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:

Ting-Ju Shao

Born: 1963, Taiwan, Taipei

Ceramicist. Shao became an apprentice at the Tien Mu ceramic studio in 1985, She studied English at Christ’s College in Guandu, Taipei County before setting up her studio in 1989 and working as a freelance illustrator, having designed and illustrated 46 notebooks since 1991 for a local publishing company. Shao worked as a cartoonist and columnist for the China Times in Taiwan, where she still writes for Ceramic Arts magazine.

She has won many awards for her ceramic work including first place at the 6th ROC Ceramics Biennial in 1996, and the McKnight Residence Award at the Northern Clay Centre, Minneapolis in 2004. Shao makes small-scale monumental figures with oversized limbs, reminiscent of the Polish artist Josef Herman’s miners in Ystradgynlais, Powys, Wales.

Her figures are always barefoot and dressed in simple robes, and even though their tiny faces are featureless, she manages to create facial expression with one simple pinch of the clay. Her solo exhibitions often feature multiple characters performing balancing acts like a circus troupe, which she sees as explorations of human relationships.

Objects in the collections associated with this artist/maker

The Harmonies in Nature are between Heaven and our Joy of Mind (series) C1598 Ceramics




 
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