Graham Marks (United States, b. 1951) produces exuberant, coil-built ceramics adorned with vibrant glazes, which combine functionalism with visual delight. Of late, Marks has embraced loose, sinuous forms from which coils of clay spill in dynamic and improvisatory compositions. His candelabras and flower vases contain a wild energy all their own, full of brash, linear abandon. In their merging of pattern and embellishment, they recall the intricate crafts of eighteenth-century France, bringing rococo flourishes to the timeless theme of utilitarian vessels.
Marks taught ceramics at Kansas State University, Rochester Institute of Technology, and the Cranbrook Academy of Art, where he was Head of Ceramics from 1986 to 1992. His work has been exhibited internationally and collected privately; it is held by numerous public institutions including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Yale University Art Gallery, Detroit Institute of Art, the Everson Museum, the Museum of Art and Design, the Cranbrook Museum of Art, the Stedelijk Museum, the Hermitage Museum, and the National Gallery of Australia. Marks splits his time between Brooklyn and Alfred, NY.
GRAHAM MARKS
b. 1951, United States
EDUCATION
1976 M.F.A., New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, Alfred, NY
1974 B.F.A., Philadelphia College of Art, Philadelphia, PA
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2022 It Can Be What It Becomes, Sculpture Space NYC, Long Island City, NY
1993 Habatat/Shaw Gallery, Farmington Hills, MI
1992 Perimeter Gallery, Chicago, IL
1991 New Art Forms Exposition, Navy Pier, Chicago, IL
1990 Detroit Institute of Art, Detroit, MI
Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, Pittsburgh, PA
1988 Helen Drutt Gallery, New York, NY
1986-87 Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY
Sculpture Center, New York, NY
Cranbrook Academy of Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, MI (Catalogue)
1984 Nina Freudenheim Gallery, Buffalo, NY
1983 Helen Drutt Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
1981 John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, WI
1979 Helen Drutt Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
1978 Exhibit A, Evanston, IL
1977 University Gallery, Emporia State University, Emporia, KS
1976 Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024 The Aesthetics of Everyday Objects: The Cup, ATLA, Los Angeles, CA
2021 With Eyes Opened: Cranbrook Academy of Art Since 1932, Cranbrook Art Museum,
Bloomfield Hills, MI
2016 Empirical, Intuitive, Absorption, Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York, NY
2014 Gifts from America: 1948–2013, The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg,
Russia
1991 National Objects Invitational, The Arkansas Art Center Decorative Arts
Museum, Little Rock, AR
Refuse, Detroit Artist’s Market, Detroit, MI
50th Annual Finger Lakes Exhibition, Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester, NY
The Stephane Janssen/Michael Johns Collection, Arizona State University
Museum of Art, Tempe, AZ
1990 American Ceramics, Gallery Koyanagi, Tokyo, Japan
Building a Permanent Collection: Perspective on the 1980s, American Craft Museum,
New York, NY
Craft Today: USA, Zacheta Gallery, Warsaw, Poland
Clay, Color, Content, 28th Ceramic National, Invitational Section, Everson Museum
of Art, Syracuse, NY
1989 Surface and Form: A Union of Polarities in Contemporary Ceramics, The National
Museum of Ceramic Art, Baltimore, MD (Catalogue)
Shared Boundaries: The Cranbrook Tradition, Craft Alliance, St. Louis, MO (Catalogue)
Six Master Craftsmen, Nina Freudenheim Gallery, Buffalo, NY
Fifteen Years, Helen Drutt Gallery, New York, NY
Craft Today: USA, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, France; Applied Art
Museum, Helsinki, Finland; Museum of Applied Art, Frankfurt, Germany
1988 Power Over the Clay: American Studio Potters, Detroit Institute of the Arts, Detroit, MI
Alfred and Mary Shands Collection, J.P. Speed Museum of Art, Louisville, KY (Catalogue)
Selected Works 1987–1988, Clark Gallery, Lincoln, MA
The Aesthetic Edge, Corvallis Art Center, Corvallis, OR
1987 Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, MI
The Cranbrook Vision: Past and Present, Artrain, MI
1987–1990 The Eloquent Object, Traveling: The Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, OK; Boston
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; Oakland Museum of Art, Oakland, CA; Chicago
Library and Cultural Center, Chicago, IL; Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo and
Kyoto, Japan
1986 Craft Today: Poetry of the Physical, Travelling: American Craft Museum, New York,
NY; The Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO; Laguna Art Museum, Laguna, CA;
Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI; J.B. Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY;
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA
Contemporary Arts: An Expanding View, Wellesley College Museum, Wellesley,
MA; The Monmouth Museum, Lincroft, NJ; Squibb Gallery, Princeton, NJ
(Catalogue)
Big Containment, Swen Parson Gallery, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL
Organic Abstractions, Clark Gallery, Lincoln, MA; Perimeter Gallery, Chicago, IL
1985 Contemporary American Ceramics: Twenty Artists, New Port Harbor Art Museum,
