Ian F. Thomas | |
|---|---|
| Born | May 10, 1976 |
| Nationality |  American |
| Known for | Ceramic Art, Installation Art |
Ian F. Thomas (born 1976) is an American installation artist formally trained in ceramics. He currently lives and works in Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania and is an Assistant Professor of Art at Allegheny College.
Ian F. Thomas was raised in Western Pennsylvania where he spent much of his time on a family farm. It is here where Thomas first became interested in objects and the notion of art as a form of play. The coupling of this rural setting with a sense of childhood imagination has become a foundation for much of Thomas' artistic investigations to this day. [1]
In 1999, Thomas received his bachelor's degree from Slippery Rock University. During this time, he also studied at The Academy of Fine Art and Design in Bratislava, Slovakia. After graduating, He became a studio assistant to ceramic artist Edward Eberle. Thomas has also worked with James Watkins, Von Venhuizen, and Juan Granados at Texas Tech University where he received his MFA in 2006.
Since 2007, Thomas has been an active ceramic arts demonstrator across the country. He has lectured and given demonstrations at Cornell University, East Carolina University, and The Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute, among others. He has also been an active force in experimental collaboration within the fine art world. [2]
In 2009, Thomas founded the Culture Laboratory Collective, a group of twelve artists from across the country who all work with ideas of social cohesion without conforming their own personal aesthetics. The Culture Laboratory Collective has worked with contemporary art critics such as Ben Lewis and Noah Simblist. It has conducted exhibitions at locations such as The Nave Museum, in Victoria, Texas as well as in Jingdezhen, Beijing, and Shanghai, China. [3]
Thomas has exhibited work internationally and appeared in numerous publications. In 2010, Thomas exhibited a performative installation entitled "The Ergonomics of Futility" with photographer, Shreepad Joglekar, at RO2 Gallery in Dallas, Texas. [4] [5] In 2012, he exhibited a collaborative piece, created with artist Ryder Richards, at the 2012 NCECA Invitational Exhibition, located at The Bellevue Arts Museum in Washington. [6] [7]
Founded in 1966, the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) is an organization in the United States serving the interests of ceramics as an art form and in creative education. Most major American ceramic artists since the 1970s, such as Frances Senska, Paul Soldner, Peter Voulkos, and Rudy Autio have been among its members.
Chinese ceramics show a continuous development since pre-dynastic times and are one of the most significant forms of Chinese art and ceramics globally. The first pottery was made during the Palaeolithic era. Chinese ceramics range from construction materials such as bricks and tiles, to hand-built pottery vessels fired in bonfires or kilns, to the sophisticated Chinese porcelain wares made for the imperial court and for export. Porcelain was a Chinese invention and is so identified with China that it is still called "china" in everyday English usage.
Joan Takayama-Ogawa is a sansei (third-generation) Japanese-American ceramic artist and currently professor at Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles, California. Takayama-Ogawa's heritage since the 15th century of Japanese ceramic art influences her work, that usually explores beauty, decoration, ornamentation and narrative while also introducing a dialogue that rejects the traditional role of women in Japanese culture. Her most recent work addresses issues like climate change.
D. Wayne Higby is an American artist working in ceramics. The American Craft Museum considers him a "visionary of the American Crafts Movement" and recognized him as one of seven artists who are "genuine living legends representing the best of American artists in their chosen medium."
Regis Brodie is a tenured Professor of Art at the Department of Art and Art History at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, NY and a potter. Since 1972, he has been serving as the Director of the Summer Six Art Program at Skidmore College. He also wrote a book called The Energy Efficient Potter which was published by Watson-Guptill Publications in 1982. He started the Brodie Company in 1999 in the interest of developing tools which would aid the potter at the potter's wheel.
Bob Flint, also known as Robert Flint, is an American ceramic artist. He arrived in Hawaii in 1960 for a summer of surfing and quickly realized that he wanted to stay. In 1961 he entered the University of Hawaii, earning his bachelor's and master's degrees in fine art, with a specialization in ceramics.
Beth Cavener, also known as Beth Cavener Stichter, is an American artist based out of Montana. A classically trained sculptor, her process involves building complex metal armatures to support massive amounts of clay. Cavener is best known for her fantastical animal figures, which embody the complexity of human emotion and behavior.
Grace Nickel is a Canadian ceramic artist and art instructor in post-secondary education.
Ashwini Bhat is an artist, based in Northern California. She is known for her sculptures.
Ryder Richards is an American artist, writer, and curator. He works in the field of conceptual art, critical theory, and installation. His art practice consists of several bodies of work, often researching cultural violence, conspiracy voids and architectural influence. He has participated in several collaborative art groups.
Beth Lo in Lafayette, Indiana is an American artist, ceramist and educator. Her parents emigrated from China.
Roberto Lugo is an American potter, social activist, spoken word poet, and educator. Lugo's work as a social activist is represented in his artworks, where he draws together hip-hop, history, politics and his cultural background into formal ceramics and 2D works. Born in Kensington, Philadelphia to Puerto Rican parents, Lugo began his career as a graffiti artist and teacher before discovering ceramics.
Kirk Mangus (1952–2013) was an internationally renowned ceramic artist and sculptor "known for his playful, gestural style, roughhewn forms, and experimental glazing". His murals, works in clay, on paper, in wood, and other media pull from a rich and diverse set of influences: ancient Greco-Roman art, mythology, Japanese woodblock prints, comic books, folk stories, from Meso-American through Middle-Eastern and Asian ceramic traditions as well as the people he saw, the places he travelled, and his own dreamworld. He loved experimenting with new mediums, local materials, clay bodies, slips, kiln-building and the firing process.
Harris Deller is an American ceramist. He is well known for his black and white incised porcelain. He spent most of his career teaching at Southern Illinois University and has work on display in the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design in New York as well as other collections.
Susan Collett RCA IAC is a Canadian artist in printmaking and ceramics. In 1986, she graduated from the Cleveland Institute of Art, earning a B.F.A. in printmaking with a minor in ceramics.
Karen Thuesen Massaro is a ceramicist working in the United States known for creating unconventional arrangements of sculptural objects through her work. Interested in exploring abstraction, she has experimented with a variety of different themes including the repetition of forms and surface textural change, negative space, and the geometric patterning of natural objects. Massaro creates much of her artwork by taking casts of physical objects, like fruit, molding them out of clay, and decorating them with patterns. Her manipulations make common objects feel less ordinary. These experiments allow her to explore color and form in complex ways.
Sharif Bey is an African American artist, ceramicist, and professor. He produces functional pottery as well as ceramic and mixed-media sculptures using various forms and textures. His body of work reflects his interest in the visual heritage of Africa and Oceania and contemporary African American culture. With his colorful large-scale bead sculptures, Bey explores the cultural and political significance of ornamentation and adornment.
Karl Martz was an American studio potter, ceramic artist, and teacher whose work achieved national and international recognition.
Donald Eugene Frith was an American ceramic artist and academic known for his unique style of teapots, mixing ceramics with acrylics and wood.
Lauren Mabry is an American artist known for ceramic art. Mabry was born in Cincinnati and grew up in Madison, Wisconsin She attended the Kansas City Art Institute and the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. She is the recipient of a grant from the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage. She was awarded the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) Emerging Artist award in 2014.