Shea at work in his studio. Photo by A. Sue Weisler
John Shea (b. 1989, United States) is a ceramic artist based in Little Rock, AR. His vibrantly painted sculptures contain an implicit duality that compounds virtual and material understandings of space and time. The contemporary, almost digital surface aesthetic is balanced by a physicality that might have been geologically formed eons ago. His process involves joining small, cut pieces of clay together, whose seams remain visible through lines and contour. The work’s color palette is often drawn from A Dictionary of Color Combinations by Japanese painter Sanzo Wada, a book that first appeared in 1932 as part of the development of Japan’s avant-garde and which includes numerous color combinations from raspberry and yellow-orange to dusty green and bluish-purple. After firing, Shea sprays each work with enamel oil paints rather than applying a traditional glaze, enhancing the luminescent qualities of his surfaces, which appear as though a colored light were shining on them; the radiant aura is intended to push the viewer’s sense of perception and expected experiences.
Shea writes, “The work is an examination of what makes up an object—looking at both an object as composed of individual elements and also as a set of relationships that inform those objects. The forms themselves are a mishmash of organic and geometric shapes that push and pull against each other, a collection of individual parts pressed together. The overall group of pieces has been made under a set of systems that determine how individual pieces relate to each other in the series of work through form and function.”
Shea graduated with a BFA from the School of American Crafts at the Rochester Institute of Technology before attending graduate school at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, where he earned an MA and MFA. He was a resident artist at the University of Montevallo, Alabama, and his work has been shown throughout the United States and internationally.
JOHN SHEA
EDUCATION
2015-2018 MFA, University of Wisconsin Madison, Madison, WI
2015-2017 MA, University of Wisconsin Madison, Madison, WI
2012-2013 Post-Baccalaureate Program, Oregon College of Art and Craft,
Portland, OR
2007-2011 BA, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
2021-Current Visiting Artist and Instructor, University of Arkansas- Little Rock, AR
2019 Visiting Lecturer, Hamilton College, Clinton, NY
2018-2019 Adjunct Instructor, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY
2016-2018 Instructor of Record, University of Wisconsin - Madison, Madison, WI
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2023 standard, abstract, HB381, New York, NY
2022 ghost of a dead flame, Manners/Pappas Gallery, UALR, Little Rock, AR
Cloud Nine, NCECA Concurrent Exhibition, Sacramento, CA
2021 Collect 2021, Online Edition, Hostler Burrows, London, England
2020 Main Dishes: A Ceramic Encyclopedia, Online Exhibitions, Officine Saffi, Milan, Italy
John Shea: New Work, Hostler Burrows, New York, NY
Color and Production: From the Atom to the Void, Curated by Libby Sellers
for Collective Design, Frieze NY, NYC
Collect 2020, UK Crafts Council Art and Design Fair, Officine Saffi, London, England
Forest Primeval, Group Exhibition, Hostler Burrows, Los Angeles, CA
2019 Unwedged, Juried Exhibition, Pottery Northwest, Seattle, WA
New Gallery Artists, Group Exhibition, Hostler Burrows, New York, NY
ReVerb, Group Exhibition, City Art Space, Rochester Institute of Technology,
Rochester, NY
Perfect Darkness, Group Show, Milan Design Week, Officine Saffi, Milan, Italy
Collect 2019, UK Crafts Council Art and Design Fair, Officine Saffi, Saatchi Gallery,
London, England
Open to Art, Juried Exhibition, Officine Saffi, Milan, Italy (Award Finalist)
Articulating Craft, Juried Exhibition, Arts Center, Nazareth College, Rochester, NY
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS, CONT.
2018 A Material Thing, Firehouse Gallery, Flower City Art Center,
Rochester, NY (Solo Exhibition)
Visions in Clay, LH Horton Jr Gallery, San Joaquin Delta College,
Stockton, CA
Southern Miss Ceramics National, University of Southern Mississippi,
Hattiesburg, MS
The Clay Studio National, The Clay Studio, Philadelphia, PA
Objective, Master of Fine Art Exhibition, Art Lofts Gallery, Madison, WI
2017 10 Years in the Making, Concurrent NCECA Exhibition, Portland, OR
Talente 2017, Internationale Handwerkmesse Munich, Munich, Germany
Object Logic, Master of Art Exhibition, Gallery 7, Madison, WI
2016 Bizarre Stuff, Commonwealth Gallery, Madison, WI
2015 Practice and Memory, Ash Street Project, Portland, OR
2012 With Fire, Group of Anagama Fired Sculptures, Carmichael Library,
Montevallo, AL
2011 A Marker’s Path, Bachelor of Fine Art Exhibition, The Lower Mill,
Honeoye Falls, NY
SELECTED RESIDENCIES
2018-2019 Studio Resident, Rochester Institute of Technology,
Rochester, NY
2014-2015 Community Artist, Ash Street Project, Portland, OR
2011-2012 Artist In Residence, University of Montevallo, Montevallo, AL
