Northern Clay Center: Five McKnight Artists 2011

5IVE MCKNI G ARTISTS HT NORTH CLAY ERN CENTER

2010 M cK Linda C night Fellows hip recip h ie 2009 R ristianson an d Heat nts esidenc h y er Nam Jonas eth Bre Arcˇika recipients u n s and Ry kas, Ale an Mat x a n d ra Hibb thew M itt, itchell

2011

5IVE MCKNI ARTISTSGHT NORTH CLAY ERN ENTER

McKnig ht F Christia ellowship rec ipien ns esidenc on and Heath ts y er Nam eth Bre Arcˇika recipients uskas, n Alexan n Matt d ra Hibb hew M itt, itchell

5IVE MCKNI G ARTISTS HT NORTH CLAY ERN CENTER

2010 M cK Linda C night Fellows hip recip h ie 2009 R ristianson an d Heat nts esidenc h y recipie er Nam Jonas nts eth Bre Ar n and Ry cˇikauskas, A lexand an Mat ra Hibb thew M itt, itchell

2011

5IVE MCKNI ARTISTSGHT NORTH CLAY ERN CENTER

2010 M cK Linda C night Fellows hip recip h ie 2009 R ristianson an d Heat nts esidenc h y recipie er Nam Jonas nts eth B Arcˇik

N C C 20

5IVE MCKNIGHT ARTISTS NORTHERN CLAY CENTER 2010 McKnight Fellowship recipients Linda Christianson and Heather Nameth Bren 2009 Residency recipients Jonas Arcˇikauskas, Alexandra Hibbitt, and Ryan Matthew Mitchell

2011 McKnight Artists Fellowships and Residencies for Ceramic Artists and this exhibition are made possible by generous financial support from The McKnight Foundation, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Essays by Robert Silberman Photography by Peter Lee

2010 McKnight Fellowship recipient

Linda Christianson

02/03

Linda Christianson lives with her husband and daughter in a log cabin, makes woodfired functional pots, and has been a regular participant in the St. Croix Valley Pottery Tour. She may seem the epitome of the country potter.

But as with all the other major figures in “Mingeisota,” beginning with Warren MacKenzie, Christianson displays far too much individuality to represent that foggy notion. One sign is her sense of humor, as when, in her talk at Northern Clay, she insisted that her large ceramic buckets are intended to be functional pots, and might serve as umbrella stands — or boat anchors.

Christianson was one of the first two McKnight award winners, in 1997, and since then she has continued to make the cups, plates, baking dishes, and other utilitarian ware that have earned her a worldwide reputation. She insists that her work is “not ‘sculpture’ and not ‘art,’ not a big ‘a’ or a little ‘a’: It’s pots.” Of course, like all the other outstanding functional potters in her (our) neck of the woods, she shows just how impressive supposedly simple and unassuming pots can be.

When Christianson talks about pots she admires the words “compelling” and “engaging” indicate her approval. She has a special fondness for medieval ware, but loves well-made functional artifacts of all kinds. She recalls with wonder a door latch she once saw, made by hand out of scrap wood, worn by the maker’s wedding ring from repeated use. An ancient shovel spotted in a regional museum in Sweden, blackened by wear and age, “could be put on a pedestal next to a Brancusi.”

Christianson’s new studio, a dream at the time of her first McKnight, has now been substantially completed, giving her more space, good light from windows on two sides, and a new kiln that has worked out as she had hoped. With the basic physical environment now established, the second McKnight, in a sign of the times, has helped provide a less brick-and-mortar kind of necessity by supporting the transition from slides to digital images.

In the studio, Christianson says, on a good day she can sit with a board of (pot) parts in front of her, a thermos of

Basket, 2011, 12”H x 7”W x 5 ½”D, woodfired stoneware

coffee, a snoring dog, and public radio: “To me, that’s heaven.”

An astute judge of pots and a thoughtful (and witty) observer of life in general, Christianson says she thinks “pretty hard — but not in the studio. There I try not to think. That’s my goal in the studio.”

This Midwestern zen attitude results in pots with surfaces that can display jazzy stripes or be richly mottled, “like a palomino pony.”

Christianson’s signature baking dishes have generous forms that are clay-y the way some breads are doughy and crusty: the material is the message.

Putting the handles on cups, Christianson says, is what she can’t wait to do as she begins every workday by making four cups. Christianson’s handle-mania is not an eccentricity. The handle is where the hand of the maker meets the hand of the user, and it offers a clear tip-off as to whether the potter knows how to serve function in terms of balance, size, and strength while also offering visual vitality. The luxury of time conferred by the McKnight grant enabled Christianson to reconsider rims, trying new variations on another taken-for-granted element that can make all the difference.

Christianson makes pots she herself would like to use, from vases for fresh flowers to serving dishes for food, along with those buckets to take out the waste for compost, when no umbrella needs a stand and no boat lacks an anchor. For all her awareness of the basic requirements of function she also knows about the other roles pots can play. They are like a stage set, she says, and change depending on the presence or absence of other elements, as when flowers are added, then removed, leaving the pot once again empty, on its own. Christianson speaks of the “confinement of utility” and of her narrow focus — but adds, “within that narrow focus there’s a whole universe.” And in that universe, Christianson’s ceramic drama continues to be both engaging and compelling.

2010 McKnight Fellowship recipient

Heather Nameth Bren

04/05

“Cats and dogs living together! Mass hysteria!” That statement is Heather Nameth Bren’s favorite movie quotation. It comes from Ghost Busters, when Dr. Peter Venkman (Bill Murray) is asked to explain what he means when he says New York City is headed for a disaster of biblical proportions.

Bren, who once used it as the title of a work, thinks of it as an appropriate motto for her existence in two realms: the ceramic world and the art world. Trying to be at home in both might result in individual hysteria, were it not for Bren’s fundamental love of clay and its “transformative, seductive” qualities. There is also the intelligence — and wit — she brings to the exploration of what Guy Noir might call ceramic life’s persistent questions.

Bren is a dynamo, who moves quickly from one body of work to another. Her main concerns now are hierarchy and value, often expressed through the formal device of stacking. What gets pride of place: porcelain, stoneware, or earthenware? The handmade or the machine-made? These are familiar questions, but Bren’s artistic responses are new, whether she is adding designs to antique cups and saucers in the form of cranes that introduce an industrial note to refined domestic artifacts, or drawing on Versace plates with gold, taking what is already luxurious, and pushing it even more to ask what really confers value.

With her resistance to rules, Bren will retain the happy accident when a stilt fuses to a work in the kiln, or mix earthenware and porcelain in a classic no-no. Her sculptures often combine very different kinds of elements in what she thinks of as conversations.

In one stacked work a vase sits atop styrofoam packing material.

In another, the book Ceramic Faults and their Remedies rests on industrial chimney pipe. And in still another, Bren uses Northwest Airlines porcelain cups as ceramic supports, a coffee table-like pedestal with an industrial ceramic pedigree that she then tops with an expressionistic sculptural form. She uses tiles made of earthenware glazed to look like marble (there is nothing like faux fanciness to challenge the notion of authenticity), turns a mold into a work, and has even started using bags of raw clay as an element in the stacks. In one, the bags of porcelain are in the middle,

with the red and white earthenware on top, an inversion of the conventional ceramic hierarchy. The results are striking visually even if you don’t get the (serious) joke that is, as Bren puts it, “speaking ceramic-ese to ceramic-esers.”

Bren shares with Robert Arneson a raucous, irreverent edginess and with Peter Voulkos the principle of vertical stacking, although he was not using parfait layering to comment on hierarchy. Many of her recent works, from small slip-cast cups to irregular towering forms, have “luscious and oozy” surfaces that suggest refined marbling as well as raw abstract expressionist dripping à la Jackson Pollock. A vase, inspired by the Yves Klein exhibition at the Walker and the Frenchman’s fascination with “the void,” has glaze flowing down into the interior as if sucking the viewer in, “pulling down into the darkness.” One more idea, one more possibility to explore in a series of works. Of the functional ware stamped with “x’s” that are another ongoing project, Bren says, “I don’t know what that is, but it’s really sexy when it’s done.

I’m in love with that technique right now, so I’m just figuring out all the ways I can exploit it.” There are also the small Christmas trees she’s been making, and incorporating as a layer in stack works: “I have to say they’re so terribly wonderful.” “Terribly wonderful,” like the “beautiful in a hideous way” neo-abstract expressionist pieces. Of course none of Bren’s work is really hysterical, and all of it — terribly wonderful, beautifully hideous — demonstrates her adventurous blend of the conceptual and the experimental.

Finally, there is the work-in-progress performance/ installation that features Bren’s dog, Delila, roving around with a plastic jar on her back, a mobile canine pedestal. It may be a serious comment on exhibition practices, but it is also a hoot.

“I just like the craziness of it.” Bren says. Bring on the cats; hold the mass hysteria.

Order and Inequity II, 2011, 34”H x 25”W x 18”D, red and white earthenware, porcelain, stain, glaze, and found object assemblage

2009 McKnight Residency recipient

Jonas Arcˇikauskas

06/07

Jonas Arcˇikauskas says that when he was a young child he had to make his own toys, and that “ignited the creativity in me.” He remembers being in the country at his grandmother’s house, and making tiny clay people and animals such as cows and goats.

When he was older and in elementary school, he used to make stage designs and costumes with his mother, who was in charge of the plays there. Arcˇikauskas went on to a vocational art school, where he studied the full range of media as preparation for a job in industry; in ceramics he studied both functional pottery and figural sculpture. Of that school he says, “Officially it may have been a practical school but it was also a school for our souls.”

With Lithuania under Soviet control the official aesthetic was social realism but, says Arcˇikauskas, “we were brave enough to break the rules. Any attempt to impose ideological discipline would only get a good laugh. We had to live a double life: an official life, and another life in secret that excited us most.” The art was also double, using a disguised language that spoke through fables and symbols. For graduation, Arcˇikauskas did sculptures of animals and people with lyrics from Lithuanian folk songs as texts. “I did not care if I graduated or not,” he states, “I was 19 and felt I was strong and had an opinion.”

After brief spells at a theater institute in St. Petersburg and a teacher’s college, Arcˇikauskas was drafted into the Soviet navy for three years. When he got out he returned to the academy in Vilnius and to ceramics. He did the required assignments but also worked for himself, making what he calls “anti-ceramics,” experimental approaches such as a kind of optical illusion that gave clay the openness and lightness of straw. For his graduation show he did a work that remains on display in a resort hotel: a disk three meters in diameter and half a meter high, with a lizard the size of a human. As an award, the authorities gave him three tons of clay.

