School of Art

Contact Details

School of Art
Aberystwyth University
Buarth Mawr
Aberystwyth
Ceredigion
SY23 1NG

Tel: +44 (0)1970 622460

Fax: +44 (0)1970 622461

Email: artschool@aber.ac.uk


Display artist/maker:

Jeff Shapiro

Born: 1949, USA, New York, Bronx

He worked and studied as an apprentice potter in Japan from 1973-1980. In 1981 he returned to the USA and built an anagama kiln in Accord, New York. On receiving an unwanted delivery of rubble, stone and sand with the pure clay he had ordered, he proceeded to experiment, realising it was the rougher elements that gave his work character. He now incorporates up to 50% rubble in his clay bodies. Shapiro works with 3 kilns, a Tea bowl kiln is a small downdraft gas/wood fired kiln that is used primarily with glazed surfaces, an anagama kiln which is fired for 7-8 days but takes almost a month in preparation, cooling and unloading, and an experimental tube kiln to achieve higher temperatures than his other kilns. In 2009 he was a demonstrator at the International Ceramics Festival in Aberystwyth.“I am excited each time I find a new direction to experiment with. As the work progresses, I become more concerned with the overall context and my own personal challenge of trying to know who I am in the context of having studied in Japan but being an American living and working here; to look at my own work as critically and objectively as possible.”

Objects in the collections associated with this artist/maker

[Vessel] C1618 Ceramics




 
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