Iowa Clay Conference | Eastern Iowa Educators
Group Exhibition | Second Floor Gallery
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Exhibit Info
August 5 - October 26, 2024
Eastern Iowa Educators
Inspired by the national call on the main floor, this exhibition invited three distinguished instructors in the surrounding area outside of Cedar Rapids. The invitation’s aim was to highlight the caliber of artist-educator and introduce, to some, their oeuvre. On display are artworks by Troy Aiken (Dubuque, Clarke University), Heidi McKay Casto (Iowa City, University of Iowa), and Jim Shrosbree (Fairfield, Maharishi International University). Each is nationally and internationally recognized and have won numerous awards and other prominent accolades.
Vessels are the form focus: bottles, jars, containers, and bowls. While some of the objects selected are “utilitarian”, the lines are blurred between traditional intentions and contemporary aesthetics. The practical form, held by centuries of varied cultures, is merely a courier for each artists’ particular sensibilities and transcends their functionality without dismissing it.
Eastern Iowa Educators
Inspired by the national call on the main floor, this exhibition invited three distinguished instructors in the surrounding area outside of Cedar Rapids. The invitation’s aim was to highlight the caliber of artist-educator and introduce, to some, their oeuvre. On display are artworks by Troy Aiken (Dubuque, Clarke University), Heidi McKay Casto (Iowa City, University of Iowa), and Jim Shrosbree (Fairfield, Maharishi International University). Each is nationally and internationally recognized and have won numerous awards and other prominent accolades.
Vessels are the form focus: bottles, jars, containers, and bowls. While some of the objects selected are “utilitarian”, the lines are blurred between traditional intentions and contemporary aesthetics. The practical form, held by centuries of varied cultures, is merely a courier for each artists’ particular sensibilities and transcends their functionality without dismissing it.
About the Artists
Troy Aiken
Artist Statement
When constructing my previous bodies of work, I was predominantly seeking to investigate my research interests within the history of mass production and mold making within the field of ceramics. It was my attempt to break traditional means of constructing, which allowed me to satisfy my curiosities with conflating the meaning, function, and decorative nature of these individual ceramic objects that were reproduced multiple times from molds. Replicating these objects from a range of histories in a contemporary setting allowed them to metaphorically live “in the now” thereby becoming current. The clay articles that were taken from these molds came together as a single form, which existed on a plane where nonsense and meaningfulness were both represented. I chose to reflect on the previous work in terms of artifacts and or remnants of contemporary cultures left behind as they turned into amorphous objects existing through time, only to be unearthed one day in a possible dystopian future.
The vessel-like structures that were formed became either more enhanced or dilapidated through simulation with multiple glaze applications as surfaces begin to either lose or gain information and represent ideas of burial, excavation, decay and chemical processes that occur within a landfill. This new body of work is a departure from some of these previous interests and methods of working. I have begun to shift my focus more towards research into practices of acceptable common social structures and the impact of social influence on society today. These current vessel structures act as personifications of human beings representing some of the change, hardship, trauma and perseverance that people experience on a day-to-day basis. The structures are meant to serve as a commentary on narratives and first-hand experiences that have been gathered from multiple sources within the last couple of years that touch on Ideas such as body image and enhancement, self-esteem issues, fragility and collective anxiety in the wake of a global pandemic. This experimental way of building allows me more freedom to explore and continue to contribute as well as push the boundaries of the contemporary ceramic visual language that the work embodies.
Artist Biography
Troy Aiken grew up in Los Angeles California and spent his youth fascinated by the vast amount of culture and art constantly surrounding him. Early on he decided to work with ceramics as a medium and was drawn to the malleability of clay and the broad range of personal expression that could be achieved with the material. In 2012 he earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Ceramics from California State University Long Beach and was later accepted into the graduate program at the University of Notre Dame to complete his Master of Fine Arts in Ceramics in 2016. Troy currently lives in Dubuque, Iowa where he teaches ceramics and sculpture at Clarke University. He continues to exhibit nationally as well as internationally. Previous exhibitions include: TAG Gallery Los Angeles, Gallery Aqui Sam Bien Vallauris France, Royal West of England Academy in Bristol, Craft Alliance St. Louis, Art St. Louis Gallery, The Archie Bray Foundation, Iowa Ceramic Center, The Clay Center of New Orleans, Snite Museum of Art in Indiana, St. Louis Community College Forest Park and California State University Long Beach.