While still studying ceramics Arcˇikauskas began working as a theater professional. He has contributed set and costume designs to hundreds of productions, primarily in Lithuania and

Russia but also in Latvia, Sweden, Norway, Austria, and Japan.

Three days before leaving for Minneapolis he submitted his designs for a staging of Chekhov’s Seagull to be done in St. Petersburg.

Theater and ceramics, Arcˇikauskas says, have been together in his life forever, “neither one more important than the other, both feeding me, each supporting the other.” An artist of intensity and skill, Arcˇikauskas spent two years on an epic work, completed in 2010, that is three meters long and offers an encyclopedic compendium “about believing and not believing, about love and death, about how small and how big a human could be, about drinking and being a saint, about how serious sex could be, and about the desire to live.” For that project he studied medieval architecture and Aztec art, Japanese sculpture and masks, and many other subjects, to support the depiction of “a kind of life ritual.”

Ever since he was three Arcˇikauskas has made flutes.

He uses them as a kind of diary, especially when adapting to a new space. In Minneapolis he created a female figure entitled Big Flute for a Bedroom as well as Instrument of Silence, a head on its side with a funnel in its ear that represents the human desire to get inside another’s mind. Arcˇikauskas also made large, elaborate sculptures, where the multiple holes are meant to suggest life not just on the surface but inside, like a beehive or ant colony.

Arcˇikauskas believes that in the former Eastern Bloc countries now “the cult of pleasure has removed the necessity of human creativity.” He says there are plenty of factories that make things, so when he makes something it has to have soul. Under the Soviets, “To choose to be an artist was the only opportunity to be a truthful person.” He has not given up on that opportunity, that aspiration. “To touch art,” Arcˇikauskas insists, “takes the animal out of the human being.”

The Big Flute for a Bedroom (in Lithuanian it is Didžioji fleita miegamajam), 2010, 58”H x 21”W x 21”D, stoneware

2009 McKnight Residency recipient

Alexandra Hibbitt

08/09

Alex Hibbitt is a perfect representative of the new breed of ceramic artist. The label “ceramic artist” may be misleading, since Hibbitt, like so many now, moves freely from medium to medium.

She says, “I feel really passionately about being part of a craft tradition,” yet her work at its core retains a commitment to ceramics and handwork.

Hibbitt’s devotion to craft exists alongside an anything but traditional use of contemporary technology such as digital scanners and prototyping machines. A hand-fashioned model may lead to a laser-cut aluminum artifact. If that isn’t “cutting edge craft,” what is? Hibbitt says there are those who think of what she is doing as a kind of science fiction. She, however, thinks of her work as “so modernist it scares me” because the basic principle remains the appropriate use of materials, whether clay, metal, or something far less conventional such as vinyl.

Hibbitt’s training at the Camberwell College of Arts in London and the Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam taught her to ignore hierarchies conventionally associated with the handmade and industrial. Long before turning to computer-controlled fabrication, she had worked with a plastic lathe and molds. In England, she says, “Ceramics was craft, brown and crusty.” In Holland, “It was design: minimalist, with bright colors.” The shift to Holland, and then to America, where she studied at Alfred University in New York before joining the art faculty at Ohio University, has led Hibbitt to be especially aware of landscape and nature, space and place. A major recent installation for a university gallery in Louisiana incorporated stylized cotton bud forms as an exploration of how cotton cultivation ended there but cotton remained part of collective memory and cultural identity.

Hibbitt later created a new work by adapting some elements from the original installation and introducing topographic map forms in order to address the destruction of the environment. With a typical flourish of Hibbitt’s art historical sense and her ability to assimilate a wide range of experiences, the stylized forms in these works also incorporate lessons from a trip to the Czech Republic, where she

Exercise #2, 2010, 26”H x 22”W x 10”D, porcelain, felt, pins

was struck by the juxtaposition of architectural styles ranging from baroque to cubist.

Hibbitt stands out from many ceramicists and others in the craft world because she seems so conversant with contemporary art and theory, as when she speaks of the theorists Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari to discuss computer systems.

Practitioners such as Eva Hesse and Robert Morris, who used felt and other unorthodox materials, are recalled in recent works

by Hibbitt that combine metal shapes with felt “shadows.” Her frequent use of television picture tube forms reveals Hibbitt’s love of older technologies as well her concern with the detachment spawned by screen images. Always interested in video artists such as Nam June Paik and Bill Viola, Hibbitt has done video installations. But her interest in the modern media is combined with a love of the organic world and landscapes. She will say, “video always grabs me” but then add “I must say, I love a good pot, too.”

McKnight residents can be set back at first by the need to adjust to different clays and kilns. Hibbitt was caught up in a different kind of problem — with software. She said, “The work I did in Minneapolis is really new, I don’t know where it’s going, it’s terribly exciting.” She creates physical models, often out of plaster with hand carving, then makes molds and slipcasts and puts together clay forms. She scans them using a 3-D scanner, and creates new forms from the scanned versions, “unwrapping” them on her computer into complex two-dimensional images. Those are used to make a set of objects, sometimes by prototyping machines and sometimes by hand, which are assembled into the final work. The whole process is an exercise in translation from one medium and formal language to another. Hibbitt says she is working “at the intersection of art, craft and design.” That is a busy spot at the moment. But Hibbitt stands out by virtue of her keen artistic intelligence and her assured combination of the handmade and the high-tech.