Newport Beach, CA (Catalogue)
American Craft, Pyramid Arts Center, Rochester, NY
American Ceramics, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA
Surface/Function/Shape: Selections from the Earl Millard Collection, Southern Illinois
University, Edwardsville, IL (Catalogue)
The Educated Eye, The State Museum of Albany, The Neuberger Museum,
Purchase, NY
The Presence of Clay, Jane Corkin Gallery, Toronto, Canada
The Vessel and its Variation, Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY
Of the Artist, by the Artist, Wilson Center, Rochester, NY (Catalogue)
1984 Multiplicity in Clay, Fiber and Metal, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs,
NY (Catalogue)
Ohio State University, Columbus, OH
Crafts: A Selected View, Philadelphia College of Art, Philadelphia, PA
Personal Imagery, Bennington College, Bennington, VT
1983 A Passionate Vision: Contemporary Ceramics from the Daniel Jacobs Collection,
Decordova Museum, Lincoln, MA (Catalogue)
Who’s Afraid of American Pottery?, Travelling: Dienst Beeldende Kunst,
’s-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands; Paleis voor Schone Kunsten, Brussels,
Belgium; Stedelijke Musea, Gouda, The Netherlands (Catalogue)
Art in Architecture, Merritt Gallery, Rochester, NY
Bevier Gallery, Rochester Institute of Technology with Robert Rauschenberg,
Rochester, NY
Selections from the Joan Manheimer Collection, University of Kansas, Kansas
City, MO (Catalogue)
Selections from the Permanent Collection, American Craft Museum, New York, NY
1982 American Clay Artists, The Clay Studio, Philadelphia, PA
Six Plus 12, Pyramid Arts Center, Rochester, NY
Graham Marks and Cary Griffin, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY
Group Invitational, Haber/Theodore Gallery, New York, NY
Young Americans—Award Winner, American Craft Museum, New York, NY
Sculpture Invitational – Three Man Show, Tibor de Nagy Gallery, New York, NY
Group Invitational, D.B.R. Gallery, Cleveland, OH
1981 Beyond Tradition: 25th Anniversary Exhibition, American Craft Museum,
New York, NY
Centering on Contemporary Clay: Ceramics from the Joan Mannheimer Collection,
Museum of Art, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA (Catalogue)
Clay, Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI (Catalogue)
Recent Acquisitions, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO
Contemporary Approach to American Craft, Pyramid Gallery, Rochester, NY
1980 Ceramic Sculpture, Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, MO
Contemporary Ceramics: A Response to Wedgewood, Museum of the Civic
Center, Philadelphia, PA (1980-1982 Traveling nationally)
Iowa Invitational, Cedar Rapids Art Center, Cedar Rapids, IA
1979 Group Invitational, Brookfield Craft Center, Brookfield, CT
Ten Personal Approaches, Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, IL
Contemporary Crafts, Marion Locks Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
1977 The Ceramic Vessel as Metaphor, Evanston Art Center, Evanston, IL (Catalogue)
American Art: Contemporary Crafts, Helen Drutt Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Scripps College 33rd Annual, Scripps College, Claremont, CA
1976 New Views by Young Ceramics, Exhibit A, Evanston, IL
M.F.A. Thesis Show, Fosdick Nelson Gallery, New York State College of Ceramics
at Alfred University, Alfred, NY
Fragment Show, Carborundum Museum of Ceramics, Niagara Falls, NY
1975 Group Show with Claes Oldenberg and Lucas Samaras, Nina Freudenheim Gallery,
Buffalo, NY
Stockton State College Sculpture Show, Pomona, NJ
Supermud Invitational, Carborundum Museum of Ceramics, Niagara
Falls, NY
Group Show of Clay and Glass, Carborundum Museum of Ceramics,
Niagara Falls, NY
TEACHING
1976–1978 Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS
1980–1986 Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY
1986–1992 Artist in Residence and Head of Ceramics, Cranbrook Academy
of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI
AWARDS
1985 Fellowship, The New York Foundation for the Arts
1984 Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts Sponsored Project Grant, New York State
Council on the Arts
1978 Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
Arizona State University Museum, Tempe, AZ
Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock, AR
Cranbrook Academy of Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, MI
Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI
Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY
The Lannon Foundation, Miami, FL
Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester, NY
Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC
Museum of Art, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA
Museum of Art and Design, New York, NY
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA
Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
Schein-Joseph International Museum of Ceramics, New York State College
of Ceramics at Alfred University, Alfred, NY
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Renwick Gallery, Washington, DC
State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia
Stedelijk Museum, ’s-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands
University of Colorado Art Museum, Boulder, CO
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT
