MAREN KLOPPMANN I MINNESOTA
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My intent is to express the formal simplicity of ceramic vessels by applying a minimalist visual language. The technical processes I am using are to reflect these esthetics. Made from Porcelain, the pieces are shaped through coiling, throwing and hand building with slabs. Working within the palette fo a few terra sigillatas and glazes, the surface of each piece rarely exceeds the juxtaposition of two colors. This limited parameter allows for considerable variation, yet maintains aesthetic restraint. A notion of decoration consists within the repetition of geometric and linear qualities. The interaction between texture and color aims to emphasize horizontal and vertical proportions.

Conceptually I am interested in the space ceramic vessels contain. This includes the interior and the two dimensional space of the surface. Perceiving the ceramic vessel beyond a consideration of function, I intend to extend its utilitarian containment to that of sculptural presence in which the vessel becomes also a container for memory and contemplation.

Born 1962, in Veerssen, Germany, Maren Kloppmann lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where she is a full- time studio artist. Ms. Kloppmann received her Journeyman Diploma from the Keramik Handwerkskammer, Germany (1984), attended the Kansas City Art Institute, Missouri (B.F.A. ceramics 1993), and the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis (M.F.A. ceramics 1996). In 2002 she was the recipient of the McKnight Fellowship for Ceramic Artists and the Minnesota State Arts Board Career Opportunity Grant; in 2001 she was awarded the Minnesota State Arts Board Fellowship and in 1998 the Jerome Artist Project Grant. As adjunct faculty Mrs. Kloppmann taught art history at the University of Wisconsin at River Falls (1999 - 2002) and is currently participating in the M.F.A. mentorship program at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally with solo exhibitions at galerie b15 in Munich, Germany, at Red Star Studios, Kansas City, Missouri, at Akar Architecture and Design, Iowa City, Iowa, and at the Rochester Art Center, Rochester, Minnesota. Her work is in collections at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the Weisman Art Museum
and Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota and the Arkansas Art Center in Little Rock Arkansas. Most recently her work was exhibited in the 2003 McKnight Exhibition at Northern Clay Center and at Galerie Handwerk in Munich, Germany.

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