2009 McKnight Residency recipient

Ryan Matthew Mitchell

10/11

Mixed media art is everywhere these days. Often that means an installation with video, some sculptural elements, maybe a painted section or two, and a few photographs collaged in for good measure.

Ryan Mitchell’s recent work goes mixed media “big time” by combining porcelain, stoneware, concrete, and rebar, along with some urethane that may or may not be regarded as the frosting on the cake.

For those who haven’t worked repairing a freeway overpass or building a skyscraper lately, that is “rebar” as in “reinforcing bar,” the steel bars embedded in cast concrete to give structures extra strength. Not exactly what ceramicists most often are talking about — the optimum silica content in the clay, the details of a glaze formula — when they discuss materials. But Mitchell’s unconventional mix of materials indicates his fundamental concern with traditional notions of beauty and his determination to re-think them. The results might incorporate a version of Michelangelo’s David or a head of Buddha, but with a piece of rebar to provide a challenge to any unquestioned assumptions about beauty. Mitchell has also made giant buttons, woodfired behemoths up to three feet in diameter. They recall Claes Oldenburg’s playful gigantism while offering subtle references to issues of masculinity and domesticity.

Mitchell came to Northern Clay Center from the Clay Studio in Bozeman, Montana. He went to school in Missoula, often spends time at a clay center in northeast Oregon, and displays some of the same Westerner’s raw gutsiness to be found in Peter Voulkos, an artist Mitchell admires. Mitchell has gone west all the way to the Far East, where a residency in China provided physical and mental distance from the art and ceramic world in the States.

There he did paintings that used Sung dynasty mountain imagery in a free fashion; the results will be shown as “Playing China,” acknowledging the pretense involved. (Mitchell’s ceramic Buddha heads are in fact not a result of his stay in Asia, but of seeing examples in museums in Australia and the U.S.) Mitchell often seems to be exploding with energy and

Untitled Head, 2010, 60”H x 30”W x 28”D, stoneware, porcelain, concrete and rebar

ideas. One major concern has been that familiar modernist bugaboo, kitsch. How to escape from easy ironies, and find something authentic within popular notions of beauty? This question has led Mitchell to use iconic images such as the Buddha, the American eagle, Marianne (France’s “Lady Liberty”), and Minerva, combining the raw and the refined, rebar and roses.

Mitchell has recently been thinking about why people regard ordinary manufactured mugs as the accepted standard, while ignoring handmade ones by potters such as Warren MacKenzie, “where the real occurs.” Less theoretical than such meditations on authenticity, however, is the artist’s fascination with patching, fixing, repairing, and mending. “There is only process,” Mitchell says, and he sees decay and breakdown as unavoidable. The crack on a large Buddha is “great” partly because of the risk he took in making such a piece in the first place. He trusts to intuition, and irritation.

“If something bothers me,” he observes, referring to images of eagles, “I should use it. There are important things behind it.”

Mitchell’s latest work often features wolves; one presents a wolf with flowers and birds. The artist says that he is not quite sure why he turned to that subject, handled in that way: “Maybe because they started hunting wolves again.” He adds that the wolf advocates and the wolf hunters probably all will dislike the work, but “I’m trying to represent the conflict between both positions.” Combining the wolf and the rose brings together ferocity and beauty in characteristic Mitchell fashion, with irony but also struggling against it. He knows the value of his contrariness, as when he asks, “What is nobody else willing to do?”

Mitchell says that these days he is — in that great American phrase —“having a blast.” It shows: not just in the energy and productivity, but in the artistry as well. Anyone willing to check their preconceived notions about ceramics at the gallery door can have a blast, too.

5IVE MCKNIGHT ARTISTS RESUMÉS

12/13

2010 McKnight Fellowship recipient

2010 McKnight Fellowship recipient

2009 Residency recipient

2009 Residency recipient

2009 Residency recipient

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LINDA HEATHER CHRISTIANSON NAMETH BREN

14

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JONAS ˇ ARCIKAUSKAS

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ALEXANDRA HIBBITT

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RYAN MATTHEW MITCHELL

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Born 1952, Rice Lake, Wisconsin

