Neil Tetkowski
| Neil Tetkowski | |
|---|---|
| Born | December 19, 1955 Buffalo, New York |
| 🏫 Education | Alfred University (BFA), Illinois State University (MFA) |
| 💼 Occupation | |
| Known for | Artist, educator, curator, gallery director |
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Neil Tetkowski (born 1955) is an artist, curator, educator, writer, philosopher and political activist. Born in Buffalo, New York, Tetkowski lives in New York City and is the Director of University Galleries at Kean University in Union, New Jersey.[1]
Biography[edit]
Early years[edit]
Tetkowski’s introduction to art began at an early age, as his father was a college professor of design and his mother a high school teacher of art. As a young boy, he and his family lived in Siena, Italy, where he attended an Italian public school. Tetkowski became involved with art and music in the tenth grade. He graduated from Grand Island High School in 1973. He studied at Alfred University.[2]
1980s[edit]
Tetkowski earned his MFA degree in 1980 from Illinois State University. From 1980 to 1983 he held the position of assistant professor at Denison University in central Ohio and in 1983. In 1984 he was a resident artist at Artpark in Lewiston, New York. From Ohio he returned to Buffalo, where he was an assistant professor at the State University College of New York at Buffalo, until 1987. He received a Fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts in 1986.[1] During the 1980s Tetkowski was the subject of solo shows at Mogul Gallery in Washington, D.C.; Dolgenos, Bergen and Newman Gallery, New York;[3] Akasaka Green Gallery, Tokyo; Nina Freudenheim Gallery, Buffalo; and Objects Gallery, Chicago. In 1988 he was also featured in a solo show at Gallery Ueda, Tokyo, in cooperation with the American Embassy there.[1][2] In 1987 the artwork changed as his studio was now in an old brick factory in upstate New York.[4]
1990s – Performative works[edit]
In the 1990s, he began a landmark series of performance events using clay to express and record a personal choreography of art in action.[5] Watching Tetkowski work is like watching an actor prepare for a performance. He builds himself up to a highly charged physical and emotional level until he is fully focused and ready to create.[4] The artist’s energy, movement and gestures are recorded as ‘footprints’ in massive organic disks and wall-hung forms. Embedded in these lush naturalistic forms are fragments of industrial urban culture: iron spikes, screws and hooks. For artist Neil Tetkowski, clay is a metaphor for the Earth. His art consists of transforming raw material into another state, imbuing it with a sense of soul and identity. What emerges from the kiln are objects the artist calls “ diary notations of actions or events”. It is this pervasive and powerful sense of ‘process’ that engages the viewer of these energetic and muscular works.[5]
On February 23, 1991 Tetkowski did a performance, titled “Ground War” with a video documented head-shaving.[6] Having smeared himself with a blood-like substance, he worked at an oversized potter's wheel surrounded by performing jazz musicians. A 3-foot "disk" was ceremoniously thrown, lowered to the floor. Marks and impressions were made by individual bullets, cartridge belts and full rifle clips being dragged across/ impressed in the clay.[7] The work was later cast in bronze and is on public display in Hiroshima, Japan.
In 1993 Tetkowski conducted a commissioned performance work titled L'ador V'ador – (generation to generation), involving Jutta Lewkowic, a holocaust survivor, and her five-year-old grandson.[6]
2000s – The Common Ground World Project[edit]
Completed in 2002, the “Common Ground World Project” kept the artist busy for the better part of five years. His vision: collect earth samples from all United Nations countries, blend the samples into a common “world clay”, and sculpt a work of art symbolizing unity and our shared humanity.[8] At the center of the ceramic eight-foot spiral is the handprint of Mary Livornese Cavalieri (1899–2008), a 100-year-old woman, and inside is the tiny print of Kelly Rose Tom, a new born baby. The World Mandala was created at the United Nations in New York City, April 10 – May 15, 2000. The completed work was shown at the United Nations January 28 – March 6, 2002. A touring exhibition including related objects and "Installation 188" has been to many venues including the Everson Museum in Syracuse, New York[9] and at the Ceramic Biennale, Icheon World Ceramic Center, Icheon, Korea. The Kanazawa Project, 2002, titled "Generations in Time" was sponsored by the city government of Kanazawa, Japan to mark the 40th anniversary of its sister-city program with Buffalo, New York. Tetkowski organized one hundred people consecutively aged from one to one hundred, to place their handprint in a huge clay mandala.[10]
Tetkowski's work is found in 45 museum collections around the world, including the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Museum of Modern Art, Kogeikan in Tokyo; the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City; the Smithsonian Institution, in Washington, DC; the New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, New Jersey, and the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh.[1]
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 "International Academy of Ceramics Membership Profile".
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 McTwigan, Michael (1989). "Neil Tetkowski". American Ceramics. 7 (1): 16–23.
- ↑ Freudenheim, Betty (December 3, 1987). "2 Pottery Exhibitions, Midtown and SoHo". The New York Times.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Carlson, Charles (September 1987). "Neil Tetkowski: American Iron and Steel". Ceramics Monthly: 45–50.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 McFadden, David Revere (2001). "Neil Tetkowski's Urban Ikebana". Ceramics: Art and Perception (43): 85–86.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Fabiniak, Manya (1993). "Clay, steel, confrontation, and concern". Ceramics: Art and Perception (14): 56–60.
- ↑ "Tetkowski: Ground war". Ceramics Monthly: 12–14. 1991.
- ↑ "Uncommon Clay". Secretariat News: 19. January–April 2002.
- ↑ Hunt, Bill (August–September 2002). "Common ground: Neil tetkowski's world mandala monument". American Craft: 6–8.
- ↑ Hirschfeld, Sasha (March 2005). "Generations in Time". Ceramics Monthly: 19.
External links[edit]
- Neil Tetkowski at Library of Congress Authorities, with 1 catalog records
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