Ryan Osborne ( he/him )

Ryan Osborne’s sculptures from his Biomorphia series are made by working intuitively with his material to convey a heightened sense of balance and tension within each piece. He usually has a general idea of what he is looking for in each sculpture, but he also tends to work quickly, and makes deliberate decisions based on the movement and physical response from the clay. After abstracting the zoomorphic or human elements, his works begin to suggest plants, animals, parts of a body, or figures. Osborne tests the clay’s structural limitations as a medium, therefore, he wants the viewer to experience the physical relationship he has with his material. He achieves a range of possibilities that result from atmospheric firings, which are derived from wood, salt, and soda kilns, as well as the immediacy and range of colors achieved from raku kilns and post-fire reduction. 

The results achieved from the wood firing process are unpredictable, but one can encourage certain things to happen based on how it is stacked in the kiln, or with the use of slips, glazes, or wadding. The relatively unpredictable nature of wood firing, combined with the flow of air, fire, and ash is a great complement to Osborne’s work. The variety of colors and surface textures achieved in the process accentuate the sculptural and tactile qualities of his forms.

Osborne’s most recent Eternal Dog series originated as a way of working through the grieving process of the death of his late dog, Ella. By creating a playful likeness of her, he found he was able to somewhat lessen the pain of her passing

 As a native of Kingsport, Tennessee, a relatively small town just above and to the right of the Great Smoky Mountains, Ryan Osborne grew up being attracted to the natural world around him. Whether it’s Tennessee’s rolling hills, mountains, lakes, or rivers, he was always out exploring in his own way. He has always had a great deal of interest in art and music, even at an early age, and considers himself lucky to have attended great schools and universities for nourishing his love and desire to make art. In high school, he took every art class that was offered, including two ceramics courses, and which became the foundation for the artist that he has become.  After high school, Osborne went on to study at five colleges, ultimately receiving his Bachelor of Arts with a major in studio art and minor in music at Ferrum College in 2011. In 2014 he received his Master of Fine Arts degree in ceramics from Kent State University, where he studied under the direction of the late Kirk Mangus, and his partner, Eva Kwong. Working in the studio and firing the anagama, affectionately known as the “Kirkagama”, at Kent State, was a formative time in Osborne’s life. During this time, he also began working with an Emeritus Sculpture faculty member at Kent State, Brinsley Tyrrell. In the summer of 2012, Brinsley Tyrrell and Megan Tuttle built a modified manabigama wood kiln on Brinsley’s property, just outside of Kent, OH. Osborne came along in the fall of 2012 as a graduate student to experience his first wood firing, where he would eventually build close friendships with the ever-growing crew. They fired the kiln around thirty-four times over the course of four years, and ultimately had to tear down and rebuild. Osborne assisted with the building of Brinsley’s second kiln, which was based on the same design, but longer, and with a salt and/or soda chamber. Osborne was a regular presence at these firings until around 2021, when he relocated to North Carolina. In the summer of 2021, Osborne left his position at a ceramic supply shop in Ohio to take on the role of managing the ceramic supply shop at Starworks, a non-profit arts center, in Star, North Carolina. Since coming to Star, Osborne has led several firings of the Starworks noborigama, and has assisted in numerous firings of various wood kilns throughout the Seagrove area. In the summer of 2022, he was invited to be a panelist for a plenary discussion during the Wood Fire NC 2022 conference at Starworks. In the fall of 2024, he coordinated Starworks’ first annual Empty Bowls charitable fundraiser, with all proceeds going to CERF+ with the designation for Western North Carolina artists. In 2025, Osborne became a recipient of an artist support grant through the generosity of the North Carolina Arts Council and The Arts Council of Greater Greensboro. With this funding, he will be creating larger than life size works from his Eternal Dog series, and firing them in the noborigama at Starworks.