Kathy Erteman

Kathy Erteman is a New York-based ceramic artist dividing her time between studios in New York City and the Hudson Valley. With a studio practice spanning more than 40 years, Erteman creates both functional and non-functional vessels as well as wall mounted compositions and installations. Employing technical expertise with a modernist aesthetic, her work demonstrates a reductive approach to formal composition resulting in works that are minimal in form activated by abstract surface decoration and subtle texture. Erteman describes her process and relationship to the medium: “As my craftsmanship skill increases, my desire to control the process lessens. Control versus chance currently plays a larger role in my work as I too surrender to the process and allow the clay to speak more freely.”

Erteman, a native of Santa Monica, CA, received her BFA in ceramics from California State University Long Beach. After graduating, she interned with Judy Chicago, working on The Dinner Party ceramic installation. Erteman’s work has been exhibited internationally and is included in private and public collections including the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institute, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Taipei Museum of Fine Arts, Icheon World Ceramic Museum, and the Johnson Collection.

"There are many ways to approach art making with clay. I adhere to traditional ceramic practices in making sculptural vessels and works for the wall. The study of early 20th-century architecture and design by international modernists contribute to my attitude about form. European ceramists Gertrude and Otto Natzler, Lucie Rie and Hans Coper were my earliest influences.

The essence of my work is minimal form activated by its surface treatment. I embrace a modernist aesthetic and employ a reductive approach to formal composition, aiming to eliminate unnecessary details to arrive at an articulate vessel form, one that could work at any scale, and allows for texture and color to become integrated within.

Abstract painting with bold texture and complex color informs my fired surface treatments. Albers rich muted palette, and that of Mark Rothko and works of various contemporary painters find their way into my work.

My relationship with the materials is key as I aim for a balance between restraint and spontaneity in both form and surface. Emotion and gesture prompted by the natural world quietly find their way into the work.

 As my craftsmanship skill increases my desire to control the process lessens. Control versus chance currently plays a larger role in my work as I to surrender to the process and allow the clay to speak more freely."

-Kathy Erteman