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SUSANNE STEPHENSON I
MICHIGAN
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"For the past several years the focus of my work in ceramics has been abstracting landscapes in low fire terra cotta clay. The brilliant range of ceramic pigments at this temperature in thick, juicy slips and engobes continues to hold my interest.
The images I deal with in the covered box forms are fragmented and abstract. The seascape becomes condensed as I try to express a very large image concept in the relatively small space of the pottery form. I am committed to expressing the visual energy that I see in nature at a particular time of day.
The impact of the material clay on my ideas is important because of its plastic and tactile qualities. It helps me pull out the physical and gestural possibilities in my work. To get the full implications of gesture there is a need for three-dimensionality. The energy expressed in the flow of water in nature is an example of gesture. To contain this idea of the landscape in the bowl or vase requires an understanding of gesture. Personally it seems irrelevant to me to pursue the gestural with paint on canvas. For me the canvas is rigid and confining. I am not interested in creating an illusion of space. The clay form for me is a gesture, which carries color of the thickly applied slips. This is the means of my expression."

EDUCATION
1957 B.F.A. Carnegie Mellon University
1960 M.F.A. Cranbrook Academy of Art

TEACHING
1963 - 1991: Professor of Art, Eastern Michigan University, ‘91 Emeritus status
1960 University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI

SOLO
2002 Landscape Gestures, Bethel College, St. Paul, Minnesota, USA

EXHIBITIONS
* Catalogue, + Traveling, # Awards
1998 REVOLUTION, Ferndale, MI
1991 Schneider-Bluhm-Loeb Gallery, Chicago, IL, also ’86, ‘88
Swidler Gallery, Royal Oak, MI
1990 Garth Clark Gallery, New York, NY, also ‘86

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2003
Duo show, with Marie Woo, Pewabic Pottery, Detroit MI
GROUP 21st Century Ceramics, Columbus, Ohio
2002
Sidney Meyer Award Exhibition, Victoria Australia
2001
1st Ceramic Biennale International Competition, Korea
2000
International Invitational, Shiwan and Jingdezhen, PR China
International Academy of Ceramics, KERAMION, Frechen, Germany
1997
Kutani International Ceramics Fair 97, Komatsu City, Japan *
1996
Monarch Ceramic Competition, Center for the Arts, Florence AL *
1995
4th International Ceramics Competition, Mino, Japan *
1994
Fletcher Challenge Award Exhibition, Auckland, NZ *
"Late 20th c. Ceramics Everson,at Taiwan National Museum, Taipei, Taiwan
Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY *
1979
“Century of Ceramics in the U.S.A.,” Everson Museum of Art,
Syracuse, NY * +

RECOGNITIONS
2002
Elected to NCECA “Honor of the Council”
2001
Elected member of International Academy of Ceramics
1992
Honorary Doctor of Arts Awarded, Grand Valley State University, Allendale, MI
1987–88
Regional Visual Arts Fellowship, Midwest-National Endowment for the Arts
1987–88
MI Council for the Arts, Creative Artist Grant

COLLECTIONS
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburg, PA;
Museum of Decorative Arts, Prague, Czech Republic;The Everson Museum, Syracuse, NY;
Victoria and Albert, London, England; The Detroit Institute of Arts, MI; Cranbrook Museum of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI; Mint Museum of Craft and Design, Charlotte, NC; George R. Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art, Toronto, Canada; Foshan/ Nanfeng Museum and San Bao Collection, PR China;

PUBLICATIONS
Clark, Garth, and Margie Hughto. A Century of Ceramics in the United States, 1878 - 1978. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1979.
American Potter. New York: Watson Guptill, 1981
American Ceramics, 1878 to the Present. New York: Abbeville Press, 1987.
Lynn, Martha Drexler. Clay Today: Contemporary Ceramists and Their Work. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1990. Perry, Barbara. American Ceramics: Collection of Everson Museum of Art. New York: Rizzoli, 1989.
Peterson, Susan. The Craft and Art of Clay. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, Inc,1992.
Slowinski, Dolores, Sustained Visions, Detroit, Michigan, Detroit Focus Gallery, 1988.
Zakin, Richard. Ceramics, Mastering the Craft. Radnor, PA; Chilton Book Co, 1994.

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