Studio Sessions
Oops!… I did it again
with Nicole Seisler
September 2022
About the Studio Session
That’s right, we’re not that innocent. We over-fire, under-fire, or never fire a kiln; we encourage clay to crack, warp, flop, shrink, melt, and succumb to gravity; ceramic is hammered, dropped, thrown, smashed, and exploded into the tiniest of pieces; clay is painted, glued, dissolved, woven, sewn, slipped, sucked, soaked, stacked, so and so, and such and such. In ceramics, there are many right ways to do the wrong things.
This Studio Session questions the idea and definition of a ‘mistake’ by opposing traditional tactics and embracing rule-breaking. Participants will discuss and materially explore the conceptual relevance of all states and bodies of clay, digital alternatives to the kiln, fragmentation and fortitude, and foundational actions as abstract metaphors instead of skill sets.
About the Lead Artist
Nicole Seisler creates dialogue and perspectives around ceramics that exist in the same conditions as the material: malleable, shifting, adaptable, and enduring; existing within, between, and beyond conventional definitions.
Three interdependent, mutually-reinforcing areas comprise Nicole’s practice: making, educating, and curating. This tripod enables each aspect to support the others, thereby creating a platform for her broader, pluralistic vision for ceramics as a conceptual field.
Nicole received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) and her BFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. She has exhibited her work at museums ranging from the Museum of Fine Arts Boston and the Museum of Fine Arts Tallahassee to the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago and Craft Contemporary in Los Angeles. Her work was recently featured in a solo exhibition at the American Museum of Ceramic Art in Pomona, CA, and the two-person exhibition In Hand: Contemporary Material Engagements with the Built World at the Kennedy Museum at Ohio University.
Nicole has taught ceramics for almost fifteen years at as many universities — from SAIC and the University of Washington, to Scripps College and UCLA — and she is currently Assistant Professor and Head of Ceramics at Lewis & Clark College.
As Founder and Director of the contemporary ceramics platform A-B Projects, Nicole has curated forty exhibitions and offers alternative educational programming that reevaluates and redefines the trajectory of contemporary ceramics.
Logistics
This session took place in September 2022.