MarkShapiro Biography Artist Statement Resume Resources Publications

Mark Shapiro has made wood fired functional pots in Western Massachusetts for the past twenty years. He is a frequent workshop leader and panelist. His interests include early American stoneware as a source of inspiration for contemporary potters, apprenticeship, and criticism and documentation of the field. His work is shown by the Ferrin and Lacoste Galleries in Massachusetts and is in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian Institution, the Racine Art Museum, the Mint Museum (NC), the International Muesun of Ceramics at Alfred, NY, and the Currier Museum (NH).

"The town is sacked. Silver and gold, even bronze, are beaten into crude billets to be hauled off and melted. Houses burned; prisoners taken, or not. And in the wreckage: bones, stones, and pot-shards.

Clay’s low material intrinsic value and fragility, ironically, make it endure as one of the most compelling records of the human touch on the earth. The bottom of the ovoid jug is marked by the potter’s two-hundred-year-old fingerprints, just as the earth’s strata are uniquely marked in clay fragments by all the peoples who struggled here to endure.

Where will my pots end up? In the landfills with the lawnmowers and TVs and silicon chips—the giant middens of our insatiable desires? No matter. I am glad just to leave a record of my own touch in this most receptive fragile and enduring material."

- Mark Shapiro

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MARK SHAPIRO
42 Conwell Road
Worthington, MA 01098
tel • 413-238-5362 • fax
stonepool@mindspring.com
www.stonepoolpottery.com

EDUCATION
1989 Penland School, studio assistant, Michael Simon
1987 Penland School, studio assistant, Mary Roehm
1978 Amherst College, BA in anthropology

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2008
“Mark Shapiro” Kobo Gallery, Seattle, WA
“Mark Shapiro and Peter Beesecker”, Akar Gallery, Iowa City, IA
“2-D, 3-D,” Ferrin Gallery, SOFA New York
“American Masters,” Mudfire Pottery, Decatur, GA
“Utilitarian Clay V: Celebrate the Object,” Arrowmont, Gatlinburg, TN
“Three Potters,” Foster Gallery, Noble & Greenough School, Dedham, MA
“Made in Clay,” Greenwich House Pottery, New York, NY

2007
“4th World Ceramic Biennale” (invited artist) Icheon World Ceramic Center, Icheon Korea
“Range of Motion” (solo exhibition) Lacoste Gallery, Concord MA
“Recent Work” (solo exhibition) Ferrin Gallery, Lenox MA

2006
“Table Matters, International Contemporary Tableware” Crafts Council Gallery, (Emmanuel Cooper, curator), London England
“Tea: Engaging the Senses” White Lotus Gallery, Eugene OR
“30/30” Lill Street Art Center, Chicago IL “Watershed Artists” Ferrin Gallery, SOFA New York NY
“Featured Artist” Akar Gallery, Iowa City IA
“Pottery Jam” (curator) Worcester Center for Crafts, Worcester MA

2005
“American Masters” Santa Fe Clay, Santa FE NM
“Gropius Master Artist: Mark Shapiro” Huntington Museum of Art, Huntington WV
“Fill it to the Rim” Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan WI
“Lacoste Gallery Artists” SOFA, New York City NY
“Karen Karnes and Her Legacy” SOFA, Chicago IL
“Functional Clay” Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art, Great Falls MT

2004
“Mark Shapiro: New Work” Lacoste Gallery, Concord MA
“Mark Shapiro” AKAR Gallery, Iowa City IA
“Contemporary New England Ceramics” Currier Museum of Art, Manchester NH
“Studio Potters” Ferrin Gallery, SOFA Chicago, Chicago IL
“Mark Shapiro, Matt Metz, Mara Superior” Ferrin Gallery, New York Ceramics Fair, National Academy of Design, New York NY “Old Worlds/New Worlds” (curator) Lacoste Gallery, Concord MA
“Functional Ceramics” Wooster Craft Center, Wooster OH

2003
“Great Pots” Newark Museum of Art, Newark NJ
“New York Ceramics Fair” Ferrin Gallery, National Academy of Design, New York NY
“Container/Content” Fuller Museum of Art, Brockton MA
“Asian Influences” White Lotus Gallery, Eugene OR
“Mark Shapiro” Clay Studio, Philadelphia PA
“Functional Pottery” Santa Fe Clay, Santa Fe NM
“Salon Exhibition” Lacoste Gallery, Concord MA
“Influences—Michael Simon: Michael Kline, Mark Shapiro, & Sam Taylor” Earth & Fire Gallery, Vienna VA

