Bio
Kathy Erteman is a New York based Ceramic Artist and Designer. She was born in Santa Monica, California and received her BFA in Ceramics from California State University Long Beach. After graduation she interned with Judy Chicago, working onThe Dinner Party ceramics.
In 1994 Erteman moved to New York City and now divides her time between the Hudson Valley, and New York City.
A full time studio artist she also designs for companies such as Tiffany and Crate & Barrel. Kathy has taught at Parsons School of Design and been a guest lecturer at The Brooklyn Museum, Bezalel Academy of Art in Jerusalem, and currently teaches at Greenwich House Pottery in New York City.
Periodically she travels to Yunnan, China to work with Tibetan Artisan Potters as a Design Consultant and Cultural Preservation Advocate.
Erteman’s work has been exhibited internationally and is included in private and public collections including Renwick Gallery/Smithsonian Institute, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Taipei Museum of Fine Arts, Icheon World Ceramic Museum, and the SC Johnson Collection.
Artist Statement
There are many ways to approach art making with clay. I adhere to traditional ceramicpractices in making sculptural vessels and works for the wall. The study of early 20th-century architecture and design by international modernists contribute to my attitude about form. European ceramists Gertrude and Otto Natzler, Lucie Rie and Hans Coper were my earliest influences.
The essence of my work is minimal form activated by its surface treatment.
I embrace a modernist aesthetic and employ a reductive approach to formal composition, aiming to eliminate unnecessary details to arrive at an articulate vessel form, one that could work at any scale, and allows for texture and color to become integrated within.
Abstract painting with bold texture and complex color inform my fired surface treatments. Albers rich muted palette, and that of Mark Rothko and works ofvarious contemporary painters find their way into my work.
My relationship with the materials is key as I aim for a balance between restraint and
spontaneity in both form and surface. Emotion and gesture prompted by the natural world quietly find their way into the work during these trying times.
As my craftsmanship skill increases my desire to control the process lessens. Control versus chance currently plays a larger role in my work as I to surrender to the process and allow the clay to speak more freely.
Resume
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2015 Santa Fe Clay, Santa Fe, NM
2013 George Billis Gallery, New York, NY
2013 Cross Mackenzie Gallery, Washington D.C.
2012 Gremillion & Co.Fine Arts, Houston, TX
2010 Cross Mackenzie Gallery, Washington D.C.
2009 Burger Art Galleries, Kean University, Union, NJ
2009 Jane Hartsook Gallery, Greenwich House Pottery, New York, NY
1999 American Craft Museum Window Showcase, New York, NY
1992 Maveete Gallery, Salishan, OR1
1988 Oakland Museum Collectors Gallery, Oakland, CA
1987 Lawrence Gallery, Portland, OR
1987 Craft Alliance, St. Louis, MO
1985 Walter White Fine Arts, Carmel, CA
1983 Gallery 500, Elkins Park, PA
1982 Contemporary Craft Association, Portland, OR
SELECTED INVITATIONAL EXHIBITIONS
2019 Gyeonggi International Korean Ceramic Biennale, Icheon, South Korea
Salon Art and Design, Hostler Burrows Gallery, New York
Four Artists Explore Abstraction, Wired Gallery, High Falls, NY
Summer Ceramics Show, Carter Burden Gallery, NY
2018 New Gallery Artists, Hostler Burrows Gallery, New York, NY
2017 Redux: Transformations 6X6, Clay Art Center, Port Chester, N Y
2016 Confluence/Influence in Contemporary Abstraction, Dorsky Gallery, LIC, NY
Wired Gallery, High Falls, NY
Hot Pots, Clay Art Center, Port Chester, NY
2015 Faculty Exhibition, Greenwich House Pottery, New York, NY
2014 American Pottery Festival, Northern Clay Festival, Minneapolis, MN
2013 In the Cast, Trax Gallery, Berkeley, CA
2012 Celadon Gallery, Watermill, NY
2011 Faculty Exhibition, Greenwich House Pottery, New York, NY
2010 Illuminations, Liebovitz Gallery, Bard College/Simons Rock, MA
Convergence : Pottery from Studio and Factory, Philadelphia Art Alliance, PA
2009 Modernism, Mark MacDonald, NYC
2008 Maxwell Gallery, Peekskill, NY
Made in Clay, Greenwich House Pottery, New York, NY
Dine on Design, Monkeytown, Brooklyn, NY
2007 Ceramic Explorations in Black & White, Ball State University, IN
Plates & Platters Salon Style, The Clay Studio, Philadelphia, PA
Eat with your Eyes, Northern Clay Center, Minneapolis, MN
Bowls Cross - Makenzie Gallery, Bowls, Washington D.C.
2006 Kathy Erteman - Maren Kloppmann, Trax Gallery,Berkeley,Ca
Black & White, Cross-Makenzie Gallery, Washington D.C.
