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Dutch ceramic artist Wouter Dam (b. 1957) begins his undulating and abstract sculptures on the wheel, although this might not be apparent at first glance. To create his finely-wrought, monochromatic ribbons of clay, the artist first throws 10 to 12 cylinders, which he then cuts open and joins together, fabricating works that, according to Nesrin During of Ceramic Review, “twist and bend and flow, containing and enclosing space.”
The son of an architect in Utrecht, Netherlands, Dam was encouraged to explore form and beauty from a young age. In 1975, the artist entered the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam, studying with Jan van der Vaart and beginning his explorations of shape and volume that would continue throughout his career.
Dam’s early works hint at the direction his oeuvre would take, although they maintained a functionality that his mature sculptures have abandoned. These vessel forms, beginning to break from the symmetry of the classical vases they were inspired by, still suggest a latent ability to contain. In contrast, David Pagel of The Los Angeles Times describes Dam’s later tabletop sculptures as “delightfully useless” forms that “articulate a radically different notion of beauty, in which oddness and exaggeration satisfy the needs once fulfilled by symmetry.”
Dam reveals that in his work, he strives to impart "just a vague memory of the real thing, just a hint. There should be enough room for the viewer to let his own imagination run free." His sculptures make subtle reference to the classical forms mentioned above, as well as Neolithic and iron-age pots, the human body, wooden boats and the crashing of the waves themselves. The result is a marvelous and minimal blend of his source materials, and elegant objects that obey their own idiosyncratic logic.
Wouter Dam’s work has been exhibited widely throughout the world, including Germany, Japan, France and his native Holland. His work is included in the collections of the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and the Detroit Institute of Art, among others.
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Awards
2001 Beierische Staats Preis, Meister der Moderne
1998 Mino Prize, International Ceramics Competition
1996 INAX Design Prize for Europeans, Tokoname, Japan
Education
1975 -1980 Gerrit Rietveld Akademie (Academy of Fine Arts, Amsterdam)
Museum Collections
City of Amsterdam, Netherlands
City of Utrecht, Netherlands
Craft Gallery of the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
Daum Museum of Contemporary Art, Sedalia, Missouri
Detroit Institute of Art, Detroit, Michigan
Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem, Netherlands
Grand Rapids Art Museum, Grand Rapids, Michigan
Hetjens Museum, Dusseldorf, Germany
Ibaraki Ceramic Art Museum, Ibaraki, Japan
Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, California
Mino Museum, Gifu Prefecture, Japan
Musée des Arts Decoratif, Paris, France
Museum Boyans van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands
Museum Frans Hals, Haarlem, Netherlands
Museum Het Prinsessehof, Leeuwarden, Netherlands
Museum of Ceramic Art, Hyogo, Gifu, Japan
Musuem of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas
North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, North Carolina
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park, Japan
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Tajimi City Cultural Hall, Tajimi, Japan
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, United Kingdom
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2013 Puls Gallery, Brussels, Belgium
2012 Tokyo One Man Show at the Tokyo Art Fair, Mitochu Koeki Co., Tokyo, Japan
Gallery NeC, Paris, France
Gallery NeC, Hong Kong
2011 Gallery NeC, Paris, France
2010 Gallerie Carla Koch, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2009 Recent Ceramic Sculpture, Frank Lloyd Gallery, Santa Monica, California
Puls Gallery, Brussels, Belgium
Gallerie Carla Koch, Amsterdam, Holland
2008 Marianne Heller Gallery, Heidelberg, Germany
2007 Mitochu Koeki Co. Gallery, Tokyo Art Fair, Tokyo, Japan
New Sculpture, Frank Lloyd Gallery, Santa Monica, California
The Clay Studio, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
2006 The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, United Kingdom
Eewal Gallery, Leeuwarden, The Netherlands
Garth Clark Gallery, New York
Gallerie Pierre, Paris, France, France
2005 Gallerie Carla Koch, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2004 Ceramic Sculpture, Frank Lloyd Gallery, Santa Monica, California
Gallerie Carla Koch, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2003 Frank Steyaert Gallery, Gent, Belgium
Garth Clark Gallery, New York
2002 Frank Lloyd Gallery, Santa Monica, California
Gallerie Carla Koch, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2001 Frank Lloyd Gallery, Santa Monica, California
Gallery b15, Munich, Germany
Gallerie Carla Koch, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2000 Nancy Margolis Gallery, New York
1999 De Brakkegrond, Flamisch Cultural Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Grafiker Gallery, Haarlem, The Netherlands
Nancy Margolis Gallery, New York
1998 Gallerie Carla Koch, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Gallery D.M. Sarver, Paris, France
Gallery Maas, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
1997 Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem, The Netherlands
Gallery Eewal, Amersfoort, The Netherlands
L&R International Ceramics, Deventer, The Netherlands
1996 Gallery D.M. Sarver, Paris, France
1995 Gallerie Carla Koch, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Gallery Maas, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Gallery Argille, Brussels, Belgium
1993 Gallery Eewal, Amersfoort, The Netherlands
1991 Gallery Eewal, Leeuwarden, The Netherlands
1988 Singer Museum, Laren, The Netherlands
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