Linda Christianson

Born 1977, West Allis, Wisconsin

14/15

Education  1974: BA, studio art, Hamline University, St. Paul, Minnesota  1975: Hamline University Graduate Apprenticeship Program, St. Paul, Minnesota  1977: Ceramic Studio Workshop Program, Banff Centre School for Fine Arts, Banff, Alberta, Canada Selected Recent Solo & Group Exhibitions  2011: Woodfired Tableware, Artifakt Gallery, Deloraine, Tasmania, Australia  2010: La Borne l’amour du feu, Centre Cermique Contemporaine, LaBorne, France  Funktional, John Leach’s Muchelney Pottery, Somerset, England  2009: Linda Christianson — Woodfired Pots, 18 Hands Gallery, Houston, Texas  Tablewares: An International Collection, Rex Irwin Gallery, Sydney, Australia  2008: Linda Christianson — Working Potter, Bemidji Community Art Center, Bemidji, Minnesota  Linda Christianson and Michael Connelly: New Work, Akar, Iowa City, Iowa  Linda Christianson and Charles Jahn, Trax Ceramic Gallery, Berkeley, California  American Studio Ceramics, Ball State University Museum of Art, Muncie, Indiana  Studio Pottery 21st Century Voices, Lacoste Gallery, Concord, Massachusetts  2007: Solo Exhibition, Red Lodge Clay Center, Red Lodge, Montana  Solo Exhibition, Red Star Gallery, Kansas City, Missouri  Warren MacKenzie and Midwest Potters, Gallery Gen, New York, New York  2006: Pots With Purpose, Lacoste Gallery, Concord, Massachusetts  Living Dishes: A New Generation of Functional Pots, Baltimore Clayworks, Baltimore, Maryland  2005: Diverse Domain — Contemporary North American Ceramics, Taipei County Yingko Ceramics Museum, Taipei, Taiwan  Pots in the Kitchen, Keramiekcentrum Tiendschuur, Tegelen, The Netherlands  2004: Linda Christianson — Utility Pots, Clay Art Center, Port Chester, New York  Solo Exhibition, The Signature Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia  Linda Christianson and Jan Johnston — Sculptural Utility, LaCoste Gallery, Concord, Massachusetts  Pots in the Kitchen, Galerie du Don, Montsalvy, France  2003: Pots in the Kitchen, Rufford Craft Centre, Nottinghamshire, England  21st Century Ceramics in the United States and Canada, Columbus College of Art and Design, Columbus, Ohio  Solo Exhibition, Doug Peck Gallery, Cranston, Rhode Island  2001: Solo Exhibition, Contemporary Ceramics, London, England Selected Collections  Ceramic Art Center, Mashiko, Japan  The American Museum of Ceramic Art, Pomona, California  Glenboe Museum, Calgary, Alberta  Banff Centre School of Fine Arts, Banff, Alberta, Canada Selected Awards  2001: East Central Arts Council McKnight Foundation Fellowship  1999: Minnesota State Arts Board Fellowship, St. Paul, Minnesota  2010 & 1997: McKnight Ceramic Artist Fellowship, Northern Clay Center  1993: National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship  1990: McKnight Foundation Visual Arts Fellowship Professional Experience  2011: Conference Presenter The Big Smoke 2011, Auckland Studio Potters, Auckland, New Zealand  2005: Conference Presenter, Gundaroo Woodfire, Gundaroo, Australia  2004: Symposium Presenter, Ceramic Artists Association of Israel National Symposium, Tel-Hai College, Israel  2002: Koopman Distinguished Chair in Ceramics, Hartford Art School, University of Hartford, Connecticut  2001– 03: Dayton-Hudson Distinguished Visiting Teacher/Artist, Carleton College, Northfield, Minnesota Selected Writing  The Practice of Reading, “The Studio Potter,” V 35, N2, Summer/Fall, 2007, pages 64-69  A Potter’s Day, “Ceramic Review,” September/October 2001, page 66

Heather Nameth Bren

Education  2003: MFA, ceramics, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas  2002: International Exchange, Staffordshire UniversityHanley, Stoke-on-Trent, England  1999-2000: additional classes, Inver Hills Community College, Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota  1999: BS, graphic design & studio art, Northwestern College, St. Paul, Minnesota Selected Recent Solo & Group Exhibitions  2011: Clay: 4 Perspectives: Heather Nameth Bren, Sandra Jean Ceas, KyoungHwa Oh, and S.C. Rolf, Olson Gallery, Bethel University, St. Paul, Minnesota  2010: Material Mastery, Nelson-Stricker Gallery, Manhattan, Kansas  2009: Northern Exposure: A Survey of Contemporary Ceramics, curated by Peter Held, Promega Corporation, Madison, Wisconsin  NCECA 2009 Clay National Biennial Exhibition, Ceramic Research Center, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona  College Bowl I/09, Northern Clay Center  2008: Not Not Clay: Really Contemporary Works, Gallery 13, Minneapolis, Minnesota  2007: Shelf Life: Heather Rae Nameth & Cheryle Melander, 9th Street Entry Gallery, Bethel University, St. Paul, Minnesota  Raised in Craftivity, Greenleese Gallery, Kansas City, Missouri  2006: From Our Perspective: A National Women’s Art Exhibition, Oakland Community College, Womencenter, Farmington Hills, Michigan  Three Jerome Artists, Northern Clay Center  2005: Clay on the Wall, Texas Tech University School of Art, Lubbok, Texas  NCECA 2005 Clay National Biennial Exhibition, The Center for Arts and Visual Culture, University of Maryland Baltimore County, Baltimore, Maryland  2004: Transformation: Contemporary Works in Ceramics, Elizabeth R. Raphael Founder’s Prize Exhibition, Society for Contemporary Craft, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania  2003: Mantle Ladies, Opie Gallery, Leedy-Voulkos Art Center, Kansas City, Missouri  MFA Thesis Show: Mantle Ladies, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas  University of Kansas: MFA Work, Leedy-Voulkos Art Center; Kansas City, Missouri  Topeka Competition, Alice C. Sabatini Gallery, Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library, Topeka, Kansas  2002: MAFA: recent works by MA Fine Art Students from Staffordshire University, The Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, England  2001: Clay Bodies by Student Bodies, Gustavus Adulphus College, St. Peter, Minnesota Awards & Recognition  2009: NCECA, Purchase Prize Award, NCECA 2009 Clay National Biennial, Phoenix, Arizona  2006: Jerome Ceramic Artist Project Grant, Northern Clay Center  Ceramics Monthly Emerging Artists, Online Exhibition, Ceramics Monthly Magazine  2004: Geyer-Johnson Ceramic Scholarship, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas  1999: Merit Scholarship, Art Department, Northwestern College, St. Paul, Minnesota Professional Experience  2007-present: Assistant Professor of Art, Northwestern College, Roseville, Minnesota  2006-2007: Adjunct Professor of Art, Bethel University, Roseville, Minnesota  2005: Artist-in-Residence, Art Department, Bethel University, St. Paul, Minnesota  2005: Adjunct Professor, Ceramics, Washburn University, Topeka, Kansas  2001-2003: Graduate Teaching Assistant, Design Department, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas

