Cups purchased can be picked up or shipped after the exhibition closes on December 8th, 2025.
Extruded clay, soda-fired stoneware 4.5 x 4 x 3 inches 2025
Richard Burkett is an Emeritus Professor of Art at San Diego State University, teaching from 1989 until 2019. From 1973 to 1983 he ran his Wild Rose Pottery in Indiana, and then returned to academia receiving the M.F.A. degree in both ceramics and photography from Indiana University-Bloomington in 1986. His clay work has largely focused on salt and soda-fired vessel forms since early in his career, creating both functional and sculptural work. Hovering between pottery and sculpture, some pieces move in a sculptural direction, yet still derive some of their form from vestiges of more utilitarian work. This a fascinating interplay, with one body of work informing the other and making both stronger for their interaction. HIs influences include a diverse range of mostly vessel-oriented forms, from the often mysterious chemical glassware and porcelain I grew up with in my father’s 1900s-era chemical laboratory, to ancient South American pottery, to odd bits of farm equipment from my grandfather’s farm and the industrial detritus that litters our world. He currently works mostly in his home studio in San Diego at the southern edge of the U.S. He has traveled extensively in Ecuador over the last almost 30 years with Joe Molinaro documenting indigenous pottery cultures in the Amazon basin and elsewhere. Richard Burkett is the co-author of Mythical Figures & Mucawas: Ceramics from the Ecuadorian Amazon; Ceramics: A Potter’s Handbook; and Porcelain Masters: major works by leading artists. An early adopter of digital and web technology for ceramics, he created HyperGlaze educational glaze calculation software for artists in 1988. Burkett has lectured on ceramics in Wales, Korea, Ecuador, Sweden, Turkey, and Finland, and taught workshops across the U.S. and in Canada. He was recently awarded NCECA Honorary Membership for his contributions to the ceramics field.
