The Cup: Chris Gustin - South Dartmouth, MA

Chris Gustin Teabowl
porcelain, wheel thrown, altered, wood-fired
(4.25 x 4.5 inches) CUP 080 $250

Statement:
Most of my work is of a much larger scale, with function and utility left behind in order to pursue ideas of sculptural form and abstraction. Yet the desire to make things that function in our daily lives still resonates deeply within me.

Chris Gustin Teabowl
porcelain, wheel thrown, altered, wood-fired
(4 x 4.25 inches) CUP 081 $250

I make tea bowls only a couple of times a year, when I’m getting ready to fire my wood kiln.  Making tea bowls is a way for me to connect with the basics of functional ceramics and to touch the roots of utilitarian clay. What interests me about the form is in its scale and inherent intimacy, in the way our hand interacts with the object, quietly taking in information while we go about our task of drinking our morning coffee or tea. The tea bowl is a small object, but it has the potential to be a universe in and of itself.

Chris Gustin Teabowl
porcelain, wheel thrown, altered, wood-fired
(3.5 x 4.5 inches) CUP 082 $250

Bio:
Chris is a studio artist and was a Professor at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, where he retired in 1998. Chris received his BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute in 1975, and his MFA from Alfred University in 1977.  Chris lives and works in South Dartmouth, Massachusetts.

Chris Gustin Teabowl
porcelain, wheel thrown, altered, wood-fired
(4.5 x 4.75 inches) CUP 083 $250

Chris’ 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, and the Daum Museum of Contemporary Art.

Chris Gustin Teabowl
porcelain, wheel thrown, altered, wood-fired
(4 x 4.75 inches) CUP 084 $250 

With over forty 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 three Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist Fellowships, the most recent in 2009.  Chris is co founder of the Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts in Maine, and currently serves as Vice President on its board.

Website: http://www.gustinceramics.com/

Teapots: An Invitational - Chris Gustin Dartmouth, MA

Chris Gustin Teapot with Dimple $850
porcelain, anagama wood-fired (6" x 9" x 5.5")

 Statement:
When looking over statements from previous years, I came across something I wrote in the mid-1980's that said "I want to get a line to come off of the paper and put it into the air."  In effect, that's what I've been doing for the past twenty five years.  I've been taking a line and exploring how it might be used to define form, edge, transition, shape, and volume, and in turn, how that line might reveal context, analogy or metaphor in an object.  I use the vessel as a vehicle for abstraction.  The skin of the clay holds the invisible interior of the pot.  How I manipulate my forms "around" that air, constraining it, enclosing it, or letting it expand and swell, can allow analogy and metaphor to enter into the work.  I've always been much more intrigued by the cognitive than the rational.  My work explores the visceral, hoping to provoke memory to the viewer, to suggest something that is just on the other side of consciousness.  My forms and surfaces purposely encourage touch, and by inviting the hand to explore the forms as well as the eye, I hope to provoke a connection that goes past the intellectual to the innate.

Bio:
Chris is a studo artist and Emeritus Professor at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, where he taught in the Program in Artisanry since its inception at Boston University.  He received his BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute in 1975, and his MFA from Alfred University in 1977.  Chris' work is published extensively, and is represented in numerous public and private collections, including the Renwick Gallery of the National Museum of American Aart, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, The World Ceramic Exposition Foundation in Icheon, Korea, the Daum Museum of Contemporary Art, the Syracuse Art Museum, the Shigaraki Cultural Park in Japan, the Yingge Ceramics Museum in Taipei, and the Mint Museum of Craft.

With over forty solo exhibitions, he has exhibited, lectured and taught workshops in the United States, Caribbean, Europe and Asia.  He has recieved two National Endowment for the Arts Artist Fellowships and two Massachusetts Crafts Fellowships, the most recent in 2005.  Chris is the cofounder of the Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts in Maine, and currently serves on its board.  Chris is represented by Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art in Kansas City, the Snyderman-Works Gallery in Philadelphia, and the Sherrie Gallerie in Columbus, Ohio.