Artist Statement
When constructing my previous bodies of work, I was predominantly seeking to investigate my research interests within the history of mass production and mold making within the field of ceramics. It was my attempt to break traditional means of constructing, which allowed me to satisfy my curiosities with conflating the meaning, function, and decorative nature of these individual ceramic objects that were reproduced multiple times from molds. Replicating these objects from a range of histories in a contemporary setting allowed them to metaphorically live “in the now” thereby becoming current. The clay articles that were taken from these molds came together as a single form, which existed on a plane where nonsense and meaningfulness were both represented. I chose to reflect on the previous work in terms of artifacts and or remnants of contemporary cultures left behind as they turned into amorphous objects existing through time, only to be unearthed one day in a possible dystopian future.
The vessel-like structures that were formed became either more enhanced or dilapidated through simulation with multiple glaze applications as surfaces begin to either lose or gain information and represent ideas of burial, excavation, decay and chemical processes that occur within a landfill. This new body of work is a departure from some of these previous interests and methods of working. I have begun to shift my focus more towards research into practices of acceptable common social structures and the impact of social influence on society today. These current vessel structures act as personifications of human beings representing some of the change, hardship, trauma and perseverance that people experience on a day-to-day basis. The structures are meant to serve as a commentary on narratives and first-hand experiences that have been gathered from multiple sources within the last couple of years that touch on Ideas such as body image and enhancement, self-esteem issues, fragility and collective anxiety in the wake of a global pandemic. This experimental way of building allows me more freedom to explore and continue to contribute as well as push the boundaries of the contemporary ceramic visual language that the work embodies.
Artist Biography
Troy Aiken grew up in Los Angeles California and spent his youth fascinated by the vast amount of culture and art constantly surrounding him. Early on he decided to work with ceramics as a medium and was drawn to the malleability of clay and the broad range of personal expression that could be achieved with the material. In 2012 he earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Ceramics from California State University Long Beach and was later accepted into the graduate program at the University of Notre Dame to complete his Master of Fine Arts in Ceramics in 2016. Troy currently lives in Dubuque, Iowa where he teaches ceramics and sculpture at Clarke University. He continues to exhibit nationally as well as internationally. Previous exhibitions include: TAG Gallery Los Angeles, Gallery Aqui Sam Bien Vallauris France, Royal West of England Academy in Bristol, Craft Alliance St. Louis, Art St. Louis Gallery, The Archie Bray Foundation, Iowa Ceramic Center, The Clay Center of New Orleans, Snite Museum of Art in Indiana, St. Louis Community College Forest Park and California State University Long Beach.
Heidi McKay Casto
Artist Statement
Our reality is a connected web of our perceptions, beliefs, relationships, and surroundings. These endless moments inform and shape our human experience with myriad complexity. I am often struck in my work depicting animals that their lives feel conversely present, acute, and directed in their instinctual behaviors and subsistence. I wonder about my root instincts as a result; what I might make, do, and see, without the world pushing in with pressure, judgement, and expectation. This work intends to make space for such internal dialogues, and to hold you emotionally, while you hold it physically. I hope it brings joy to everyday experience, and a story to the surface of objects of comfort and utility. The goal is a synchronistic exchange of connection, in which care and beauty are more present in daily life, and where complex human emotions might be made more discernible through light-hearted depictions of anthropomorphized animal subjects.
Artist Biography
Heidi McKay Casto lives in Iowa City, Iowa, where she is a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Iowa. Casto earned a BFA degree in Ceramics from The Ohio State University, and MA and MFA degrees from The University of Iowa. As Heidi McKay Designs, she creates objects at the nexus of function and sculpture adorned with playful design elements, anthropomorphic animal portraits, and vibrant colors. Casto’s work has been featured in over fifty group exhibitions. She has been a featured artist with ArtAxis.org, was selected for two purchase prizes in the 2022 Strictly Functional Pottery National, and was named a 2022 Ceramics Monthly Magazine Emerging Artist. Casto was recognized as an Emerging Artist at the 2023 National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts Conference (NCECA).
Artist Statement
Our reality is a connected web of our perceptions, beliefs, relationships, and surroundings. These endless moments inform and shape our human experience with myriad complexity. I am often struck in my work depicting animals that their lives feel conversely present, acute, and directed in their instinctual behaviors and subsistence. I wonder about my root instincts as a result; what I might make, do, and see, without the world pushing in with pressure, judgement, and expectation. This work intends to make space for such internal dialogues, and to hold you emotionally, while you hold it physically. I hope it brings joy to everyday experience, and a story to the surface of objects of comfort and utility. The goal is a synchronistic exchange of connection, in which care and beauty are more present in daily life, and where complex human emotions might be made more discernible through light-hearted depictions of anthropomorphized animal subjects.
