T.J. Edwards, a second-year graduate student in ceramics at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, has had his work accepted into two national juried exhibitions.
“I was very pleased to hear that my work has been accepted,” Edwards said. “It’s an honor to be included with some of the most outstanding ceramic artists of this time period.”
His work was on display during January in the 5th Annual Beyond the Brickyard in the North Gallery of the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, Mt. The juror was Andrea Gill, Profesor of Ceramic Art at the School of Art and Design at Alfred University and the 2012 Voulkos Visiting Artist Fellow at Archie Bray. This international call for entries exhibition was open to ceramic artists 18 years and older. The internationally acclaimed Archie Bray Foundation’s primary mission is to provide an environment that stimulates create work in ceramics.
His work will also be on display at the 2013 National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) National Student Juried Exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts at the Glassell School of Art in Houston, Texas, Feb. 15-March 23 in conjunction with the NCECA’s national conference March 20-23. The jurors for this exhibition are Florida Atlantic University Instructor Bonnie Seeman and Ceramic Artist Kevin Snipes. The NCECA National Student Juried Exhibition is open to full-time undergraduate, graduate and post-baccalaureate students in the U.S.
Edwards, an accomplished artist and potter, received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in ceramics cum laude from Tennessee Technological University in Cookeville, Tenn.
His other recent 2012 juried exhibitions include “How Much Can We Control? Regional MFA Exhibition” at Clayton Staples Gallery at Wichita State; “Not a Pot: Young Ceramicist Exhibition” at Art Object Gallery in St. Petersburg, Russia; and “Ecumene: Global Interface in American Ceramics” at Visual Arts Gallery at Santa Fe Community College in Santa Fe, N.M.
“Not a Pot” featured young ceramic artists from Europe, Russia and the U.S.A. The works were selected by an independent jury and show various ways for ceramics to be seen as an independent fine art media. The show ran Dec. 5-25, 2012, and Edwards received a Hixson-Lied Student Presentation of Scholarly and Creative Activity Grant to assist him with the cost of packing and shipping his work to Russia.
“I was interested in the title and what they were trying to do in the curation of this exhibition,” Edwards said. “I thought, ‘Yes, I’m showing something that has deliberately denied the utility of objects, but it’s still a pot.’ That’s a really funny contradiction of being included in that show.”
Edwards said his work began as an exploration of what it meant for him to be an object maker in a post-industrial society. Specifically, he works with using utilitarian objects in projects that incorporate the community at large or communal activities, such as eating and drinking. The porcelain components of his work are hand-made, and he uses concrete as a reference to urban culture.
“The work that I have been doing and the ideas I have been generating go about commenting on utilitarian ceramics in different ways,” Edwards said. “The work with the concrete is art that represents. By denying utility, it makes a commentary on ways that our culture is moving away from communal activities. And as action-driven projects, they involve the community and get people involved in communal acts or social intervention.”
He likes the communal aspects of utilitarian ceramics.
“There’s something really special about inviting the users to be collaborators in the process of pottery,” Edwards said. “Once it leaves our hands, we don’t have any control over what they do with it. We can encourage specific types of uses through different forms and different surfaces. If we’re successful, it becomes an object that people want to use on a regular basis. I think that’s really special.”
Edwards took his first ceramics class in high school at the urging of his sister, who took a pottery class.
“She failed, but she loved it. She told me I would love the class, and that the teacher was really fantastic,” Edwards said. “I thought, ‘I don’t know about all that art stuff.’ I don’t know that it fit into who I am. It took me about a week to get on the potter’s wheel, and I’ve been hooked ever since.”
He chose to study ceramics at UNL for three reasons: faculty, funding and facilities.
“The faculty here are top-notch. They’re the best in the field,” Edwards said. “And I think the dialogue I’m having with the faculty here is really helpful in letting me now in what directions I’m being more successful than in other ways.”
He also notes that the MFA in Ceramics was recently ranked #9 in the country in the latest US News and World Report rankings.
“That certainly doesn’t hurt,” he said.
He hopes to someday teach ceramics at the college level.
“I really enjoy the process of teaching and communicating ideas and helping to develop those ideas with young artists,” Edwards said.
He appreciates the historic nature of what he does.
“Ceramics is one of the oldest existing, recordable art forms that there is,” Edwards said. “There’s hundreds and thousands of people before me who have done this, and there are shards and records of that occurring. It’s a humbling experience to be part of that background, and hopefully I’m adding something to the dialogue.”