Karen Thuesen Massaro

Last updated

Karen Thuesen Massaro (born 1944 in Copenhagen, Denmark) [1] is a ceramicist working in the United States known for creating unconventional arrangements of sculptural objects through her work. [2] Interested in exploring abstraction, she has experimented with a variety of different themes including the repetition of forms and surface textural change, [3] negative space, [4] and the geometric patterning of natural objects. [5] 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. [6] These experiments allow her to explore color and form in complex ways. [7]

Contents

Education and career

In 1966, Massaro graduated from the State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo with a BS in art education. The following year, she continued her graduate studies at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. [8] Initially she completed schooling for her teaching license and became an elementary school art teacher in Warwick, New York from 1966 to 1967.[ citation needed ] Massaro then went back to school and earned her Master of Fine Arts at the University of Wisconsin—Madison in 1972. [8] While pursuing her MFA, Massaro began experimenting with clay. After receiving her master's degree, she began teaching ceramics to her elementary school students. [7]

In the 1970s, she moved from elementary schools to colleges and universities, serving as a visiting assistant professor of art at Beloit College 1972-77 and a lecturer for the art department at the University of Wisconsin—Madison in 1976 and 1978. She was an artist-in-residence in the Arts/Industry program at the Kohler Company in Sheboygan, WI, in 1984. Eventually, she settled in Santa Cruz, CA, where she became a studio artist and a lecturer at the University of California, Santa Cruz. From 1996 to 1997, she was a guest curator at the Museum of Santa Cruz County, now part of the Santa Cruz Museum of Art. Throughout the 1990s, Massaro traveled as a speaker and workshop leader. She spoke at the Mendocino Arts Center in Mendocino, CA, Butter College in Orville, CA, University of Wisconsin—Madison in Madison, WI, University of Wisconsin—Eau Claire, in eau Claire, WI, and the University of Oregon—Eugene in Eugene, OR.[ citation needed ] Massaro also served on the National Council on Education for Ceramic Arts (NCECA) as a director-at-large in 1977 and as the chair of exhibition from 1978 to 1980. She is also a member of the American Crafts Council.[ citation needed ]

Artist statement

When questioned about her work, Massaro has stated:

"My primary aim, is to explore rather than replicate. So much of one's time is spent in the studio, the process itself should be engaging. I try to imagine how colors and patterns might read. It is intriguing how complex juxtaposing characteristics of repeated lines, plus hue and value, can be working with multiple parts and views. Everything is subject to change until the last firing; after that, the piece is on its own." [9]

Awards

Massaro has earned significant recognition throughout her career. Her achievements include the National Endowment for Arts Grant in 1976 and the Wisconsin Arts Board Grant in 1977. [10] In 1987, she received the Guild American Crafts Merit Award from Kraus Sikes, Inc. of New York. [11] [ self-published source ] For "national and cultural enrichment of a community", Massaro was considered the Artist of The Year by the Santa Cruz County Arts Commission in 2003. [12] She was also a recipient of the National Endowment for Arts Artist Fellowship award. [7]

Museum collections

The following is a selection of institutions that hold examples of Massaro's work. [13] [ self-published source ]

Selected solo exhibitions

Massaro's work has been exhibited in a variety of shows including, but not limited to: [15] [ self-published source ]

Selected group exhibitions

Massaro's work has been featured in several exhibitions. The following is a short list of select group exhibitions: [15] [ self-published source ]

Related Research Articles

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.

Akio Takamori was a Japanese-American ceramic sculptor and was a faculty member at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington.

Toshiko Takaezu was an American ceramic artist, painter, sculptor, and educator who was known for her rounded, closed forms that viewed ceramics as a fine art and more than a functional vessel. She is of Japanese descent and from Pepeeko, Hawaii.

Adrian Saxe is an American ceramic artist who was born in Glendale, California in 1943. He lives and works in Los Angeles, California.

Sergei Isupov

Sergei Isupov is a ceramic artist born in Stavropol, Russia now living in Cummington, Massachusetts, United States and Tallinn, Estonia. He was educated at the Ukrainian State Art School in Kiev and went on to graduate in 1990 from the Art Institute of Tallinn in Estonia with Bachelor of Arts and Master of Fine Arts degrees in ceramic art. He has since exhibited widely in both solo and group exhibitions, received numerous awards and widely collected by museums and private collectors.

Beth Cavener Stichter

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.

Cristina Córdova is an American-born, Puerto Rican sculptor who works and lives in Penland, North Carolina.