Born 1957, Patilciai, Lithuania

Jonas Arcˇikauskas

Born 1968, London, England

16/17

Education  1985: BFA & MFA, ceramics, Vilnius Academy of Art, Vilnius, Lithuania  1976: S. Zukas College of Applied Arts, Kaunas, Lithuania Selected Solo & Group Exhibitions  2009: The Magic World of M.K.Ciurlionis Zodiac: The Educational Tactile Exhibition, National Gallery of Art, Vilnius, Lithuania  Pit: The Male Side, private residence, Vilnius, Lithuania  2008: Pit: The Female Side, private residence, Lithuania  Forms of life, Ceramic Symposium Harmony, Gallery of Artists’ Association, Vilnius, Lithuania  2007: Solo Exhibition, Gobis/Outdoors Expo, Vilnius, Lithuania  Twilight Archive, Ceramics Museum, Kaunas, Lithuania  The Elephant of the Year, Gobis/Outdoors Expo, Vilnius, Lithuania  Ceramics from Anagama Kiln, Museum of Energetics, Vilnius, Lithuania  2006: The National Ceramics Exhibition, The 42nd International Ceramics Assembly, Arka Art Gallery, Vilnius, Lithuania  2004: City Time, Ceramic Symposium: Harmony, Gallery of Artists’ Association, Vilnius, Lithuania  2003: International Exhibition of Stage Design and Theatre Architecture, Prague Quadrennial 2003, Czech Republic  2002: National Ceramic Exhibition for the 70th Anniversary of Lithuanian Ceramics, St John Street Gallery, Vilnius, Lithuania  2001: A Sculpture for a Garden, 13th International Ceramic Fair, Gmunden, Austria  1999: Seeschloss Orth, Gmunden, Austria Selected Awards & Grants  2010: McKnight Residency for Ceramic Artists, Northern Clay Center  2008: Diploma at the 10th Vilnius Book Fair for book design and illustrations for R.Gaidamaviciute’s Vidmantas Bartulis  2007: Lithuanian Government Award for Achievements in Art and Culture  Lithuanian State Grant for Creators of Art and Culture  2001 – 2003: Lithuanian State Grant for Creators of Art and Culture  2000: Christopher Prize of the Lithuanian Theatre, best stage design and costume design  Fortuna Prize of Kaunas Theatre, best stage design and costume design Professional Experience  2011: Stage design for 100th anniversary celebration of poet-writer Czeslav Milosz, Vilnius Book Fair, Vilnius, Lithuania  Stage design, costume design, make-up for A. Chekhov’s The Seagull, Theatre Baltijskij Dom, St. Petersburg, Russia  2010: Directing, stage design, costume design, video installation for V. Bartulis’ Oratorio The Thanks of Great Duke Vytautas to Lithuanian People, Who Won Grunwald Battle, The Valley of Confluence, Kaunas, Lithuania  2009: Stage design, costume design, video installation for A. Martinaitis’ Opera Skyscraper of the World, Lithuania Russian Drama Theatre, Vilnius, Lithuania  2008: Illustrations, cover and book design for Ruta Gaidamaviciute’s Music Events and Events In the Music  2006 – present: Member of Lithuanian Artist Association  1990: Professor of Vilnius Art Academy, Department of Ceramics, Vilnius, Lithuania  1988 – 1993: Art Director, Lithuanian National Drama Theatre, Vilnius, Lithuania  1986 – present: Member of Lithuanian Theatre Association  1985 – 1988: Stage and costume designer, Kaunas State Drama Theatre, Kaunas, Lithuania  1982 – 1984: Stage and costume designer, Vilnius University Theatre, Vilnius, Lithuania  1979: Decorator, Lithuania Russian Drama Theatre, Vilnius, Lithuania  1976: Decorator, Kaunas State Drama Theatre, Kaunas, Lithuania

