PETER CHRISTIAN JOHNSON

PETERCHRISTIANJOHNSON.COM

CV

American
lives and works in Kent, OH

Peter Christian Johnson is currently Associate Professor of Art at Kent State University after serving more than decade as the head of the ceramics department at Eastern Oregon University. He earned his MFA from Pennsylvania State University and a BS in Environmental Science at Wheaton College. He has received the Oregon Arts Commission’s Individual Artist Fellowship, the Ohio Arts Council’s Individual Artist Excellence Award, and was a Matsutani Fellow at the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts.  He was awarded first place in the 2018 Zanesville Prize for Contemporary Ceramics and was recently part of the 61st Fienza Prize in Italy. He has presented multiple times at the Gyeonggi International Ceramic Biennale along with exhibitions in Canada, Australia, China, Italy, Korea, and throughout the United States. His work has been published in numerous publications including the recent French book titled Ceramique; 90 Artistes Contemporains by Pyramid Publishing and in the book Contemporary Ceramic Art, published by Thames and Hudson in 2020.

ON HIS WORK

My work explores transformation, focusing on both structure and material.  It uses the kiln as a vehicle for deconstruction. The porcelain grid systems I create begin as digital renderings and are meticulously fabricated by hand. These structures become the architecture over which to stretch a fluid skin that is allowed to warp or collapse the structure under the strain of the firing. They expose the relationship between soft and hard, the fluidity of a membrane, and the moment of intersection between these contrasting elements. They strive to pair labored construction with unpredictability, and capture the entropy embodied in the process.

RECENT EXHIBITIONS