Nathan Willever
Oct 13th - Dec 31st, 2022
This show is a culmination of studying native materials during my residency at The Clay Studio. For the past five years, I have been testing, refining and blending local materials into clays and glazes I employ in my functional pots. A total of three unrefined local clays, one locally sourced feldspathic rock and wood ash from my fireplace create a wide range of surface. My goal is to highlight these materials and have a finished pot that could not be made anywhere else.
https://metrophiladelphia.com/the-clay-studio/
For Willever, creating the ideal feeling of the pot, for the maker, the viewer and the user, is essential. He seeks to disrupt the tension that can be held in a tightly thrown form. Look closely at the surfaces to see scraping and swirling patterns in the clay that interrupt and soften the regularity of the near perfect throwing lines. Willever wants the viewer to underestand the hand made quality of the object, and to hold that in contrast to mass produced goods. Machine-made goods telegraph the tension of those machines, and the corporate systems that distribute them. Nathan Willever works to soften that tension, and to offer a moment of calm to those who experience his work. Each vessel is different, each speaks of the maker, his skill, and his artistic vision, infusing the environment it occupies with a spirit of release from
the tension of every day life.
Nathan Willever
Medium & Materials:
Local, wild clay
Measurements:
18" x 18" x 30"
Date:
2022
Description:
Wild clay
Nathan Willever
Medium & Materials:
Local, wild clay
Measurements:
12" x 12" x 15"
Date:
2022
Description:
Wild clay
Nate Willever
Medium & Materials:
Local, wild clay
Measurements:
12" x 12" x 14"
Date:
2022
Nathan Willever
Medium & Materials:
Local, wild clay
Measurements:
11" x 11" x 18"
Date:
2022
Nathan Willever
Medium & Materials:
Local, wild clay
Measurements:
10.5" x 10.5" x 18"
Date:
2022
Nathan Willever was raised in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Ceramics from Maine College of Art. His functional pottery made from local materials have been featured in numerous national exhibitions and publications such as Ceramics Monthly, Pottery Making Illustrated and Clay Times. In 2019 he was se-lected to be a Ceramics Monthly Emerging Artist. His work has been shown nationally at galleries including Schaller Gal-lery, The Clay Studio, Akar Design, Jane Hartsook Gallery and The Ohio Craft Museum. He has taught workshops at institutions such as Ox-Bow School of Art, Touchstone Center for Craft, Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill and Haystack Mountain School of Crafts. In 2018 he was selected by Haystack to be a guest artist at The Shi-garaki Ceramic Culture Park in Shigaraki, Japan. He was awarded The 2018 Sybille Zeldin Fellowship at The Clay Studio in Philadelphia Pennsylvania. In 2019 he was a Windgate Scholar at the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts.
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