– (1943 - )

Wayne Higby is best known for his vessels, sculptures and tiles – often raku fired - which incorporate landscape imagery. The images arise from memories of his youth in and his travels throughout the world. “My work uses landscape as a vehicle to create some more meditative qualities,” he said.1 He works in both earthenware and porcelain, adjusting the glaze and firing to evoke the particular landscape. “[I attempt]…to create a certain sense of place and moment in the medium. I play with light through glaze and fire.”2 He is equally recognized for his work as an educator, receiving honorary professorships from universities in China, where he has worked extensively, as well as the . Other awards he has won honor the dual contributions he has made to and include National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships and recognition from the American Ceramic Society, the American Council and the Museum as well as the Chancellor‟s Award for Excellence in Teaching from the State University of and the Distinguished Educator Award from the James Renwick Alliance. Indeed Higby has won both the Distinguished Craft Educators Award and the Masters of the Medium Award from the James Renwick Alliance. In addition, the American Craft Museum has named him a Visionary of the American Movement, one of a select group of artists who are “genuine living legends representing the best of American artists in their chosen medium.”1

1. Mark Arnest. “Vessels of the Land/Retrospective Highlights Ceramic Work.” The Colorado Springs Gazette (April 20 2001.) 2. Ibid. 3. “Wayne Higby, Biography.” Harvey/Meadows Gallery, Inc. http://www.harveymeadows.com/artists/biographies/higby_bio.html

ARTIST’S STATEMENT – WAYNE HIGBY

“For many years now I have worked in earthenware, raku technique. On the other hand, my current efforts in porcelain are in response to travel and work in the People‟s Republic of China and to an ongoing commitment to keeping the adventure in the studio alive. My central interests have not changed although the work has. Today, I‟m thinking more about , but essentially I am concerned with landscape imagery as a focal point of mediation. Space, both real and implied, is of utmost importance. I strive to establish a zone of quiet coherence – a place full of silent, empty space where finite and infinite, intimate and immense intersect…the material and immaterial oscillate. In combination they become the alchemical philosopher‟s stone. Perhaps, psyche and matter are the same.1

“The landscape of America has, for generations, reflected the promise of a New World. Celebrated by artists, the panorama of American nature has been transformed into a symbol of diversity and the spirit of opportunity. From sublime vistas to the intimacy of calm pastures, the American landscape inspires longing and hope.

My ceramic work has become an extension of the tradition of American Landscape Art. By process it is an analog to nature herself – earth, water and firm team to bring forth mysteries of place.”2 1. “Artist‟s Statement.” Faculty page, School of Art and Design, . http://art.alfred.edu/faculty/fa_higby.html 2. Wayne Higby: Thresholds. Buffalo, NY: Burchfield-Penney Art Center, 2003: 6.

RESUME – WAYNE HIGBY

1943 Born, Colorado Springs, CO

1961-1963 University of Colorado-Boulder, major in pre-law, changes to art

1963-1964 World travel

1964-1966 University of Colorado-Boulder, B.F.A. Art Education

1966 Marries Donna Claire Bennett Regional Prize, Craftsmen, USA, South Central Region

1966-1968 -Ann Arbor, M.F.A.

1968-1970 Assistant Professor, University of Nebraska-Omaha

1970 Archie Bray Foundation Grant

1970-1973 Assistant Professor, School of Design, Providence, RI

1973-present Professor, New York State College of Ceramics, Alfred University, Alfred, NY

