Tony Wright

Biography

• BFA, Minnesota State University, Moorhead
• MFA, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale

I have been obsessed with clay for close to thirty years. For much of my early career, the work focused almost exclusively on the use of the potter’s wheel in creating vessels for utilitarian and decorative purposes. Although this has been the mainstay of my studio practice, investigations during the past fifteen years routinely drawn me away from the strict symmetry inherent to wheel-thrown vessels and reliance on traditional high-fired glaze surfaces.

My studio work now runs the gamut from both subtle to whimsical interpretations of vessel forms, to large and small-scaled figurative sculptures employing a wide range of forming and surface techniques. I attribute this joy of experimentation to the fact that I teach in a relatively small academic art program. As the sole full-time ceramics professor, I regularly teach all levels of students and try to provide solid instruction in the broad range of materials, processes and contexts that clay affords. As I attempt to address the diverse needs and interests of my students, I find myself asking new and varied questions of my own studio work.

Publications

Since the fall of 2000, Tony Wright has had work in over 125 exhibitions, including the following:

• 6 solo exhibitions
• 65 Invitational exhibitions
• 82 pieces selected for inclusion in 55 different juried exhibitions at the local, regional, national and international levels.

Courses

• ARS 124 Three- Dimensional Design
• ARS 241 Introduction to Ceramics
• ARS 341 Intermediate Ceramics
• ARS 441 Advanced Ceramics
• ARS 494 Directed Studies-Ceramics
• ARS 498 Senior Thesis
• ARS 540 Graduate Ceramics