2017 Artaxis Conversations Archive

Tom Bartel is a ceramic artist based in Athens, Ohio, where he is a Full Professor. Bartel is widely recognized for unsettling and dark, yet strangely comic, figurative forms driven by rich textures. Such works are held in numerous public and private collections and appear in many publications. Bartel has given workshops and participated in residency and visiting artist programs across the US, in such places as the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts, Northern Clay Center, and Red Lodge Clay Center.

Jennifer Forsberg is a Swedish artist known for her playful, organic ceramic sculptures and installations. She is currently a studio artist and the Headmaster at Österlenskolan for Art and Design in Sweden. She has exhibited and created public art commissions throughout Sweden and internationally, and has received numerous grants, including the International Artists’ Studio Program Work Grant in Sweden. She has been a resident at various international institutions including the FuLe International Ceramic Art Museum in China, the European Ceramic Work Center in the Netherlands, and the Archie Bray Foundation for Ceramic Arts in the USA.

Rojhane (Roji) Hosseini is an Iranian ceramic artist who originally studied painting at Soureh University, where she currently teaches. Hosseini has participated in exhibitions, festivals, projects, and symposia in Iran and abroad. The artist has won several awards, including a first place diploma at the Pottery Women Artists Exhibition in Iran, and an honorary diploma at the 10th National Biennial of Iranian Contemporary Ceramic Art. Both individually and together with her husband, Hirbod Hemmatazad, who is also a ceramic artist, Hosseini has created numerous, monumental public works in clay across Iran.

Eva Zethraeus is a Swedish ceramic artist who creates sculptures inspired by botanical and biological specimens. Zethraeus is a full-time studio artist and has exhibited and taught workshops extensively across Sweden and internationally, and has work in multiple art collections, including the National Museum in Stockholm and the Röhsska Muséet in Gothenburg. She has been the recipient of several grants and scholarships from institutions like the International Artists Studio Program in Sweden and the Scandinavia – Japan Sasakawa Foundation.

Rory MacDonald earned his MFA at Alfred University, and in 2007 won the Winifred Shantz Emerging Ceramics Award from the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery. He is currently Chair of Craft and Assistant Professor of Ceramics at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. MacDonald’s work, employing vessel forms, casting, and tradition, has broadened to include site specificity, architecture, and unorthodox experimentation. ** This is Rory’s earlier video. The full length video will be updated soon.

Juxtaposing low-brow recyclable materials with sophisticated, digital delete-and-forget tech, Israeli artist Johnathan Hopp brings disparate but parallel ways of thinking and working together in his ceramic practice. Abstract urban landscapes, “souvenir” replicas of damaged buildings from Palestine’s Gaza strip, cross cultural collaborations, and vessels are only a few of the components defining this unique artist’s oeuvre. Hopp is base in Tel Aviv but teaches at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem. ** Due to technical issues during the live stream, this is part three of Johnathan’s video. The first two parts can be found on the Artaxis Facebook page.

Phil Rogers is one of the world’s most venerated potters. Based in Wales, Rogers is a member of the International Academy of Ceramics, Crafts Council, and the Royal Cambrian Academy. He has had more than 50 solo exhibitions internationally, including the UK, USA, Belgium, Japan, and South Korea. He has conducted more than 50 workshops internationally, has addressed the World Ceramics Symposium in Korea, and, in 1993, built and initiated a pottery for 25 single women with children in Ethiopia. He has work in permanent collections in museums worldwide, and he has won numerous awards, including the Wingate Scholarship in 2000.

In the last year, Irish ceramic artist Isobel Egan has graced the cover of Ceramic Review and been featured in the newly reestablished Ceramics Art and Perception. Member of the International Academy of Ceramics and Design and Crafts Council of Ireland, and winner of the Golden Fleece Merit Award in 2006, Egan continues to receive recognition and accolades. The artist’s delicate, pristine, and vibrant geometries are poetic embodiments of “simple complexity.”

Peruvian-born Kukuli Velarde is a recipient of the esteemed Guggenheim Fellowship and has also been exhibited by Garth Clark, among many other accolades. She is a widely lauded artist who draws on history and culture to make works of contemporary relevance and brilliance. In addition to her ceramic work, the artist is also an accomplished painter, wife, and mother. The artist lives in Philadelphia and exhibits internationally.

Linda Lighton is an artist, curator, and arts activist. Lighton is the founder and director of the Lighton International Artist Exchange Program, which has sent 150 artists to 53 countries and the Arctic Circle, and she has also received numerous awards herself. The Outstanding Achievement Award from the National Council for Education in the Ceramic Arts, the Missouri Art Award as an Individual Artist, and the Award for Excellence in Visual Art and Education from the Kansas City Art Institute are but a few of her accolades. The artist has also exhibited and worked all over the world and is a member of the International Academy of Ceramics.

Linda Sormin is an artist, author, and currently an Associate Professor of Ceramics at Alfred University in New York. Through objects and site-responsive installations, her work explores issues of fragility, aggression, mobility, survival and regeneration. She studied ceramics at Andrews University, Sheridan College, and Alfred University, where she received her MFA. Sormin’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, most recently in the UK, US, Indonesia, Canada, Norway, and Denmark. She has won multiple awards and grants, including the Emerging Artist Grant from the Canada Council for the Arts.

En Iwamura is an artist from Kyoto, Japan, who is currently working in the US as a long-term resident at the Archie Bray Foundation. He creates ceramic sculptures that incorporate layers of drawing, and are inspired by American and Japanese historical and pop-cultural references, as well as his own life experiences. Trained in both Japan and the US, Iwamura is an award-winning artist who has exhibited all over Japan, the US, China, and Canada. Recently, he was featured by Ceramics Monthly as one of their 2017 Emerging Artists.