Steven Kelly ( He/Him )

I’m captivated by the marks that humans make, whether that is a wall covered in signs and graffiti or the deep craters and tunnels produced by mining. These human marks can be both beautiful and ugly. My forms are stamped, slashed and dented, then layered with color and glass. I’ve always been interested in ceramic objects that demonstrate the many opportunities clay offers to alter its forms and surfaces. Whether that is the malleability of soft clay, a carvable, leather-hard surface or the fully-dry pot, there are so many points along the way for processes and formal choices.

I want viewers to see my forms as opportunities to investigate. I hope my vessels will bring out the archeologist in the viewer and encourage them to uncover processes, actions and fossilized moments. I hope they interrogate their own relationship to mark-making, form and beauty.

Steve Kelly is a potter and sculptor based in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. Steve is the lead ceramics professor at the University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point. He also stewards workshops in the US as well as abroad. His work can be seen in numerous galleries and publications. His functional forms range from humble utilitarian vessels to more complex, abstract sculptural forms. His pottery and sculptures center around such questions as what objects and surfaces can tell us about who we are, how we relate to one another, and how the marks we leave affect the world around us. Teaching is an integral part of Steve’s practice. He has taught students throughout the United States and as far away as Australia and Italy. Steve received his BFA from the University of Montana and his MFA from Maine College of Art. He apprenticed with master potter Trew Bennet in the hills of Nelson County, Virginia.