Jonah Fleeger

Artist Statement

My current ceramic work has been influenced by anti-semitic experiences growing up Jewish in Indiana and a reintroduction to my Judaism while exploring Mellahs in Morocco. Using the language informed by these experiences and my surrounding environment, I create installations and objects which reflect my reality and attend to identity, isolation, place and a connection with others.

My media—compressed earth, brick walls, weathered zellige, ancient and modern pottery—highlights the ‘other’ to author a stylized identity; investigating the relationships between self and place as a way of creating moments of reflection and a sense of belonging. In regards to ceramic traditions, I aim to create forms that investigate, renew and upend traditional opinions of the vessel, calling attention to the fraught connections between history and contemporary culture. As an artist, I create work that revisits my reality, hoping to unburden myself and call the viewers attention to the familiar in an authentic way.

-- Jonah Fleeger

Bio

Jonah Fleeger is an emerging ceramic artist originally from Northwest Indiana. He attended a small boarding school called Verde Valley School, in Sedona, Arizona, which is where his love for ceramics first started. Jonah received his BFA in ceramics from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Since then he has completed post-baccalaureate programs at The University of Colorado Boulder and Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona. Jonah received his MFA in ceramics from the Rhode Island School of Design and is currently a long-term artist in residence at The Morean Center for Clay in St. Petersburg, Florida.