Adrian Saxe is an American ceramic artist who was born in Glendale, California in 1943. He lives and works in Los Angeles, California.[1]
Biography
Saxe studied at the Chouinard Art Institute (Los Angeles, California) from 1965 to 1969 and earned a B.F.A. degree at the California Institute of the Arts (Valencia, California).[2] Saxe's early works were primarily site-specific sculpture that employed large arrays of modular ceramic sections. Later, he turned to producing ornate vessels.
He has produced work for major solo and group exhibitions around the world and in 1983 he became the first artist fellow in residency at L’Atelier Experimental de Recherche et de Creation de la Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres in France.[3] His work was the subject of a major mid-career survey organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1993–94, which traveled to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Shigaraki, Japan, and to the Newark Museum of Art in Newark, NJ.[4]
In a 1993 review of Saxe's work, art critic Christopher Knight wrote:
“With outrageous humor and unspeakable beauty, he makes intensely seductive objects that exploit traditional anthropomorphic qualities associated with ceramics. Having pressed the question of the utility of his own art in a post-industrial world, his work engages us in a dialogue about our own place in a radically shifting cultural universe. The result is that Saxe has become the most significant ceramic artist of his generation.”[5]
Saxe is currently a professor in the Art Department at the University of California, Los Angeles.[6]
Museum collections
Arizona State University Art Museum, Ceramics Research Center, Tempe, Arizona[7]
The White House Collection of American Crafts, Washington, D.C.[26]
Solo exhibitions
GRIN—Genetic Robotic Information Nano (Technologies), Frank Lloyd Gallery, Santa Monica, California, 2011
New Work, Frank Lloyd Gallery, Santa Monica, California, 2004
Garth Clark Gallery, New York, New York, 2000
The American Hand, Washington, D.C., 1998
Wish I may, Wish I might, Frank Lloyd Gallery, Santa Monica, California, Garth Clark Gallery, New York, 1997
Garth Clark Gallery, New York, New York, 1996
Garth Clark Gallery, Los Angeles, California, 1995
Garth Clark Gallery, New York, New York, 1994
The Clay Art of Adrian Saxe, Los Angeles County Museum of Art traveled to the Museum of Contemporary Ceramic Art, Shigaraki, Japan and Newark Museum, New Jersey (1993–1995)
Garth Clark Gallery, New York, New York, 1992
Garth Clark Gallery, Los Angeles, California, 1991
Garth Clark Gallery, Kansas City, Missouri, 1991
Garth Clark Gallery, New York, New York, 1990
Garth Clark Gallery, Los Angeles, California, 1989
Garth Clark Gallery, New York, New York, 1988
Art Gallery, University of Missouri, Kansas City, Missouri, 1987
Garth Clark Gallery, New York, New York, 1987
Garth Clark Gallery, Los Angeles, California, 1985
The American Hand, Washington, D.C., 1985
Garth Clark Gallery, New York, New York, 1985
Garth Clark Gallery, New York, New York, 1983
The American Hand, Washington, D.C., 1983
Thomas Segal Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts, 1983
Garth Clark Gallery, Los Angeles, California, 1982
Galusha, Emily (ed.), What's Clay Got to do with it?, A symposium on ceramics criticism, March 24–25, 1995, Saint Paul, Minn., Northern Clay Center, 1995.
Levin, Elaine M. (ed.), Movers and Shakers in American Ceramics, Defining Twentieth Century Ceramics, A collection of articles from Ceramics monthly, Westerville, OH, American Ceramic Society, 2003.
Lynn, Martha Drexler, The Clay Art of Adrian Saxe, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1993.