall of Fame”, First Decade, Selected Graduates, DKDS Bornholm
Ganjin Celedon Festival, International Ceramic Artist Exhibition
LECTURES/WORKSHOPS
2015 2nd European Woodfire Conference, Skælskør Denmark
2014 Tel Aviv Museum, Israel
2013 International teabowl festival, Mungyeong, South Korea
2001 ICF, International Ceramic Festival, Aberystwyth, Wales
PUBLICATIONS Ceramic Monthly, February 2013 - The Log Book, Woodfire Magazine - Guide to Collecting Studio Pottery, Alistair Hawtin, A&C Black 2008 - Alternative Kilns, Ian Gregory, A&C Black, 2006 - Pots in the Kitchen, Josie Walter, Crowood Press 2002 - Saltglaze, Phil Rogers, A & C Black, 2002
ORGANIZER Baltic Woodfired 2008
BIOGRAPHY - WARREN MACKENZIE
'Mingeisota' – from MINGEIKAN – Japan Folk Crafts Museum, Tokyo - (edited)
In the United States there is a potter who, maintains, by his way of life, the Mingei Movement theorized and advocated by Soetsu (Muneyoshi) Yanagi (1889-1961), founder of the Mingeikan (the Japan Folk Crafts Museum).
Warren MacKenzie, 70 (presently 91), who operates his kiln in Stillwater, Minnesota, for more than 40 years, is a man with the true heart of Mingei...
MacKenzie's pottery have a healthy strength and bright beauty. They are simple, yet friendly and warm. His pottery induces the desire to have it as part of one's life and put it to good use. This brings fulfilment and satisfaction. When we seek the attractiveness of his pottery, we think of the history of Mingei and his relationship to it...
In 1950 he went to England to study with Bernard Leach, a Japanese-trained potter credited with reviving ceramics in England and forging a merger between Eastern and Western ceramic traditions. Leach, along with Shoji Hamada, were close friends of Yanagi and strong supporters of the Mingei Movement (in Japan).
The first Americans to study with Leach, MacKenzies spent two years living in his house and working at his St.Ives pottery studio. During this period, MacKenzie came into contact with the works of Hamada because of the many Hamada pots that Leach owned. In 1952, Hamada, Yanagi and Leach went to the US to give lectures. One of their stops was St.Paul (Minnesota), where MacKenzie had the opportunity to meet all in person. Although he did not formally study with Hamada, MacKenzie is so closely identified with the aesthetics of Yanagi, Leach and Hamada that he and his students have earned the nickname of the 'Mingei-sota' movement, from Mingei, a term coined by Yanagi meaning arts and crafts made for and by the people, and Minnesota.
The spirit of Mingei has been carried on from Soetsu Yanagi and Shoji Hamada to Bernard Leach and from him to Warren MacKenzie. This spirit has become Mingeisota' and is flowering and bearing fruit in Minnesota.
“I think it is a wonderful term because it does express an attitude that prevails among the potters around here, both in type of pot and the price charged,” MacKenzie says.
Shortly after returning from England, he began teaching ceramics at the university of Minnesota and was professor of ceramics for a long time. “The kind of pots we make don't belong to a museum because they are made to be picked up and drunk from, washed, used, put in a cupboard and lived with every day”…
BIOGRAPHY - Robert Banker (born 1960 - upstate New York)
EDUCATION – MFA 1997 University of Minneapolis - BFA 1988 Alfred University, New York USA
PROFFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE Tokoname Ceramic Art IWCAT'89 Japan, arkitektur Ithaca, New York USA 1989-97, Teacher Langelands Kunsthøjskole 1992/93, Assistant for Warren MacKenzie 1996, Teacher at University of Alaska Anchorage Art Department 1998-2003, Rochester Community College Art Department 2003-present. Art studies/workshops in the USA, Europe and Denmark.
Own pottery studio in Oronoco, Minnesota 2004-present.
