Teapots: An Invitational - Matt Wilt Edwardsville, IL

Matt Wilt Server $1200
stoneware, concrete, steel (12.5" x 14" x 11")

Statement:
In recent years my work has become less vessel-oriented, though research into historical ceramics has continued to feed my ideas.  Often my forms will seem to suggest a specific function or use, but the use is ambiguous; a hybrid on the known worked with a less concrete reality.  This newer work also draws from a catalogue of forms that are suggestive in nature.  In Philip Rawson's book Ceramics, he refers to memory traces, and the power of forms to evoke thoughts and memories.  This is similar to the way we associate colors with emotional states or meanings.  By incorporating forms that are symbolic and suggestive, I attempt to engage the viewer in a process of decoding.

Bio:
Matt Wilt is currently Associate Professor of Art at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.  He received his Bachelor's degree in Ceramics and Art Education at Pennsylvania State University and his Master of Fine Arts degree at Ohio University, Athens.  Wilt worked for two years at Boston Valley Terra Cotta, an architectural terra cotta restoration firm in Buffalo, New York, where he began to work more extensively with plaster molds and imitative glaze surfaces.  He also traveled extensively in Nepal and Thailand prior to pursuing graduate study.

Wilt has been the recipient of numerous awards.  He has received two Pennsylvania Council on the Arts grants, an Illinois Arts Council Fellowship, as well as the Evelyn Shapiro Foundation Fellowship through The Clay Studio in Philadelphia.  he has been active s a Visiting Artist at schools such as Syracuse University, Tyler School of Art, Indiana University and Herron School of Art.