Artist Biography
Heidi McKay Casto lives in Iowa City, Iowa, where she is a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Iowa. Casto earned a BFA degree in Ceramics from The Ohio State University, and MA and MFA degrees from The University of Iowa. As Heidi McKay Designs, she creates objects at the nexus of function and sculpture adorned with playful design elements, anthropomorphic animal portraits, and vibrant colors. Casto’s work has been featured in over fifty group exhibitions. She has been a featured artist with ArtAxis.org, was selected for two purchase prizes in the 2022 Strictly Functional Pottery National, and was named a 2022 Ceramics Monthly Magazine Emerging Artist. Casto was recognized as an Emerging Artist at the 2023 National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts Conference (NCECA).
Jim Shrosbree
Artist Statement
Between what is known and not known is the wakefulness of the present, without past or future. This abstract nature of reality is not really about doing or what has been done and becomes artifact, but what is. Ultimately it is a connectedness that plays the role of 'life spark', always unspent, continuously potent, before and after every moment. It is the seed of imagination. Making art opens the door to this area. Opening that door is my reason for creating anything. Attempting that means I have first been there, consciously or unconsciously. One comes to the process with a certain capacity for experience. Being curious about the world involves, essentially, an investigation into the nature of the self and the structure of what one is made of: energy, pattern, intelligence and connection to origin. Curiosity is a gift that is fulfilled through the ability to listen. Listening to the quietest messages focuses the attention at the moment a "thing" is manifested. That involves timing. Timing is rhythm and without it we are lost. Utilizing time is dancing with time and not being consumed by it. The perfection of that moment can yield the emergence of a new reality. There is sheer joy in the authenticity of it. Owning more of that connectedness throughout the process of creating is reason enough to continue.
Artist Biography
Jim Shrosbree’s work has been exhibited widely in the United States. Public collections with his work include the Detroit Institute of Art, Los Angeles County Museum, Edythe and Ely Broad Museum, Des Moines Art Center, University of Iowa Museum of Art, Mint Museum, and Daum Museum of Contemporary Art. Shrosbree has been a visiting artist at numerous universities and art institutions including Cranbrook Academy of Art, NYU, UC-Davis, Bard College, University of Washington, University of Minnesota, Penn State University, Alberta University of the Arts, Drake University and the University of Iowa. He has received residency fellowships from Yaddo, MacDowell and Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts. Awards include a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant, the National Endowment for the Arts (Midwest Fellowship) among others. Jim Shrosbree received an MFA in Ceramics from the University of Montana, Missoula. He is Professor of Art at Maharishi International University, Fairfield, Iowa where he lives and works.
Artist Statement
Between what is known and not known is the wakefulness of the present, without past or future. This abstract nature of reality is not really about doing or what has been done and becomes artifact, but what is. Ultimately it is a connectedness that plays the role of 'life spark', always unspent, continuously potent, before and after every moment. It is the seed of imagination. Making art opens the door to this area. Opening that door is my reason for creating anything. Attempting that means I have first been there, consciously or unconsciously. One comes to the process with a certain capacity for experience. Being curious about the world involves, essentially, an investigation into the nature of the self and the structure of what one is made of: energy, pattern, intelligence and connection to origin. Curiosity is a gift that is fulfilled through the ability to listen. Listening to the quietest messages focuses the attention at the moment a "thing" is manifested. That involves timing. Timing is rhythm and without it we are lost. Utilizing time is dancing with time and not being consumed by it. The perfection of that moment can yield the emergence of a new reality. There is sheer joy in the authenticity of it. Owning more of that connectedness throughout the process of creating is reason enough to continue.
Artist Biography
Jim Shrosbree’s work has been exhibited widely in the United States. Public collections with his work include the Detroit Institute of Art, Los Angeles County Museum, Edythe and Ely Broad Museum, Des Moines Art Center, University of Iowa Museum of Art, Mint Museum, and Daum Museum of Contemporary Art. Shrosbree has been a visiting artist at numerous universities and art institutions including Cranbrook Academy of Art, NYU, UC-Davis, Bard College, University of Washington, University of Minnesota, Penn State University, Alberta University of the Arts, Drake University and the University of Iowa. He has received residency fellowships from Yaddo, MacDowell and Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts. Awards include a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant, the National Endowment for the Arts (Midwest Fellowship) among others. Jim Shrosbree received an MFA in Ceramics from the University of Montana, Missoula. He is Professor of Art at Maharishi International University, Fairfield, Iowa where he lives and works.
Exhibit IMAGES
Video/Catalogue
Catalogues
Eastern Iowa Educators
Paperback $34 |
River 2 River
Paperback $34 |