1973, 1977, 1988 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship

1976 Grant, National Park Service, Washington, DC

1985, 1989 New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship

1986 George A. and Eliza Howard Foundation Fellowship

1990 Master Teacher Award, University of Hartford, CT

1992 Honorary Professor of Fine Art, Hubei Academy of Fine Arts, Wuhan, P.R., China

1993 Chancellor‟s Award for Excellence in Teaching, State University of New York

1994 Honorary Professor of Ceramic Art, Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute, P.R., China

1995 Elected Fellow, American Craft Movement Visionary Award, American Craft Museum

1998 Honorary Chairperson, 1st Yixing International Ceramic Art Conference, Yixing, P.R., China Certificate of Recognition for Outstanding Contributions to American Ceramic Art, American Ceramic Society, Cincinnati, OH Friends of Contemporary Ceramics: Third Annual Lifetime Achievement Award, Past and Present Faculty of the Division of Ceramic Art, College of Ceramics at Alfred University, NY

2000 Honorary Professor of Art, College of Fine Arts, Shanghai University

2002 Distinguished Educator Award, James Renwick Alliance

2005 Masters of the Medium Award, Ceramics, James Renwick Alliance

BIOGRAPHY – WAYNE HIGBY

Wayne Higby was born in Colorado Springs, CO, and the majestic, open landscape of his native state left its indelible impression. An only child, he raised and rode horses, spending hours alone with his thoughts and the natural wonders around him. Although he took art classes in school and at local art centers, he did not originally consider a career in art, planning instead to follow his father, the District Attorney of Colorado Springs, into law. He enrolled in the University of Colorado-Boulder as a pre-law student, but soon found himself both struggling and questioning his choice. Higby relates that a visit to the law library, and his feeling of panic when he looked through the law books, convinced him he was in the wrong major; further explorations in the library led him to the art section and shortly thereafter, he switched his major to art. Mid- way through his college years he took a break and traveled around the world. A visit to the Heraklion Museum in Crete, with its Minoan pots, convinced him that he wanted to pursue ceramic art, and other experiences led him to also seriously consider the teaching profession. Returning to the university he studied with George Woodman, , Manual Neri and others. He graduated from the University of Colorado with a B.F.A. in 1966, majoring in art education and minoring in painting and ceramics. Higby continued his education at the University of Michigan, studying with Fred Bauer, and John Stephenson, and receiving the Regional Prize, “Craftsmen, U.S.A. South Central Region,” exhibiting his Raku Box at the Museum of Contemporary Crafts in New York.

After earning his M.F.A. with a major in ceramics and a minor in serigraphy, Higby began teaching at the University of Nebraska in Omaha in 1968. The following year he was a Visiting Lecturer in Ceramics at the University of Washington in Seattle. Traveling through the southwest United States, the Northwest and along the West Coast “I rediscovered landscape,” he said, and soon that rediscovery would lead to landscape imagery dominating his work. A residency at the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, MT, allowed him the time to develop the imagery, and he began making pots with abstracted landscape motifs. Higby left Nebraska to teach at the Rhode Island School of Design in 1970, staying there until 1973 when he received an offer to join the faculty at the New York State College of Ceramics, Alfred University, in Alfred, NY. Higby has continued as a professor in the School of Art & Design, and was the first holder of the Robert C. Turner Chair in Ceramic Art, the first endowed professorship in the School.

In his early work, Higby worked largely in raku, particularly in developing raku lusters. His pieces were primarily slab-formed boxes using a press-mold work method; later he began making large bowls, finding that the softer form allowed him greater freedom with his imagery. The landscape imagery took a step further in the 1980‟s when he began making his “rocks,” sculptural creations which moved the landscape off the pots and into the viewer‟s space. “I have taken the rocks often used as imagery on the landscape bowls, and set them into real space: the space of the viewer. These rocks locate a point in a landscape. This point or place is reproduced as illusion on the surface of the rocks to trigger an atmospheric moment beyond the physical restraints of the sculpture itself.”1 The “rocks” would reappear later, made of porcelain, and also in raku tiles made in the late 1990‟s.

