Mitch Iburg

Mitch Iburg wanted to examine Minnesota’s mineral resources. He has produced a new and exciting body of work that reexamines the role of natural materials in the field of ceramic art, particularly within the genre of ‘place-based’ making. He has been wanting to pursue this work for quite some time, and he acknowledges that the project could not have been initiated without assistance from the Jerome Ceramic Artist Project Grant. By abandoning the requirements of vessels and traditional making techniques, he anticipates that his new sculptural work may help reshape his perspective and place a greater emphasis on non-traditional materials — stones, sands, aggregates, and sediments. His intention for the project has been to focus on several unique geological resources and settings that occur throughout the state of Minnesota. He has stated of his practice, “Collectively, I view each body of work as a specific resolution to the tensions between artistic intent and the intrinsic properties of wild, harvested materials.”