2002
“Pots Presented” Baltimore Clay Works, Baltimore MD
“New York Ceramics Fair” Ferrin Gallery, National Academy of Design, New York NY
“Mark Shapiro and Mara Superior” Ferrin Gallery, Lenox MA
“Newbury Street Window” Society of Arts and Crafts, Boston MA
“Studio Potters” Ferrin Gallery, SOFA Chicago, Chicago IL

2001
“Clay USA” Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian Museum, Washington DC
“Objects for Use: Handmade by Design” American Craft Museum, New York NY
“Mark Shapiro” Lacoste Gallery, Concord MA
“25 Select 25” Lill Street Gallery, Chicago IL
“Salt & Ash” Santa Fe Clay, Santa Fe NM
“Twenty-Two Ways of Clay” Meadows Gallery, University of Texas, Tyler TX

2000
“Beyond the Body: Architectural Ceramics” Lacoste Gallery, Concord MA (curator)
“Clay/Wood/Fire/Salt” Folk Art Center, Asheville NC
“The Poetics of Austerity” WDO Gallery, Charlotte NC
“Pots for Daily Life” Show of Hands Gallery, Denver CO
“SOFA Chicago” Ferrin Gallery, “Teapots Transformed,” Chicago IL
“Smithsonian Museum Craft Show” Washington DC
“Twenty Stokers” Blue Heron Gallery, Deer Isle ME
“Woodfire 2000” Lill Street Gallery, Chicago IL

1999
“Born of the Ashes” Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock AR
“Tender Edges: Mark Shapiro & Silvie Granatelli” WDO Gallery, Charlotte NC
“Karen Karnes and Friends” Vermont Center for Crafts, Waterbury VT
“Surface, Form & Fire: Paul Dresang, Mark Shapiro, & Michael Simon” Ferrin Gallery, MA
“International Woodfire Exhibition” Iowa City IA
“Clay Today” Islip Art Museum, Islip NY
“A Fiery Influence” (Cynthia Bringle) Folk Art Center, Asheville NC

1998
“Strictly Functional Pottery National” Market House Craft Center, Ephrata PA
“Intimate Influences” (with Sam Taylor & Michael Kline) Craft Alliance, St. Louis MO
“A Collector’s Invitational: Wood-fired Pottery” (curator Dewayne Perry) Ferrin Gallery

1997
“Functional Work, American Potters” Arvada Center for the Arts & Humanities, CO
“Pottery Exhibition II” Joanne Rapp Gallery, Scottsdale AZ

1996
“Mark Shapiro” Ferrin Gallery, Northampton MA
“Mark Shapiro: Wood-fired Pottery” WDO Gallery, Charlotte NC
“Wood, Fire, Salt” Contemporary Artifacts Gallery, Berea KY
“In the Stoneware Tradition” (co-curator) Ferrin Gallery, Northampton MA

1995
“Third Annual Teapot Show” Craft Alliance, St. Louis MO
“Mark Shapiro: Wood-fired Tableware” Restaurant Tokyo, New York NY
“Studio Japan Annual Open House” Kingston NJ
“Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show” Philadelphia PA

1994
“Teapot Show” Lill Street Gallery, Chicago IL
“Home and Garden” Pewabic Pottery at the Ford Estate, Grosse Pointe IL
“Invitational Pottery Show” Old Church Cultural Center, Demerest NJ
“Smithsonian Craft Show” Washington DC

1993
“NCECA Clay National” San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego CA

1992
“Wood-fired Ceramics” Ferrin Gallery, Northampton MA
“Nine Massachusetts Potters” Fitchburg Museum of Art, Fitchburg MA

1991
“American Woodfire ‘91” University of Iowa Museum of Art, Iowa City IA

SELECTED TEACHING, LECTURES, & CURATING:

2008
Panelist: “Critically Speaking,” at NCECA, Pittsburgh, PA; Utilitarian Clay (Andrew Glasgow, moderator)
Demonstrator: Utilitarian Clay Conference, Arrowmont School, TN
Workshops: Penland; Columbia University Teacher’s College; Seward Park, Seattle, WA
Visiting Artist: Virginia Commonwealth College

2007
Curator: “Containing History,” a show of 8 contemporary potters, concurrent with exhibition of the ceramic collection of Albany Institute of History and Art, Albany, NY
Workshop: Greenwich House Pottery, NY
Visiting Artist: Penn State University, PA

2006
Demonstration: early American stoneware techniques, POTS Conference, Newark, NJ
Workshops: Haystack School, ME (with Karen Karnes); Anderson Ranch, CO; Penland School, NC (with Michael Kline)