Beth Lo in Lafayette, Indiana is an American artist, ceramist and educator. Her parents emigrated from China.

Monica Rudquist American ceramics artist

Monica E. Rudquist is a ceramic artist working out of Minneapolis, Minnesota. She is known for her distinctive "spiraling shapes" and works primarily in porcelain. In addition, her work features wheel-thrown functional wares as well as large-scale, abstract wall installations.

Harrison McIntosh

Harrison Edward McIntosh was an American ceramic artist. He was an exponent of the Mid-century Modern style of ceramics, featuring simple symmetrical forms. His work has been exhibited in venues in the United States including the Smithsonian and internationally including at the Louvre in France.

Paul Dresang is an American ceramic artist and professor at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. Working mainly with glass, porcelain, and clay, Dresang’s “highly individual, sensuous, salt-fired porcelain forms are decorated with an obsessive amount of detail.” He defines his work primarily as “post-modern fertility pieces".” Dresang aims to create surreal images with ceramics by often focusing on everyday items in his work, and by exploring “opposing ideas of constraint and breaking free”. After receiving his MFA, Dresang has gone on to become a highly sought-after potter. He has presented his work in countless group exhibitions, and is featured in many permanent collections nationally. He is currently located in Edwardsville, Illinois.

Stephen Dixon is a British ceramic artist and professor at the Manchester Metropolitan University. He is also a satirist, writer, lecturer and curator. He is known mainly for his use of dark narrative and for using "illustrated ceramics pots as an unlikely platform for social commentary and political discontent." From Renaissance paintings and British politics to pop culture, Dixon draws on a variety of sources to "challenge the status quo and inspire new ways of thinking." Dixon tends to create busy, complex ceramics pieces, each with an intriguing message.

Jack Earl is an American ceramic artist and former teacher, known for drawing inspiration from his home state of Ohio to create rural pieces “with meticulous craftsmanship and astute details… to where you could smell the air, hear the silence and swat the flies.” Although his works hint at highly personal, intellectual, and narrative themes in an almost unsettling manner, Earl is “a self-described anti-intellectual who shuns the art world." He is known particularly for using his trademark format, the dos-a-dos : “This art form is like a book with two stories… the two seemingly incongruent images prompt the viewer to fill in the conceptual gap through poetic speculation.” His work often involves dogs or the character “Bill”, who is said to be a combination of Earl’s father-in-law, himself, and others. The titles to his pieces are typically lengthy, stream-of-consciousness narratives that suggest the folk or rural lifestyle. These are intended to add another dimension to the artwork. His work has received a notable response over his decades-long career, especially since he is regarded as “a master at reminding us that within the events we take for granted are moments of never-ending mystery and wonder.” Earl continues to live in Lakeview, Ohio with his wife, Fairlie.

Richard Shaw is an American ceramicist and professor known for his trompe-l'œil style. A term often associated with paintings, referring to the illusion that a two-dimensional surface is three-dimensional. In Shaw's work, it refers to his replication of everyday objects in porcelain. He then glazes these components and groups them in unexpected and even jarring combinations. Interested in how objects can reflect a person or identity, Shaw poses questions regarding the relationship between appearances and reality.

Linda Threadgill is an American artist whose primary emphasis is metalsmithing. Her metal work is inspired by forms of nature and the interpretations she gleans from the intricate patterns it presents. She explores the foundation of nature to allude to nature and transform it into re-imagined, stylized plants forms.

Kurt Weiser is an American ceramicist and professor. His work—explorations of the relationship between man and nature through narratives rendered in vivid color—are described as "Eden-like." His work has often taken the form of teapots, vases, and cups, though he has recently begun crafting globes as well. Weiser is currently the Regents Professor at Arizona State University's School of Art.

John Parker Glick was an American ceramicist. Though open to artistic experimentation, Glick was most influenced by the styles and aesthetics of Asian pottery—an inspiration that shows in his use of decorative patterns and glaze choices. His experience working with ceramics led him to publish several articles about the craft. In addition to producing pottery, Glick began making "landscape oriented" wall panels during the latter part of his career. Known as "the people's potter," he is primarily remembered for his contributions to art and the field of ceramics.

Chris Gustin is an American ceramicist. Gustin models his work on the human form, which is shown through the shape, color, and size of the pieces.

Susannah Israel is an American contemporary artist, writer and composer living in east Oakland, California. She moved to the Bay Area as a young parent in 1976. Her recognizable figures are highly expressive, and serve as visual extensions of her critical and allegorical narratives. Israel has published writing from 2000–present and musical compositions since 2013.

