Hand-built
October 20, 2020 - March 1, 2022
Hand-built showcases works made partially or entirely off of the potter’s wheel. Often, when
thinking of ceramic art and craft, the first thing that comes to mind is pottery:
functional wheel-thrown vessels. Hand-building with clay has the ability to break
that notion and push the limits of the medium. Looking at work made out of the round
(not on a potter’s wheel)—with paper thin slabs, monolithic slabs, trompe l’oeil,
and so forth—one can really begin to see the limitlessness of the material.
In this exhibition, Les Lawrence’s teapot and Bowl for One Apple by Patricia Gordon speak to the weightlessness that clay can achieve or appear to
achieve. Lindsay Oesterritter’s Blade Vase and Randy Johnston's Long Boat Form bring into question the display of food and flowers out of the round. Then there is
Brad Schwieger’s Black House Structure, a monolithic slab-built structure that begs to be walked around. Hand-built represents many of the construction and assembly methods used when working off of
the wheel. Ideally, it will also showcase the wide array of forms attainable when
not restricted by the potter’s wheel.
This exhibition was curated as a resource for USU course ART 3650 taught by Josh Scott.
Josh is a third-year ceramics graduate student. He is currently teaching Intermediate
Hand-building at USU, a class which focuses on construction techniques that don’t
require a potter’s wheel.
This exhibition is supported in part by Utah Arts & Museums, with funding from the
State of Utah.

John Mason
Untitled, 1960
stoneware with grog and quartz
31 x 12 x 12 inches
Gift of the Marie Eccles Caine Foundation in honor of Billie Emert