30X5, Akar Gallery, Iowa City, IA
National Ceramics Invitational, Blue SpiralGallery,Asheville,NC
Friends: With a Vision, Weber Fine Arts, Greenwich, CT
2005 Poetry of Pottery, Maryland Federation for the Arts, Baltimore,
Masters in Clay, The Clay Studio, Philadelphia, PA
2004 Power of Pottery Invitational, Dunedin Fine Art Center, FL
2003 Masters in Clay, The Clay Studio, Philadelphia, PA
2002 For the Table, Santa Fe Clay, Santa Fe, NM
2001 International Infusion, Sybaris Gallery, Royal Oak, MI
Objects for Use-Handmade by Design, American Craft Museum, New York
Color and Fire: Defining Moments in Contemporary Ceramics:
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
Ceramic National, Everson Museum, Syracuse, NY
Black and White, Jane Hartsook Gallery, New York,
COLLECTIONS
Icheon World Ceramic Museum, South Korea
Pritzger Family
Surdna Foundation, New York, NY
Taipei Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan Renwick Gallery,
Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.
Los Angeles County Art Museum, LA, Ca
Scottsdale Center for the Arts, Scottsdale, AZ
University of Oregon Museum of Art, Portland, Or
SC Johnson Corporate Collection, WI
Forrest Merrill, California
San Angelo Museum of Art, San Angelo,TX
EDUCATION
California State University, Long Beach, BFA
Undergraduate studies UCLA, Department of Fine Arts
ARTIST RESIDENCIES
Art Ichol International Ceramic Sculpture Residency, Maihar, India,2016
Artist in Residence, Singapore American School, Singapore,2008
Artist in Residence, SUNY New Paltz, New Paltz, NY 2005
Artist in Residence, Adjunct Professor SUNY, New Paltz, NY, 1999
Bezalel Academy of Art, Guest Lecturer, Visiting Artist, Jerusalem, Israel 1989
FELLOWSHIPS,GRANTS & PROFESSIONAL PROJECTS
Senior Design Consultant, Ngawang Choephel Professional Fellows Fulbright
Exchange Program in partnership with Aid to Artisans,Yunnan ,China 2012
Senior Design Consultant, Tibet/US Cultural Exchange Program, Dept. of State, Bureau
of Education and Cultural Affairs & The Mountain Institute Yunnan, China 2010
Design Consultancy with Nixi Potters, Aid to Artisans, Yunnan China 2008
New York Creates Artist Technology Grant, 2006
Ceramic Design Consultancy at Jallpa Nina Studio, Lima, Peru, Aid to Artisans 2000
New York Foundation for the Arts Grant,1999
Ceramics, The Dinner Party, Judy Chicago, Santa Monica, CA 1976-8
PUBLICATIONS
Janet Koplos, What Makes A Potter,Schiffer Publishing 2019, p214
Aid to Artisans, With These Hands, Preserving the Tradition of Nixi Pottery, 2014
Linda O’Keeffe, Stripes: Design Between the Lines, Monacelli Press, 2012, p 147
Luisa Taylor, The Ceramics Bible,Chronicle Books, 2011,p217
Linda O’Keeffe, Brilliant: White in Design,MonacelliPress,2010,
Kevin Hluch, The Art of Contemporary American Pottery, Krause Publications, 2001,
Leon Nigrosh, Sculpting Clay, Davis Publications, 1992, p133
Angela Fina & Chris Gustin, The Best of Pottery, volume 2, quarry Books, 1998, p39
SELECTED REVIEWS & ARTICLES
Dr. Tom Folk, Studio Ceramics at Chelsea Passage Barneys NY 1985-1995
Journal American Art Pottery Association, p16-23, April, 2017
Katrina Burroughs, Ceramics, London Times, April 23, 2017
Leng,Chelsea, The Physical and the Visual, Kathy Erteman, China Ceramics Monthly,2013
Robert Kushner, Kathy Erteman @ George Billis Gallery, Brooklyn Rail, Dec. 8, 2013
Andrew Zollner, The Craft of Design, American Craft digital issue 2013, p55
Kathy Erteman, “Crossing Over”, Studio Potter 2010, volume 38 N 2, p16
Roberta Smith, Modernism+Art20,Park Avenue Armory ,New York Times, Nov.13 2009
Andrea DiNoto,“Not Everything is Black and White”, American Craft, Sept 2009
Claire Harten, Hand Eye Magazine, Fall 2008
“Black Ceramics“, O Magazine, January 2003, p 80
Linda O’Keefe, “Nesting Instinct”, Metropolitan Home, January 2002, p108
Fumiko Nakajima, “Table Revolution”, Spur Magazine, Japan, 2000, p 313
W.G. Kathy Erteman,“Die Asthetic des Gebrauchs”, Neue Keramik, January 1999
Linda O’Keeffe, “Natural Grace”, Metropolitan Home, July 1998, p 10
Patrick Loughran, “Baladé a New York”, Ceramique et du Verre, September 1997, p36
Linda O’Keeffe, “Potted Tales” Elle Décor, April 1994, p42
Kate Rothrock, ”Kathy Erteman”, Ceramics Monthly, November 1993, p38-43
Phil Patton, ”Design”, Esquire, March 1993, p31
Roberta Smith, ”The Shop as the Mirror of a Museum’s Soul”, NY Times, Feb. 5,1993
Suzanne Boettger”, Neon Sculpture at Ana Gardner Gallery”, Artforum, March 1984
“Collecting the Crafts”, American Craft, February 1983
Gerry Williams, “A Survey of Bay Area Potters”, Studio Potter, Volume 13 No1, p25