A trip to China in 1991 would prove to be a seminal point in Higby‟s career. He found himself attracted to both the Chinese tradition of ceramics and the energy of its people. Since that first visit he has returned often, working with the ceramists there and absorbing the history of the art. That the admiration is mutual is reflected in his being named an Honorary Professor of Fine Art at the Hubei Academy of fine Arts, Wuhan, in 1992; an Honorary Professor of Ceramic Art at the Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute in 1994; Honorary Chairperson of the First Yixing International Ceramic Art Conference in 1998; Honorary Professor at Shanghai University in 2000; and an Honorary Citizen of Jingdezhen, China, a particular honor since it recognized his efforts in cofounding the San Bao International Ceramic Art Institute in a city where porcelain has been used for over 1,000 years and that is noted for producing some of the world‟s finest . His extensive work there, and a visit to Gaolin Mountain outside Jingdezhen where Kaolin was discovered, led him to begin working in porcelain, a material he had not previously used. Instead of the traditional approach to porcelain, Higby made solid blocks which cracked and exploded in the kiln. He added incised design, glazed the pieces in celadon, taking his “rocks” a step further and producing “landscapes.” The resulting sculptures formed a series called Lake Powell Memory. A later series, which he referred to as “tile sculpture,” combined the porcelain rock technique with raku, and became the Thresholds series. Between the two series Higby created a mural for Arrow International in Reading, PA, which drew on the first series and gave rise to the second. The commissioned mural, named Intangible Notch, was made of raku-fired earthenware tiles and is approximately eleven feet high and ten feet wide. It invokes red canyon walls broken with white sky and blue-green water.

A retrospective of Wayne Higby‟s work, Landscape and Memory: a Wayne Higby Retrospective, was mounted at the Fine Arts Center in Colorado Springs, CO in 2001. “I thought it would be nice to do it in a museum in the town where I got started,” Higby told the local newspaper. Recognizing the part his early years in Colorado played in his art, he continued, “…I think of the sense of silence and space I experienced as a kid. I never minded being alone…It comes out of riding through the park, connecting with the vistas and the space and the color and the light and the emotional quality of all that. You soak it up into your pores and into your heart or wherever that stuff goes, and later on it just comes out.”2

More recently, Higby has completed a porcelain tile installation entitled EarthCloud, which is installed in the Miller Performing Arts Center at Alfred University. The installation, which represents more than five years of work, involved not only Higby but also a group of young Alfred alumni artists who were hand-picked by Higby. 40,000 pounds of porcelain creating nearly 5,000 tiles went into the construction, and the finished piece covers an area 30 feet high and 56 feet wide. The piece, too, invokes images of landscapes, but the landscape in this case is the Kanakadea Valley, a tribute to both the beauty of the landscape surrounding the University where he has taught for more than 30 years and the students who have been part of his life there.

Over the course of a long and distinguished career as both an educator and an artist, Wayne Higby has received a number of awards. Among them are three National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships; two New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowships; the George A. and Eliza Howard Foundation Fellowship; Master Teacher Award from the University of Hartford; Chancellor‟s Award for Excellence in Teaching, State University of New York; Fellow of the American Craft Council; American Craft Movement Visionary Award; Recognition of Excellence from the American Ceramic Society; Distinguished Educator Award and Master of the Medium Award-Ceramics, both from the James Renwick Alliance, in addition to the honorary professorships in recognition of his work in China. He is vice president of the International Academy of Ceramics, Geneva, Switzerland, and his work is included in numerous public and private collections including the Carnegie Institute Museum of Art; the ; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Museum of American Art, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

1. Statement to Helen Drutt, January 5, 1981. Quoted in: Higby, Wayne, Richard J. Boyle, and John Heon. Wayne Higby [Exhibition]: Landscape as Memory, 1990-1999. Helsinki: Museum of Art and Design, 1999: 8. 2. Mark Arnest. “Vessels of the Land/Retrospective Highlights Ceramic Work.” The Colorado Springs Gazette (April 20 2001.)

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY – WAYNE HIGBY

Books and Catalogs

Alfred Now: Contemporary American Ceramics. Champaign, IL: Krannert Art Museum and Kinkead Pavillion, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1994.

Architecture of the Vessel. New York: American Ceramics, 1986.

