View Ian F. Thomas’ works featured on Ceramics Now Magazine
→ Read the interview with Ian F. Thomas, Ceramic Installation – October 2011
“I have been making art objects for most of my life and I have found that I have a greater understanding of my work after making it. There is a mystery to things that people make. I choose the process of art-making as a medium to pose questions about my relationships with (art) objects, people and myself. Each time I start a work, regardless of the known impetus, the content of the work changes into something I didn’t previously know. I have been enjoying this unpredictability, lending my creative process to my intuition.
In the spectrum of communication I find making objects to be an efficient vehicle. I find myself engaged with object making in a similar way a writer is engaged with text. For me, objects and their relationship with their surroundings manifest into a language in itself. As in the installation “Weather Underground” I was interested in the site-specificity of the space I was working in, which used to be a classroom. Working in an intuitive mode without an intended outcome, I knew the materials I wanted to use and allowed the piece to develop through me. It was not until later that I came to the realization that the work was about me revisiting my own experiences of academia. I have considered my work to be a window into my subconscious. After completing this work, it allowed me to question the original idea, the process of making it and the actual outcome, and through the work I am able to gain a better understand of its possible meaning and message. The practice of art is now a renewed engagement with my personal history. The visceral understanding that it grants my senses is as pleasurable as the beauty of the produced object. It is not my intent for the view to grasp these specific notions but to come to the work with their personal histories and to derive a visceral understanding through their senses.” Ian F. Thomas
→ Ian Thomas will also be featured in the first printed issue of Ceramics Now Magazine.
Ian F. Thomas’ C.V. (resume) – View his works
EDUCATION
2006-2003 – MFA Texas Tech University, Lubbock Texas
Primary area: Ceramics, secondary area: Sculpture
1999-1995 – BFA Slippery Rock University, Slippery Rock
Pennsylvania Primary area: Ceramics, secondary area: Painting
1997 – Academy of Fine Arts, Bratislava, Slovakia
International Exchange Program
Areas of Study: Traditional Figurative Sculpture, Drawing and contemporary Ceramics
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
2007 – Ceramics Instructor, Carnegie Museum of Fine Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
ASSISTANTSHIP
1999 – Edward Eberle, Internationally acclaimed Ceramist
PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
2007 – Guest Lecturer, Jingdezhen Ceramic Institution, Jingdezhen, China
2007 – Guest Lecturer, The Pottery Workshop, Jingdezhen, China
2007 – Workshop, Huston Baptist University, Two-day workshop on fast large form construction and image transfer techniques, Houston, Texas
PUBLICATIONS
2007 – “500 Tile”, Due out spring 2008
Lark Books, Almont Press, Asheville, North Carolina
2007 – Art Reviews: Clay Place, Guild shows mark milestones, Wednesday, November 15, 2006
By Mary Thomas, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
2006 – “Image Transfer on Clay”, Author, Paul A. Wandless
Lark Books, Almont Press, Asheville, North Carolina – Pages, 63, 65, 66, 72
2006 – “500 Animals”, Juror, Joe Bova,
Lark Books, Almont Press, Asheville, North Carolina – Page, 98
2006 – “500 Pitchers”, Juror, Terry Guess,
Lark Books, Almont Press, Asheville, North Carolina – Pages, 201, 354
2004 – “Simple Screen-printing”, Author Annie Stromquist,
Lark Books, Almont Press, Asheville, North Carolina – Page, 121
RESIDENCY
2007 Summer – The Pottery Workshop, Jingdezhen, China – Six Weeks
EXHIBITIONS
2008 – After China: The Poitics of Fabrication, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
2008 – Table of Elements, Manchester Craftsman’s Guild, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
2008 – Clay & Print 2008, AIR, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
2007 – Ggallery Clay Invitational, GGallery, Houston, Texas
2007 – Back Again, The Clay Penn, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
2007 – Sculpture Group Show, Glassworks Gallery, Louisville, Kentucky
2007 – Potters for Peace Water Filter Receptacle Show, The Actor Theater, Louisville, Kentucky
2007 – Faculty Show, Carnegie Museum of Fine Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
2006 – 40 Under 40, Clay Place Gallery, Clay Place, Carnegie, Pennsylvania
2006 – WAD Clay Institute Annual, WAD Clay Institute, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
2006 – Eggtonia, Lazy Arrogance, MFA Exhibition, Art Depot Alt. Gallery, Lubbock, Texas
2006 – Response, Twenty person collaborative show, Art Depot Galley, Lubbock, Texas
2006 – Skin Deep National Juried Exhibition Francis Marion University, Florence, South Carolina, Val Cushing, Honorable Mention
2005 – Art of Fine Craft National Juried Exhibition, Wesleyan University, Lincoln, Nebraska, Glen Brown
2005 – Ology, Two person collaborative show, Buddy Holly Center, Lubbock, Texas
2005 – Earth, Wheel, and Fire, International Museum of Art and Science, Juried, McAllen, Texas
Visit the Ian F. Thomas’ website or his profile on artaxis.org.
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