Alexandra Hibbitt

Education  2001: MFA, ceramics, New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, New York  1993: Higher Diploma, ceramics, Gerrit Rietveld Academy of Art and Design, Amsterdam, The Netherlands  1991: Bachelor of Art, 3-D design, ceramics, Camberwell College of Arts, London, England  1988: Foundation Diploma in Art and Design, Central School of Art, London, England Selected Recent Solo & Group Exhibitions  2010: Neither Landscape or Architecture, The Carnegie Visual and Performing Arts Center, Covington, Kentucky  Ceramics Invitational, St. Francis University, Fort Wayne, Indiana  Atmosphere, Haydon Art Center, Lincoln, Nebraska; Oliver James Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; H.F. Johnson Gallery, Carthage College, Kenosha, Wisconsin  The Museum of Decorative Arts, Prague, Czech Republic  Ohio University Faculty Exhibition, Kennedy Museum, Athens, Ohio  The Ohio Michigan Game, Pewabic Pottery, Detroit, Michigan  2009: The Margins, The Icehouse Contemporary Arts Center, Phoenix, Arizona  23rd International Ceramics Symposium Bechyne, The School of Ceramics, Bechyne, Czech Republic  2008: Midstream: New Ceramics from the Heartland, Arizona State University Museum Ceramics Research Center, Phoenix, Arizona  Composite, Borelli-Edwards Art Gallery, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania  Solo Exhibition, Souvenirs of Louisiana, Rosewood Gallery, Kettering, Ohio  Solo Exhibition, Out Of Place, Louisiana Tech University Gallery, Ruston, Louisiana  2007: Then and Now, Riverbend Winery, NCECA, Louisville, Kentucky  Drawn to Between, Goodall Gallery, Louisville, Kentucky  Small Favors, The Clay Studio, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania  2006: Solo Exhibition, Ohio Topographies, Roy G Biv Gallery, Columbus, Ohio  Solo Exhibition, Natural History: Origins, Galerie Aqui Ben Siam, Vallauris, France  Sensibility, Ash Street Project Space, Portland, Oregon  2005: Solo Exhibition, Het Bos 2005, The Soap Factory, Minneapolis, Minnesota  AIR Vallauris, Salle d’exposition de l’Espace Grandjean, Vallauris, France Scholarships & Awards  2010: McKnight Artist Residency for Ceramic Artists, Northern Clay Center  2008: Ohio University Research Council Award,  2007: 2nd Prize jurors award, Ceramic Object, Conceptual Material, juried by John Perrault  Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award  1996: Emerging Artists Award, The Netherlands Foundation for Fine Arts, Design & Architecture Selected Collections  International Museum of Ceramics, Bechyne, Czech Republic  The Clay Studio, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania  Vertigo, London, United Kingdom  Schein-Joseph International Museum of Ceramic Art, Alfred, New York Professional Experience  2003 – current: Associate Professor, Ohio University School of Art, Athens, Ohio  2011: Artist in Residence, International Ceramic Studio, Kecskemét, Hungary  Visiting Artist, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio  2010: Visiting Artist, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota  2009: Visiting Artist, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee  2008: Artist in Residence, 23rd International Symposium of Ceramics, Bechyne, Czech Republic  2006: Guest Artist in Residence, The Clay Studio, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Born 1978, Denver, Colorado

Ryan Mathew Mitchell

18/19

Education  2005: MFA, ceramics, University of Montana, Missoula  2001: BFA, ceramics, Montana State University, Bozeman Selected Recent Solo & Group Exhibitions  2011: Northwest Atmospheric, Jundt Museum of Art, Spokane, Washington  2010: Ceramics Invitational, The Art Spirit Gallery, Couer d’Alene, Idaho  Fixed Chaos, Montserrat College of Art, Beverly, Massachusettes  2009: Continental Divide, NCECA Regional Exhibition, Arvada, Colorado  Woodfired Ceramics, Jingwa Museum of Art and Literature, Xi’ An, China  Ceramic Montana, University of Montana, Missoula, Montana  Ryan Mitchell/American Artists Exhibition, Xi’ An Qujing Futo International Ceramic Art Museum, Dao Art Space, Xi’ An, China  2008: Altered Narratives, Bentley Projects, Phoenix, Arizona  Beatific Conundrums vol. 3, Plinth Gallery, Denver, Colorado  Beatific Conundrums vol. 2, Jest Gallery, Whitefish, Montana  Beatific Conundrums vol. 1, Kolva-Sullivan Gallery, Spokane, Washington  Disrupted Intentions, Lillstreet Art Center, Chicago, Illinois  Oscillations of Optimism, Holter Museum of Art, Helena, Montana  Ring of Fire: Woodfired Ceramics, Emerson Center Arts and Culture, Bozeman, Montana  2007: The Birth of Rubble, A and E Architecture, Missoula, Montana  The Other Side of Intention, Gold Dust Gallery, Missoula, Montana  In The East, XYZ Gallery, 798 Beijing, China  National Juried Woodfire Exhibition, Thrown Together Clay Center, Louisville, Kentucky  Ceramics Invitational, The Art Spirit Gallery, Couer d’Alene, Idaho  2006: Young Fire, International Woodfire Conference, Flagstaff, Arizona  2005: Technik, The Clay Studio of Missoula, Missoula, Montana Selected Collections  Fu Le International Ceramic Art Museums, Xi’ An, China  Montana Museum of Art and Culture, Missoula, Montana  Australia National University, Canberra, Australia  Jingwa Museum of Art and Literature, Xi’ An, China Professional Experience  2011 – present: Resident Artist Director/Program Development, Da Wang Culture, Highland, Shenzhen, China  2010: Artist in Residence, Fupiing Pottery Art Village, Fuping, Shanxi, China  McKnight Artist Residency for Ceramic Artists, Northern Clay Center  2009: HAP International All China Woodfire Festival, Beijing/Fuping/Guilin, China  Artist in Residence, Black Bridge International Arts Garden, Beijing, China  2008: Artist in Residence, The LH Project, Joseph, Oregon  2007: Invited Artist, FuLe International Ceramic Art Museums, American Museum, Fuping, Shanxi, China  Artist in Residence, HAP Studio, Beijing, China  Artist in Residence, Australia National University, Canberra, Australia  2005 – 07: Artist in Residence, The Clay Studio of Missoula, Montana

