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In the hands of Kurt Weiser, (b. 1950) the centuries-old tradition of china paint on porcelain is given new life. Weiser’s sumptuous, provocative teapots and jars, resplendent with lush jungle scenes, can be both alluring and unsettling. Detailed depictions of tropical splendor become wayward reveries as radiant colors and subtle distortions transform classic porcelain vessels.
Weiser, trained in ceramics at the Kansas City Art Institute and the University of Michigan, originally worked in an abstract, non-representational style with minimal surface decoration. While director of the Archie Bray foundation in Helena, Montana from 1977-88, he began to feel limited by this approach and contemplated new ways of working. Around 1990, he took the first step towards his current style when he covered a porcelain teapot with intricate botanical imagery using black and white sgraffito. After making a series of visits to Thailand, where he was inspired by the region’s luxuriant, intensely colored flora and fauna, a black and white palette no longer satisfied him. Seeking to capture Thailand’s richness, he began to experiment with China paints. Soon his skill as a colorist became an indispensable element of his work.
With the introduction of color into his work, Weiser also began to indulge his narrative impulses by incorporating figurative elements, drawn both from fantasy and art history, into his jungle scenes. Weiser’s figures, often nude and distorted across the planes of his vessels, move through steamy, Eden-like landscapes, interacting with the natural world they encounter. Themes of lust, predation, scientific curiosities, and the vulnerability of both man and nature abound in these scenes, resonating curiously with the cultivated vessel forms and refined medium Weiser has chosen.
Although Weiser has worked in this style for more than ten years, his work continues to evolve. The technical challenge of the overglazing process he uses, which requires multiple firings for each vessel and careful attention to the order in which colors are applied, forces him to thoroughly consider each piece he creates. Through refining this method of working, he has learned to take full advantage of the three-dimensionality of his surfaces by extending his scenes to fully encompass each vessel. In his recent work, he says that the softened, amorphous forms of his vessels should blend with their seamlessly painted surfaces so that the pots fade from view and “the painting is the three dimensional reality” floating in space as would a dream or reverie. Whether Weiser’s work is interpreted as three-dimensional painting or sensuously decorated porcelain, the pots he creates are among the most vivid and decadent of modern ceramics, providing a distinctive contribution to the ever-expanding medium.
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Awards
1999 Arizona Commission on the Arts, Artist Fellowship
Regents Professorship A.S.U.
1998 Asian Cultural Council, Artist Fellowship
Research and Creative Activity Award, A.S.U.
1992 Artists Fellowship: National Endowment for the Arts
1990 Artists Project Award: Arizona Commission on the Arts
1989 Artists Fellowship: National Endowment for the Arts
1986 Artists Fellowship: Montana Arts Council
Education
1976 M.F.A. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
1972 B.F.A. Kansas City Art Institute, Missouri
1967 Interlochen Arts Academy, Interlochen, Michigan
Museum Collections
Archie Bray Foundation, Helena, Montana
Arizona State University Art Museum, Tempe
Carnegie Mellon Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Ceramics Monthly Magazine, Columbus, Ohio
Charles A.Wustum Museum of Fine Arts, Racine, Wisconsin
Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, California
The George M. Gardiner Museum of Art, Toronto, Canada
Hallmark Cards, Inc., Kansas City, Missouri
Hamline University, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Helsinki Museum of Applied Arts, Helsinki, Finland
Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, Missouri
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles
Mesa Arts Center, Mesa, Arizona
Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, North Carolina
Muscarelle Museum of Art, Williamsburg, Virginia
Museum of Contemporary Ceramics, Shigaraki, Japan
National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
National Museum of History, Republic of China, Taipei, Taiwan
Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art, Utah State University, Logan, Utah
Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon
Rhode Island School of Design Museum of Art, Providence, Rhode Island
Schien-Joseph International Museum of Ceramic Art at Alfred University, Alfred, New York
University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska
Valley National Bank, Phoenix, Arizona
Victoria & Albert Museum, London, England
Washington University Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri
Winnipeg Art Museum, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Yellowstone Arts Center, Billings, Montana
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2009 Frank Lloyd Gallery, Santa Monica
2007 Kurt Weiser: A Mid-Career Survey, organized by the Arizona State
University Art Museum, Ceramics Research Center, curated by Peter Held, traveling, (catalogue)
2005 Globes, Garth Clark Gallery, New York
55 Cups, Holter Museum of Art, Helena, Montana
2002 Garth Clark Gallery, New York
2001 Frank Lloyd Gallery, Santa Monica
2000 Garth Clark Gallery, New York
1999 Working His Way Around China, Montgomery Museum of Art, Montgomery, Alabama
1998 Frank Lloyd Gallery, Santa Monica
1996 Garth Clark Gallery, New York
Joanne Rapp Gallery, Scottsdale, Arizona
1995 Garth Clark Gallery, New York
1994 Garth Clark Gallery, Los Angeles
1993 Garth Clark Gallery, New York
Joanne Rapp Gallery, Scottsdale, Arizona
1992 Garth Clark Gallery, Los Angeles
1990 Garth Clark Gallery, New York
1987 Hui Noeau Center for Visual Arts, Maui, Hawii
1986 Lawrence Gallery, Portland, Oregon
Salem Art Association, Salem, Oregon
1985 White Bird Gallery, Cannon Beach, Oregon
Paris Gibson Square Art Center, Great Falls, Montana
1984 Yellowstone Art Center, Billings, Montana
Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Aspen, Colorado
Lawrence Gallery, Portland, Oregon
Cohen Gallery, Denver, Colorado
1983 Brentwood Gallery, St. Louis, Missouri
Hand and Spirit Gallery, Scottsdale, Arizona
Craftsman Gallery, Omaha, Nebraska
1982 Surroundings Gallery, New York
The Craftsmen’s Gallery, Scarsdale, New York
Garth Clark Gallery, Los Angeles
1981 White Bird Gallery, Cannon Beach, Oregon
1976 Kurt Weiser, Artforms Gallery, Detroit
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