MARK SHAPIRO I Massachusetts

The town is sacked. Silver and gold, even bronze, are beaten into crude billets to be hauled off and melted. Houses burned; prisoners taken, or not. And in the wreckage: bones, stones, and pot shards.

Clay’s low material intrinsic value and fragility, ironically, make it endure as one of the most compelling records of the human touch on the earth. The bottom of the ovoid jug is marked by the potter’s two-hundred-year-old fingerprints, just as the earth’s strata are uniquely marked in clay fragments by all the peoples who struggled here to endure.

Where will my pots end up? In the landfills with the lawnmowers and TVs and silicon chips—the giant middens of our insatiable desires? No matter. I am glad just to leave a record of my own touch in this most receptive fragile and enduring material.

EDUCATION

1989 Penland School, studio assistant, Michael Simon
1987 Penland School, studio assistant, Mary Roehm
1978 Amherst College, BA in Anthropology

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

2004 “Mark Shapiro, Matt Metz, Mara Superior” Ferrin Gallery, New York Ceramics Fair,
National Academy of Design, New York NY
“Old Worlds/New Worlds”(curator) Lacoste Gallery, Concord MA
“Functional Ceramics” Wooster Craft Center, Wooster OH
“Mark Shapiro” AKAR Gallery, Iowa City IA
“The Loving Cup” Baltimore Clayworks, Baltimore MD
“Recent Work” Lacoste Gallery, Concord MA

2003 “Great Pots” Newark Museum of Art, Newark NJ
“New York Ceramics Fair” Ferrin Gallery, National Academy of Design, New York, NY
“Container/Content” Fuller Museum of Art, Brockton MA
“Potting, Planting, Pruning” Wustum Museum, Racine, WI
“Asian Influences” White Lotus Gallery, Eugene, OR
“Mark Shapiro” (Featured Artist) The Clay Studio, Philadelphia, PA
“Functional Pottery” Santa Fe Clay, Santa Fe, NM
“Salon Exhibition” Lacoste Gallery, Concord, MA
“Influences: Michael Simon: Michael Kline, Mark Shapiro, & Sam Taylor” Earth & Fire
Gallery, Vienna VA

2002 “Pots Presented” Baltimore Clay Works, Baltimore, MD
“New York Ceramics Fair” Ferrin Gallery at the National Academy of Design, New
York, NY
“Mark Shapiro and Mara Superior” Ferrin Gallery, Lenox, MA
“Newbury Street Window” Society of Arts and Crafts, Boston, MA
“Studio Potters” Ferrin Gallery, SOFA Chicago, Chicago, IL

2001 “Clay USA” Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian Museum, Washington, DC
“Objects for Use: Hand Made by Design” American Craft Museum, New York, NY
“Mark Shapiro” Lacoste Gallery, Concord, MA
“25 Select 25” Lill Street Gallery, Chicago, IL
“Salt & Ash” Santa Fe Clay, Santa Fe, NM
“Twenty-Two Ways of Clay” Meadows Gallery, University of Texas at Tyler, Tyler, TX

2000 “Beyond the Body: Architectural Ceramics” Lacoste Gallery, Concord MA (curator)
“Clay / Wood / Fire / Salt” Folk Art Center, Asheville, NC
“The Poetics of Austerity” WDO Gallery, Charlotte, NC
“Pots for Daily Life,” Show of Hands Gallery, Denver CO
“SOFA Chicago” Ferrin Gallery, “Teapots Transformed,” Chicago IL
“Smithsonian Museum Craft Show” Washington DC
“Twenty Stokers” Blue Heron Gallery, Deer Isle ME
“Woodfire 2000” Lill Street Gallery, Chicago IL

1999 “Born of the Ashes” The Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock Arkansas
“Tender Edges: Mark Shapiro & Silvie Granatelli” WDO Gallery, Charlotte NC
“Karen Karnes and Friends” Vermont Center for Crafts, Waterbury, VT
“Surface, Form & Fire: Paul Dresang, Mark Shapiro & Michael Simon”
Ferrin Gallery, MA
“International Woodfire Exhibition” (Janet Mansfield, Jun Kaneko, Torbjorn Kvasbo,
jurors) Iowa City IA
“Clay Today” Islip Art Museum, Islip NY
“A Fiery Influence” (Cynthia Bringle) Folk Art Center, Asheville NC