Baldwin, Douglas, and Jack Earl. Claythings: East Coast Invitational. Philadelphia: Moore College of Art Gallery, 1974.

Carney, Margaret, Mao-Chung Lee, et al. The Alfred Asia Connection: the Asia Alfred Reflection. New York: Taipei Gallery, 1998.

Diamonstein, Barbaralee. Visionaries of the American Craft Movement. S.l.: s.n., 1995.

Grossen, Françoise, and Wayne Higby. Beaux Arts Designer/Craftsman ’75. Columbus, OH: Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts, 1975.

Higby, Lola, and Wayne Higby. Bryce, Higbee and J.B. Higbee . Marietta, OH: Glass Press, 1998.

Higby, Wayne. Donna Polseno: Potter’s Space and the Earthbound Goddess. Roanoke, VA: Eleanor D. Wilson Museum, 2006.

______. Eleventh Annual Strictly Functional Pottery National. Philadelphia: Market House Craft Center, 2003.

______. 5x7: Seven Ceramic Artists Each Acknowledge Five Sources of Inspiration. Alfred, NY: New York State college of Ceramics at Alfred University, 1993.

______. Wayne Higby. New York: Helen Drutt Gallery, 1990.

Higby, Wayne, Richard J. Boyle, and John Heon. Wayne Higby [Exhibition]: Landscape as Memory, 1990-1999. Helsinki: Museum of Art and Design, 1999.

Higby, Wayne, Ellen Shankin, et al. The Seventh Annual San Angelo National Ceramic Competition. San Angelo, TX: San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts, 1992.

Higby, Wayne, and Richard Thompson. Past Present Future 1900-2000. Alfred NY: Division of Ceramic Art, School of Art and Design, New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, 2000.

Hinson, Tom E. The 1990 May Show. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1990.

Jeffri, Joan. The Craftsperson Speaks. New York: Greenwood Press, 1992.

Lauria, Jo, and Steve Fenton. . New York: Clarkson Potter, 2007.

Marks, Graham, and Wayne Higby. Useful Pottery: Eight Artists. Rochester, NY: Pyramid Arts Center, 1985.

Master Craftsmen: Wayne Higby, Jerry Rothman, , Patti Warashina. Jacksonville, FL: Jacksonville Art Museum, 1982.

McInnes, Mary, Mary Drach McInnes, Helen Williams English, and Lee Somers. EarthCloud. Stuttgart: Arnoldsche Art Publishers, 2007.

Ostrom, Walter, Anne West, et al. Walter Ostrom: the Advocacy of Pottery. Halifax: The Gallery, 1996.

Peterson, Susan. Contemporary Ceramics. New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, 2000.

______. The Craft and Art of Clay. Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice Hall, 1992.

Wayne Higby: Thresholds. Buffalo, NY: Burchfield-Penney Art Center, 2003.

Weekly, Nancy. Anne Currier, Val Cushing, Andrea Gill, John Gill, Wayne Higby, Doug Jeck. Alfred, NY: New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, 1996.

Yuh, SunKoo, Helen Williams Drutt, Wayne Higby, et al. SunKoo Yuh: Along the Way. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Art Alliance, 2007.

Zakin, Richard. Ceramics; Ways of Creation. Iola, Wisconsin: Krause Publications, 1999.

Periodicals

Arnest, B. “Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center.” Craft Horizons 31 (February 1971): 43.

“Arrow International – 5 Commissions.” American Craft 57 (April/May 1997): 44-47.

Block, J., and J. Crumrine. “Benson Gallery, Bridgehampton, NY.” Craft Horizons 31 (December 1971): 48.

“Contemporary American Crafts.” Bulletin (Philadelphia Museum of Art) 87 (Fall 1991): 1-56.

“Exhibit A, Gallery of American Ceramics.” Ceramics Monthly 23 (October 1975): 69.

Heyman, Daniel A. “Wayne Higby.” American Ceramics 12 no. 4 (1996): 54.

