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Gropius Ceramic Symposium
Walter Gropius Master Artist Ceramic Symposium
Linda Christianson • Justin Donofrio • Sanam Emami • Chris Gustin
Michael Hunt and Naomi Dalglish of Bandana Pottery
These six artists were chosen for similar reasons, and also for ones unique to each of them. All of them share a love of the material of clay, and an appreciation for the function of the particular objects that they create. Each of their experiences in clay is individual, but the common thread of education, from the past, present, and future, with their instructors being working artists in their field, ties them to the foundation of the Bauhaus.
Walter Gropius, and his Bauhaus philosophy, has permeated throughout educational systems all over the world, and certainly in the settings where many of these artists were taught. While they each have their own individual stories, including working as studio potters, college professors, collaborators, students, and a ceramic arts center founder, it is their ability to share of themselves while continuing to be current in their field that resonates with the Bauhaus, and with us all.
Virtual Artist Lecture
Walter Gropius Master Artist Virtual Ceramic Symposium Lecture
VIRTUAL WORKSHOP
Linda Christianson is an independent studio potter who lives and works in rural Minnesota. She studied at Hamline University (St. Paul, Minnesota) and the Banff Centre School of Fine Arts (Banff, Alberta, Canada). She exhibits nationally and internationally, including one-person exhibits in London and St. Louis. Her pieces are in numerous public and private collections, including the American Museum of Ceramic Art and the Glenboe Museum. An itinerant educator, Linda has taught at colleges and universities, including Carlton College and the Hartford Art School. She received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the McKnight Foundation. Her recent writing appeared in “Studio Potter” and “The Log Book.” She says one of her goals is to make a better cup each day.
Justin Donofrio grew up in Santa Cruz, California, where he was introduced to pottery at Cabrillo Community College. He then joined the vibrant Colorado community of artists in 2013 in the Roaring Fork Valley, where he continued his clay education with the support of Anderson Ranch, The Carbondale Clay Center, and The Studio for Arts and Works (SAW). He remained in Colorado to complete a BFA from Colorado State University in 2016. He is represented in galleries throughout the U.S. and abroad. Donofrio has been a Windgate Summer Scholar at the Archie Bray Foundation and resident at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts. He has been an exhibiting artist and tour co-manager with the Artstream Nomadic Gallery, in addition to being selected as one of Ceramics Monthly’s 2018 Emerging Artists. He is currently pursuing his MFA in ceramics at Alfred University.
Sanam Emami is a studio potter living in Fort Collins, Colorado, with her husband, Del Harrow, and their son, William. She received a BA in History from James Madison University in Virginia, and an MFA in Ceramics from New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. Currently, she is an Associate Professor of Pottery at Colorado State University. She was a Visiting Assistant Professor in Ceramics at Alfred University, resident artist at the Archie Bray Foundation in Montana, and has lectured at the Office for the Arts at Harvard University; the Kansas City Art Institute; Arizona State University Art Museum-Ceramic Research Center; and NCECA in Louisville, Kentucky. She received a New York Foundation for the Arts Grant for Craft and her work has been in exhibitions at numerous galleries across the country including at The Society of Arts and Crafts, Boston; The Artstream Nomadic Gallery; Harvey Meadows Gallery, Aspen; Schaller Gallery; and Hostler Burrows.
Chris Gustin is a studio artist and an Emeritus Professor at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth. He received his BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute in 1975, and his MFA from Alfred University in 1977. Gustin lives and works in South Dartmouth, Massachusetts. Gustin’s work is published extensively and is represented in numerous public and private collections, including the Renwick Gallery of the National Museum of American Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the World Ceramic Exposition Foundation in Icheon, Korea, the American Museum of Ceramic Art, the Currier Museum of Art, the Yingge Museum in Taipai, and the Daum Museum of Contemporary Art. With more than 50 solo exhibitions, he has exhibited, lectured, and taught workshops in the United States, Caribbean, South America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. He has received two National Endowment for the Arts Artist Fellowships, and four Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist Fellowships, the most recent in 2017. He is a member of the International Academy of Ceramics and was elected to the American Craft Council College of Fellows in 2016. He was awarded the Masters of the Medium award from the Renwick Alliance in 2017. Gustin is co-founder of the Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts in Maine, and currently serves as Honorary Trustee on its board.
Michael Hunt and Naomi Dalglish of Bandana Pottery
Michael Hunt and Naomi Dalglish collaborate in making wood-fired pottery. They combine coarse local clays, white slips, and ash glazes to make the deeply layered surfaces for which they are known. After getting hooked on clay in high school, Hunt came to Penland School of Crafts, where Will Ruggles and Douglas Rankin became teachers and mentors to him. Several years later he was invited to go to Korea to learn the traditional method of making large Ongii storage jars with master Ongii potter Oh Hyang Jong. Dalglish began making pottery with her grandmother as a child. She studied clay at Earlham College with Mike Theideman, a former apprentice of Warren MacKenzie. After college, Dalglish came to Penland to take a kiln-building class and met Hunt, who was building a kiln at his studio in the area. Hunt and Dalglish now work together as full-time potters, firing their wood kiln four times a year, and occasionally teaching workshops. Their pottery is named Bandana Pottery after the small community in which they live. They exhibit their work nationally and internationally.
VIRTUAL GALLERY WALK
Gallery walk with Artist in Residence Kathleen Kneafsey
Join Kathleen Kneafsey, HMA’s Artist in Residence, in a Virtual Gallery Walk of the exhibition of the six Walter Gropius Master Artists. This exhibition will be on display at in the Joan and Arthur Weisberg Family Gallery through December 6, 2020.
This project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. To find out more about how National Endowment for the Arts grants impact individuals and communities, visit www.arts.gov.
This project is presented with financial assistance from the West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture and History, and the National Endowment for the Arts, with approval from the West Virginia Commission on the Arts.
Presented with support from the Isabelle Gwynn and Robert Daine Exhibition Endowment.
The Walter Gropius Master Artist Series is funded through the generosity of the Estate of Roxanna Y. Booth, who wished to assist in the development of an art education program in accordance with the proposals of Walter Gropius, who designed the Museum’s Gropius Addition, as well as the Gropius Studios. The Museum in indebted to Roxanna Y. Booth’s son, the late Alex Booth, Jr., for his participation in the concept development of the Gropius Master Artists Workshops.