1998 “Strictly Functional Pottery National” Market House Craft Center, Ephrata PA
“Intimate Influences” (with Sam Taylor & Michael Kline) Craft Alliance Gallery,
St. Louis MO
“A Collector's Invitational: Wood-fired Pottery” Ferrin Gallery, Northampton MA

1997 “Functional Work, American Potters” Arvada Center for the Arts & Humanities,
Arvada CO
“Pottery Exhibition II” Joanne Rapp Gallery, Scottsdale AZ
“Pots ‘97” Chester Springs Studio, Chester Springs PA

1996 “Mark Shapiro” Ferrin Gallery, Northampton MA
“Mark Shapiro: Wood-fired Pottery” WDO Gallery, Charlotte NC
“Wood, Fire, Salt” Contemporary Artifacts Gallery, Berea KY
“In the Stoneware Tradition” (co-curator) Ferrin Gallery, Northampton MA

1995 “Third Annual Teapot Show” Craft Alliance, St. Louis MO (curated by Dan Anderson)
“Mark Shapiro: Wood-fired Tableware” Restaurant Tokyo, New York NY
“Studio Japan Annual Open House” Kingston NJ
“Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show” Philadelphia PA

1994 “Teapot Show” Lill Street Gallery, Chicago IL
“Home and Garden” Pewabic Pottery at the Ford Estate, Grosse Pointe IL
“Invitational Pottery Show” Old Church Cultural Center, Demerest NJ
(curated by K. Karnes)
“Smithsonian Craft Show” Washington DC

1993 “NCECA Clay National” San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego CA

1992 “Wood-fired Ceramics” Ferrin Gallery, Northampton MA (curated by Karen Karnes)
“Nine Massachusetts Potters” Fitchburg Museum of Art, Fitchburg MA

1991 “American Woodfire ‘91” University of Iowa Museum of Art, Iowa City IA

SELECTED TEACHING

2003 Featured demonstrator, Mid Atlantic Clay Conference, Font Royal, Va; Lecture and Demonstration, Newark Museum of Art, Newark NJ; Workshop, Penland School (With Ellen Denker co-instructor); Demonstration, Massachusetts College of Art

2002 “Early American Stoneware and the Present,”lecture, New York Ceramics Fair, National Academy of Design, New York, NY

2001 “Early American Stoneware Traditions” panel moderator with Charles Zug and John Burrison panelists, NCECA Charlotte NC

2000 “Teapots Transformed: Points of View,” SOFA Chicago (at Lill St); Wesleyan Potters, Middletown CT

1999 Workshops at Castle Hill, Truro MA; Worcester Center for Crafts, Worcester MA

1998 “Putting on Wares: Pottery, Privilege & Folk Traditions,” lecture, Amherst College, MA

1997 Workshops at Haystack School, Deer Isle ME; 92nd Street Y, New York NY;

1996 Fall Concentration, Penland School, North Carolina; Workshop, Mudflat, Somerville MA

AWARDS

2000 Strictly Functional (Ken Ferguson, juror)

1998 Strictly Functional (Cynthia Bringle, juror)

1997 Finalist, New England Foundation for the Arts

1996 New Faces / New Work, Crafts at the Castle, Boston MA

1995 Emerging Talent, National Council for Education of the Ceramic Arts

PUBLICATIONS

2004 Braham, Jeanne. Made By Hand: Art and Craft in the Heartland of New England. Commonwealth Editions.

2003 Dietz, Ulysses G. Great Pots: Contemporary Ceramics from Function to Fantasy. Guild Publishing.
“Mark Shapiro” cover story, Ceramics Monthly, September 2003.
“Mid-Atlantic Clay Conference,” Clay Times, November/December 2003
The Penland Book of Ceramics: Master Classes in Ceramic Techniques. Lark Books.
Rogers, Phil. Salt-Glazed Ceramics.

2002 “Old Church Cultural Center, 28th Show” Ceramics Monthly, December 2002
“Mark Shapiro,” cover story, Fine Art Ceramics, February 2002

2001 Smith, Paul J. Objects for Use: Handmade by Design. American Craft Museum.

2000 Ferrin, Leslie. Teapots Transformed: Exploration of an Object. Guild Publishing.

PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

Mint Museum, Charlotte NC; Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC; Wustum Museum, Racine WI; International Museum of Ceramic Art, Alfred, NY; Newark Museum, Newark, NJ