Past McKnight Recipients 1997 Fellowships Linda Christianson Matthew Metz Residencies Marina Kuchinski George Pearlman

2001 Fellowships Margaret Bohls Robert Briscoe Residencies Vineet Kacker Davie Reneau Patrick Taddy Janet Williams

2005 Fellowships Maren Kloppmann Tetsuya Yamada Residencies Edith Garcia Audrius Janusˇ onis Yonghee Joo Hide Sadohara

2009 Fellowships Ursula Hargens Maren Kloppmann Residencies Jonas Arcˇikauskas Cary Esser Alexandra Hibbitt Ryan Mitchell

1998 Fellowships Judith Meyers Altobell Jeffrey Oestreich Residencies Andrea Leila Denecke Eiko Kishi Deborah Sigel

2002 Fellowships Maren Kloppmann Keisuke Mizuno Residencies William Brouillard Kirk Mangus Tom Towater Sandra Westley

2006 Fellowships Robert Briscoe Mika Negishi Laidlaw Residencies Lisa Marie Barber Junko Nomura Nick Renshaw John Utgaard

2010 Fellowships Linda Christianson Heather Nameth Bren Residencies William Cravis Rina Hongo Noato Nakada Kevin Snipes

1999 Fellowships Gary Erickson Will Swanson Residencies Joe Batt Kelly Connole

2003 Fellowships Chuck Aydlett Mary Roettger Residencies Miriam Bloom David S. East Ting-Ju Shao Kurt Webb

2007 Fellowships Mike Norman Joseph Kress Residencies Greg Crowe John Lambert Lee Love Alyssa Wood

2000 Fellowships Sarah Heimann Joe Kress Residencies Arina Ailincai Mika Negishi Mary Selvig Megan Sweeney

2004 Fellowships Andrea Leila Deneke Matthew Metz Residencies Eileen Cohen Satoru Hoshino Paul McMullan Anita Powell

2008 Fellowships Andrea Leila Denecke Marko Fields Residencies Ilena Finocchi Margaret O’Rorke Yoko Sekino-Bové Elizabeth Smith

20/21 About The McKnight Artist Fellowships for Ceramic Artists The McKnight Artist Fellowships for Ceramic Artists Program is designed to strengthen and enhance Minnesota’s artistic community by providing recognition and financial support for individual ceramic artists. The awards are intended to significantly advance the work of ceramic artists whose work is of exceptional artistic merit, who have already proven their abilities, and are at a career stage that is beyond emerging.

The program provides two forms of direct financial support to ceramic artists: two fellowships are awarded annually to outstanding mid-career Minnesota ceramic artists; four residency awards are granted each year to artists from outside Minnesota, for a 3-month stay at the Clay Center.

The 2010 selection panel consisted of the three individuals: William Griffith, studio potter and director of programs at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts; Liz Quackenbush, potter, professor of ceramics at Penn State University in Pennsylvania, and guest artist on the Upper St. Croix Valley Potter’s Tour; and Virginia Scotchie, ceramic sculptor, participating artist in NCC’s spring 2010 InsideOut exhibition, and head of ceramics at the University of South Carolina in Columbia.

The 2011 exhibition featured work by the two 2010 Fellowship recipients and three 2009 McKnight Residency Artists who were at the Clay Center between April and December, 2010. The fellowship artists used the grants to defray studio and living expenses, to experiment with new materials and working on a larger scale, and to pursue new exhibition opportunities. On behalf of NCC visitors, studio artists, students, clay enthusiasts and the grant artists themselves, thank you to The McKnight Foundation for its ongoing support of this program.

Essays by Robert Silberman Photography of artists and ceramic works by Peter Lee Design by Joseph D.R. OLeary at www.vetodesign.com

Northern Clay Center Northern Clay Center’s mission is the advancement of the ceramic arts. Its goals are to promote excellence in the work of clay artists, to provide educational opportunities for artists and the community, and to encourage the public’s appreciation and understanding of the ceramic arts.

Staff Emily Galusha, Director Sarah Millfelt, Deputy Director for Programs Jamie Lang, Exhibitions Director and Curator Matt Krousey, Exhibitions and Sales Gallery Assistant Board of Directors Robert Walsh, Chair Peter Kirihara, Vice Chair Ellen Watters, 2nd Vice Chair Rick Scott, Treasurer Patricia Jacobsen, Secretary Lynne Alpert Philip Burke Sheldon Chester Linda Coffey Debra Cohen

Bonita Hill Sally Wheaton Hushcha Rebecca Lawrence Mark Lellman Bruce Lilly Alan Naylor Mark Pharis Jim Ridenour Teresa Matsui Sanders T Cody Turnquist

Honorary Members Andy Boss Kay Erickson Warren MacKenzie Joan Mondale

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

For information, write to Northern Clay Center, 2424 Franklin Avenue East, Minneapolis, MN 55406 ©2011 Northern Clay Center. All rights reserved.

Manufactured in the United States First edition, 2011 ISBN: 978-1-932706-21-5

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