Higby, Wayne. “Drawing as Intelligence.” Studio Potter 14 (December 1985): 36-37.

______. “Innovation: A Matter of Connections.” Studio Potter 12 (June 1984): 20-22.

______. “A Search for Form and Place.” Ceramics Monthly 37 (December 1989): 27-37.

Hubbard, Guy. “Clip and Save.” Arts & Activities 120 issue 1 (November 1996): 25-29.

“{Jane Hartsook Gallery, New York; Exhibit.}” Ceramics Monthly (June/August 1984): 85.

Jarmusch, Ann. “From Mesas Through Canyons to the Sea and Back.” American Craft 41 (April/May 1981): 10-13.

Mather, T., and A. Nasisse. “Exhibit A Gallery of American Ceramics.” Craft Horizons 35 (October 1975): 32.

“1995 American Craft Council Awards.” American Craft 55 (October/November 1995): 52-59.

“Penn State National.” Ceramics Monthly 42 (June/August 1994): 33.

Peterson, S. “Museum of Contemporary Crafts, New York.” Craft Horizons 33 (June 1973): 47.

Rice, Robin. “Wayne Higby.” American Craft 57 (April/May 1997): 75.

Roberts, D. “American Raku.” Ceramic Review no. 76 (July/August 1982): 22.

Turner, Robert James. “Wayne Higby – Earthcloud.” Ceramic Review no. 233 (September/October 2008): 27.

“Wayne Higby.” Ceramics Monthly 55 no. 4 (April 2007): 30.

“Wayne Higby Wins Award.” Ceramics Monthly 53 no. 5 (May 2005): 16-18.

Winokur, P. “Helen Drutt Gallery, Philadelphia; Exhibit.” Craft Horizons 36 (August 1976): 57.

Video and Other Media

“Clay Figures, Animals, and Landscapes.” American Craft Museum Videos. VHS

“Color and Fire: Defining Moments in Studio Ceramics, 1950-2000.” Video.

“Contemporary Clay: Diverse Soup Tureen Forms.” American Craft Museum Videos. VHS

“Craft in America DVD Complete Series.” PBS, 2007. DVD (1 Disc).

Frisenda, John. “Ceramics by Higby.” Geneseo, NY: State University College, 1969. VHS

Higby, Wayne, and Mary McInnes. “Oral History Interview: Wayne Higby, 2005 April 12-14.”, 2005. Cassette tape.

“Perspectives on a Century: a Conversation with Binns Medalists.” Alfred, NY: New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, 2000. VHS

GALLERY REPRESENTATION – WAYNE HIGBY

Harvey/Meadows Gallery, Inc. 0133 Prospector Road, suite 4114 A Aspen Highlands Village, Aspen, CO 81611

Helen Drutt Gallery: Philadelphia, 1721 Walnut, Philadelphia, PA 19103

WEB SITES – WAYNE HIGBY http://www.harveymeadows.com/artists/biographies/higby_bio.html Web site for Harvey/Meadows Gallery, Higby biography http://www.buffalostate.edu/bengalnews/mar1403/orient.htm Article on exhibit “Thresholds.” http://www.alfred.edu/nyscc/view.cfm?temp=4234 “Alfred University to Dedicate „EarthCloud‟,” installation by Wayne Higby. http://americanart.si.edu/highlights/artworks.cfm?id=MC&StartRow=19 Information on Wayne Higby from the Smithsonian American Art Museum. http://art.alfred.edu/faculty/fa_higby.html Wayne Higby faculty page at Alfred University http://www.craftinamerica.org/artists_clay/story_258.php? “Craft in America;” section on Wayne Higby. http://www.alfred.edu/nyscc/view.cfm?temp=2335 Article on the naming of Higby as an honorary citizen of Jingdezhen, China http://www.mintmuseum.org/chasanoff/artists/index.htm Brief biography of Wayne Higby

October 2008