Nancy Selvin American sculptor

Nancy Selvin is an American sculptor, recognized for ceramic works and tableaux that explore the vessel form and balance an interplay of materials, minimal forms, and expressive processes. She emerged in the late 1960s among a "second generation" of Bay Area ceramic artists who followed the California Clay Movement and continued to challenge ceramic traditions involving expression, form and function, and an art-world that placed the medium outside its established hierarchy. Her work has been exhibited at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Denver Art Museum, Daum Museum of Contemporary Art and Kohler Arts Center, and belongs to the public art collections of LACMA, the Smithsonian Institution, Oakland Museum of California, and Crocker Art Museum, among others. Critic David Roth has written, "Selvin's position in the top rank of ceramic artists has come through a process of rigorous self-examination … what differentiates [her] is that she eschews realism and functionality, indicating a level of intellectual engagement not always found among ceramicists." Writer and curator Jo Lauria described Selvin's tableaux as "elegiac and stylistically unified" works that serve as "forceful essays on the relationship between realism and abstraction, object and subject, decoration and use." Selvin lives and works in the Berkeley, California area.

References

  1. ↑ "Karen Thuesen Massaro New Work," Carmel, CA: Christopher Winfield Gallery, 1980
  2. ↑ Updike, Robin. "A Feast of Beads," Ornament Vol. 35, p. 30. April 2012
  3. ↑ "Karen Massaro," Ceramics Monthly Vol. 27 No. 8 p. 67. Oct. 1979
  4. ↑ Shay, Bob. "Karen Massaro," Craft Horizon. p. 57. December, 1975.
  5. ↑ "Karen Thuesen Massaro," Ceramics Monthly. pp. 50–55. September, 2000.
  6. ↑ Santiago, Chiori. "Still Clay," American Craft. Vol. 57 No. 6 p. December, 1997-January, 1998
  7. 1 2 3 4 "Acquisitions and Collections," Perimeter Gallery News. Winter/Spring, 2003.
  8. 1 2 Santiago, Chiori. "Real/Surreal The Ceramic of Karen Thuesen Massaro," American Craft. Vol. 60 No. 3 pp. 38-40. June/July, 2000.
  9. ↑ "Karen Thuesen Massaro," Ceramic Monthly. pp. 50–53. September, 2000.
  10. ↑ American Craft. Vol. 47 No. 6. December, 1987 – January, 1988.
  11. ↑ Massaro, Karen Thuesen."Karen Thuesen Massaro" Resume. Retrieved 7/6/2017
  12. ↑ "Karen Thuesen Massaro Receives an Award". Ceramic Monthly. Vol. 51 No. 8 p. 14. October, 2003.
  13. ↑ Massaro, Karen Thuesen. "Karen Thuesen Massaro" resume. retrieved 7/6/2017.
  14. ↑ Updike, Robin. "A Feast of Beads," Ornament. Vol. 35 pf. 30. April, 2012.
  15. 1 2 Massaro, Karen Thuesen. "Karen Thuesen Massaro" Resume. Retrieved 7/6/2017.
  16. ↑ "Real and Implied Space," Sacramento, CA: exploding head gallery: contemporary art and ceramics. 2005.
  17. ↑ "Artist of the Year," Santa Cruz, CA: Santa Cruz County Arts Commission, 2003.
  18. ↑ Davis, CA: Pence Gallery, 2001.
  19. ↑ "Karen Thuesen Massaro New Work," Carmel, CA: Christopher Winfield Gallery, 1992.
  20. ↑ "Karen Massaro", Ceramics Monthly. Vol. 27 No. 8 p. 67. October, 1979
  21. ↑ "Duets: RAM Pairs Contemporary Craft Artists" Racine Art Museum. Retrieved 7/6/2017.
  22. ↑ "Start Contrasts: Clack and White Ceramics form GAM's Collection" Racine Art Museum. Retrieved 7/6/2017.
  23. ↑ "a Feast of Beads", Seattle WA: Facèré Jewelry Art Gallery, 2012,
  24. ↑ "Small Sculptures," Santa Fe, NM: Santa Fe Clay, 2011
  25. ↑ "From Tiles to Totems: A Century of Northern California Ceramics," Sacramento, CA: Art Foundry Gallery, 2005.
  26. ↑ "Summer Invitational," Kansas City, MO:Sherry Leedy, 2002
  27. ↑ Chicago IL:Preimeter Gallery, 2001.
  28. ↑ "Contemporary American Ceramics", La Jolla, CA: Gallery Eight, 1993.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.