BIOGRAPHY - Linda Christianson (Born 1952 Wisconsin USA) - www.christiansonpottery.com
EDUCATION - TRAINING
Hamline University, St. Paul, Minnesota, B.A. Studio Art 1974 & Graduate Apprenticeship Program
Ceramic Studio Workshop Program, Banff Centre School for Fine Arts, Alberta, Canada
RECENT EXHIBITIONS
International Woodfired Tableware - Artifakt Gallery, Deloraine, Tasmania, Australia
La Borne, L’amour du feu - Centre Cermique Contemporaine, LaBorne, France
Funktional - Leach Pottery, St Ives, Cornwall, England
Warren MacKenzie and some Midwestern American Potters - Mashiko Museum of Ceramic Art, Japan
AWARDS National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship - McKnight Foundation Ceramic Fellowship - Minnesota State Arts Board Fellowship - McKnight Foundation Visual Arts Fellowship
ACADEMIC TEACHING
2001-03 Dayton-Hudson Distinguished visiting teacher/artist, Carleton College, Northfield, Minnesota
2002 Koopman Distinguished Chair in Ceramics, Art School, University of Hartford, Connecticut
1993 University of Georgia, Athens
BIOGRAPHY - Guillermo Cuellar www.guillermopottery.com
EDUCATION
1951 Bachelor of Arts, Cornell College, Mt. Vernon, Iowa, USA. Born Maracaibo, Venezuela
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2015 Host St. Croix Valley Pottery Tour, Minnesota, USA
Guillermo Cuellar: St. Croix Stoneware, The Phipps Center for the Arts, Hudson, WI, USA
2014 Red River Reciprocity: Contemporary Ceramics in Minnesota, North Dakota, Plains Art Museum,
2013 Minnesota to Massachusetts: Sharing the Fire, Lacoste Gallery, Cambridge, MA, USA
2012 Tour de Force, ArtReach St. Croix + St. Croix Galleries, Stillwater, MN, USA
2010 Guillermo Cuellar Solo Exhibition, Schaller Gallery, Red Lodge, MT, USA
2009 Minnesota Traditions: Potters of the Upper St. Croix River, Roswell Art Center West, GA, USA
2006 Solo show: Guillermo Cuellar, Pottery, Raymond Avenue Gallery, St. Paul, MN, USA
2003 Solo show: Guillermo Cuellar, Los Objetos que Escogemos, Sala Mendoza, Caracas, Venezuela
1995 Diez Presencias – Las Artes del Fuego en Venezuela, Galería de Arte Nacional, Caracas, Venezuela
BIOGRAPHY - Randy Johnston www.mckeachiejohnstonstudios.com
EDUCATION
1990 Master of Fine Arts, Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, Illinois
1972 Bachelor of Fine Arts/Studio Arts, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota
1975 Pottery of Shimaoka Tatsuzo who was a student of Shoji Hamada Mashiko, Japan.
Shimaoka was Awarded Title of Living National Treasure 1997
PROFESSIONAL
1972–.. Studio Artist, River Falls, Wisconsin
1993–.. Art Department, Professor – Ceramics/ Drawing University of Wisconsin-River Falls, Wisconsin
2008-13 Chair Art Department
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS - since 2009
2014 One Person Exhibition Augustana Colleg Sioux Falls, SD
Mackenzie’s Influence St Croix Art Reach Invitational Stillwater, MN
NCECA Grounded in Wisconsin Students of Randy Johnston Milwaukee, WI
2013 Shino, Endless Variations, NCECA Houston, TX
Pucker Gallery, One person Exhibition Boston, MA Catalog
2012 Huntington Museum of Art Walter Gropius Award Huntington , W VA
2011 Single Person Exhibition, Pucker Gallery, Boston, MA Catalog
Language of Contemporary Ceramics, Bunnell St Gallery, Homer AK
2010 Gallery B Square, NCECA, Philadelphia, PA
Mashiko Reference Museum, Mashiko, Japan
2009 Curated Invitational by Peter Held, Promega Corporation, Madison, WI
Single Person Exhibition, “Striking Balance”, Pucker Gallery, Boston, MA
BIOGRAPHY - Jan McKeachie (b. 1953) www.mckeachiejohnstonstudios.com
EDUCATION - Studied ceramics at The University Of Minnesota, The University Of Illinois at Edwardsville, and received my BFA from The University of Wisconsin at River Falls.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS - Recent exhibitions include Relativity, Lacoste Gallery, Concord, MA,Heart To Hearth,TRAX Gallery, Berkeley, CA, Roy Forbes Selects, Frank Lloyd Gallery, Los Angeles, CA Her work has also been featured in Clay Times and Ceramics Monthly, and she is represented in many private and public collections, including the Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, Virginia; the Weisman Art Museum at the University of Minnesota; and the Minneapolis Institute of Art.
Jan has recently been collaborating with Kinji Akagawa to create sanctuaries for flowers
PROFESSIONAL - Teaching workshops at Art Centers such as Anderson Ranch, Snowmass Colorado, Curaumilla Art Center, Chile has been a very fulfilling part of my career.
BIOGRAPHY - Samuel Johnson www.samuel-johnson.com
EDUCATION
2005 University of Iowa - Iowa City,Master of Fine Arts Degree Ceramics
2001 Studio of Koie Ryoji, Studio guest of internationally renowned ceramic artist, Tokoname, Japan
2001 Studio of Jeff Shapiro, Apprenticed to Ceramic Artist, Accord, NY
2000 Denmark’s Design School, Guest Student Ceramics, Industrial Design Program, Copenhagen, DK
1999 Saint John’s Pottery Studio, Apprenticed to Richard Bresnahan, Collegeville, MN (1996-99)
PROFESSIONAL
2016 Mastering the Potter’s Wheel (forcoming Book)
2015 Solo Exhibition, Sara Japanese Pottery, New York, NY
2014 Ceramics Now (Book)
2014 Exhibition, Jane Hartsook Gallery, New York, NY
2014 Artaxis.org Board of Directors
2013 North Dakota Museum of Art Perminate Collection
2011 Stoked: Five Artists of Fire and Clay (Book)
2006 Professor of Art at the College of St. Benedict and St. John’s University
BIOGRAPHY - Steve Rolf www.scrolfpotter.com
MFA from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, a BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute, and a BS in Broad Area Arts from the University of Wisconsin River Falls. He also apprenticed under Wang Hui Ming, a master painter and wood engraver.
S. C. Rolf exhibits his work throughout the United States and has received a number of national awards. He also lectures and teaches workshops throughout the country. His work resides in noted private and national and international museum collections, as well as numerous kitchen cupboards.