2005
Moderator: “Karen Karnes, From the Inside Out” (film), SOFA, Chicago, IL
Panelist & Initiator: “Apprenticeship: Alternative Paths in Ceramic Education,” NCECA Gropius Master Workshop, Huntington Museum of Art, Huntington WV

2004
Panelist: The Philosophical Legacies of Studio Pottery, SOFA Chicago Workshops at 92nd St Y, New York NY; Baltimore Clayworks, Baltimore MD

2003
Featured Demonstrator: Mid-Atlantic Clay Conference, Font Royal VA
Lecture and Demonstration: Great Pots, Newark Museum of Art, Newark NJ
Workshops: “Historical influences on contemporary stoneware,” Penland School (with Ellen Denker); Clay Studio, Philadelphia PA
Demonstration: Massachusetts College of Art, Boston MA

2002
Lecture: “Early American Stoneware and the Present,” New York Ceramics Fair, National Academy of Design, New York NY

2001
Panel (moderator and initiator): “Early American Stoneware Traditions” with Charles Zug and John Burrison panelists, NCECA Charlotte NC

2000
Lecture & Demonstration: “Teapots Transformed: Points of View,” SOFA Chicago Workshop at Wesleyan Potters, Middletown CT

1999
Workshops: Castle Hill, Truro MA; Worcester Center for Crafts, Worcester MA

1998
Lecture: “Putting on Wares: Pottery, Privilege & Folk Traditions,” Amherst College, MA

1997
Workshops: Haystack School, Deer Isle ME; 92nd Street Y, New York NY

1996
Workshops: Penland School, North Carolina; Mudflat, Somerville MA

SELECTED AWARDS
Strictly Functional award, 2000 (Ken Ferguson, juror)
Strictly Functional, 1998 (Cynthia Bringle, juror)
Finalist, New England Foundation for the Arts, 1997
Emerging Talent, National Council for Education of the Ceramic Arts, 1995

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
2008
Racz, Imogen. Contemporary Crafts. Berg Publishers, UK.
“Working Potters” (feature), Ceramics Monthly (forthcoming)
“Firing Philosophies” (book review), Ceramics Monthly (forthcoming)

2007
Catalog essays on Hamada, Kawai, Meaders, Karnes, for Innovation and Change (forthcoming, Arizona State University)

2006
“The Potter’s Eye” (book review) American Craft 66.2 (April/May 2006)
Interview of Michael Simon, Studio Potter 32.2 (June 2006)
Interview of Michael Simon, Laitman Archives of American Craft, Smithsonian Institution Washington DC
Interview of Karen Karnes, Laitman Archives of American Craft, Smithsonian Institution Washington DC
“A Well Dusted Collection” Scott Frankenberger, Ceramics Monthly, 54.8 (October 2006)

2005
Norris, Scott, “Mark Shapiro,” (show review) American Craft 65.2 (April/May 2005)
“Lyrical Functionalism,” Studio Potter 33.2 (June 2005)

2004
“Beneath the Surface, Linda Sikora: A Conversation with Mark Shapiro” Studio Potter 32.2 (June 2004)
Braham, Jeanne. Made By Hand: Art and Craft in the Heartland of New England. Commonwealth Editions.

2003
Dietz, Ulysses G. Great Pots: Contemporary Ceramics from Function to Fantasy. Guild.
“Mark Shapiro” cover story, Scott Norris, Ceramics Monthly, September 2003.
“Mid-Atlantic Clay Conference,” Clay Times, November/December 2003.
The Penland Book of Ceramics: Master Classes in Ceramic Techniques. Lark Books.
Rogers, Phil. Salt-Glazed Ceramics.

2002
“Old Church Cultural Center, 28th Show” Ceramics Monthly, December 2002
“Mark Shapiro,” cover story, Fine Art Ceramics, February 2002

2001
Smith, Paul J. Objects for Use: Handmade by Design. American Craft Museum.

2000
Ferrin, Leslie. Teapots Transformed: Exploration of an Object. Guild Publishing.

1999
Du Bois, Alan, Born of the Ashes: Woodfired Ceramics, Arkansas Arts Center Decorative Arts Museum, Little Rock AR PUBLIC

COLLECTIONS
Arkansas Arts Center Decorative Arts Museum, Little Rock AR
Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, NH
Huntington Museum of Art, Huntington WV
International Museum of Ceramic Art, Alfred NY
Mint Museum of Craft+Design, Charlotte NC
Newark Museum, Newark NJ
Racine Art Museum, Racine WI
Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC
American Museum of Contemporary Ceramic Art, Pomona, CA

OTHER
Ceramics Monthly, advisory board
Studio Potter, contributing advisor