JULY 8 – AUGUST 27, 2017
Emily Galusha Gallery, Main Gallery
Opening reception: Saturday, July 8, 1-4 pm
The annual exhibition, Six McKnight Artists, features new work by 2016 McKnight Artist Fellowship for Ceramic Artists recipients Nicolas Darcourt (Minnetonka, Minnesota) and Sheryl McRoberts (Plymouth, Minnesota), as well as 2015 McKnight Artist Residency for Ceramic Artists recipients Kathryn Finnerty (Oregon), Lung-Chieh Lin (Taiwan), Helen Otterson (Kentucky), and Joseph Pintz (Missouri). This exhibition, supported by the McKnight Foundation, showcases the success of each artist’s fellowship or residency.
Nicolas Darcourt received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from Northern Michigan University, and in 2006, his Master of Fine Arts from the University of Minnesota–Twin Cities. From 2007 to 2009 he was a resident artist at the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts. His ceramic work has been shown both nationally and internationally, and belongs to a number of private collections. He has taught ceramics at Minnesota State University–Moorhead and The University of Minnesota. Nicolas is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Art and Art History Department at Gustavus Adolphus College and is living and making ceramic work in Minnetonka, Minnesota.
Sheryl McRoberts received her MFA from Indiana University, and is an art instructor at Normandale Community College. Her ceramic sculpture has been shown across the United States, and in 1995 she received a Fulbright Travel Grant to work in Pietrasanta, Italy. Her work has also been included in numerous publications including Contemporary Ceramics: an International Perspective, and 500 Animals by Lark Press. Her most recent portraits “have been greatly influenced by late medieval sculptures which incorporate sculpture with architectural and/or religious settings.”
Kathryn Finnerty is a studio potter living and working in Pleasant Hill, Oregon. She earned her BFA at the Nova Scotia College of Arts and Design and her MFA from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. Since then, Kathryn has taught at a number of institutions, including the University of Manitoba until 2000. In addition, she spent two years teaching at the Alberta College of Art and Design and was a visiting artist at Ohio State University, Ohio University, and the University of Alaska–Fairbanks. She has shown extensively across the US and Canada. Her work is influenced by majolica tiles and ornamental, architectural majolica of the 1870s and “attempt[s] to understand and interpret these influences in an effort to create a body of work relevant in our contemporary world.”
Lung-Chieh Lin, residing in Taiwan, received his MFA from the Graduate Institute of Applied Arts, Tainan National University of the Arts. He has been a resident artist at the Guldagergaard International Ceramic Research Center in Denmark, and the Escuela de Arte de Talavera de la Reina, Talavera, Spain. In addition, he has received numerous awards, receiving the Silver Prize at the 2nd New Taipei City Ceramic Competition, Taiwan. He writes, “I have extracted images of the artificial objects that I have formed emotional connections with and mixed them with organic beings…with the objective of representing the perceptual experience that the body has with the micro-matters in its
dwelling place.”
Helen Otterson holds an MFA from the University of Miami and a BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute. In addition, she has been an artist-in-residence at numerous institutions including the International Ceramic Studio, Kecskemet, Hungary, and the Association A.I.R Vallauris, Vallauris, France. She is a new assistant professor of Art and Design at Morehead State University, Kentucky. Her work is published in 500 Ceramic Sculptures: Contemporary Practice, Singular Works and 500 Figures in Clay: Ceramic Artists Celebrate the Human Form. Her work is “a hybrid of human cells and plant forms that share the pursuit of survival and beauty of natural form,” and combines clay and glass.
Joseph Pintz earned his BA in anthropology and urban studies at Northwestern University and his MFA from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. He has been a resident artist at the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts, Northern Clay Center, and the Roswell (New Mexico) Artist-in-Residence program. He has received the NCECA Emerging Artist Award as well as the Individual Excellence Award from the Ohio Arts Council. He is currently an assistant professor at the University of Missouri. Pintz’s functional and sculptural ceramic work explores the role that domestic objects play in fulfilling our physical and emotional needs. Inspired by his Midwestern roots, Pintz creates mundane forms based on utilitarian vessels and other implements associated with the hand. In the process, the dense meaning of these objects is transferred into clay.