Michelle Erickson, a graduate of the College of William and Mary with a BFA in Fine and Performing Arts, lives in Yorktown, Virginia. The owner of her own pottery company, she reproduces ceramics from archeological sites and the acquired collections of organizations such as Colonial Williamsburg, the National Park Services, Parks Canada, the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts, the Philadelphia Museum of Art and Historic Deefrield. The following is a statement from the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art regarding her exhibition Conversations in Clay (May 21 – August 16). In it, the artist showcases works that draw on her extensive historical knowledge of ceramic production, combined with contemporary narratives. In addition she is one of the artists included the exhibition, Trophies and Prey: A Contemporary Bestiary, curated by Garth Clark and Mark Del Vecchio at Peter’s Projects (Santa Fe, August 6 – October 6, 2015) that will, in part, benefit the CFile Foundation.
Above image: Michelle Erickson, Green Pickle Stand
Michelle Erickson, Potter’s Field, 2011, slip decorated earthenware using trailing method of 18th century Staffordshire slipware traditions. Photograph by Gavin Ashworth. Courtesy of the artist. Click to see a larger image.
Internationally acclaimed artist, Michelle Erickson creates thought-provoking sculptural works that comment on life in the 21st century. Years of scholarly research into lost ceramics arts from the 17th and 18th centuries inform her narrative works. In this exhibition, Conversations in Clay, Erickson infuses these rediscovered arts with social, political, and environmental observations to create masterful works that engage and inspire.
Michelle Erickson, Taste in High Life, 2004, glazed porcelain. Photograph by Gavin Ashworth. From the collection of Sonny and Gloria Kamm.
Erickson’s artwork has collections in major museums, such as the Victoria & Albert Museum (London), Museum of Art & Design (NY), and the Carnegie Museum of Art (PA). She lectures and demonstrates her work for institutions like the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the British Museum, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and has consulted on and designed ceramics for several major motion pictures such as The Patriot and The New World, and most recently the HBO series John Adams. She was even asked to craft a royal gift to present Queen Elizabeth II on her 2007 visit to Jamestown, Virginia.
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Michelle Erickson, Globular Chintz Teapot, 2006, wheel thrown creamware, sprig molded and handbuilt. Photograph by Gavin Ashworth. Courtesy of the artist. Click to see a larger image.
Michelle Erickson, Fly Knit Dragon Ewer, 2014; hand built, sprig molded porcelain and black earthenware. Courtesy of the Artist. Photograph by Robert Hunter.
Michelle Erickson, Rake’s Progress: The Orgy Scene, 2014; slip cast and hand built, life cast shells. Photograph by Robert Hunter. Courtesy of the artist.
Michelle Erickson, Relic, 2015; porcelain and indigenous clays, slip cast and hand built, high temperature wood fire. Photograph by Robert Hunter. Courtesy of the artist. Click to see a larger image.
Michelle Erickson
I met Michelle at the V&A when she was artist in residence. She had made moulds using kids plastic frogs. She allowed my kids to use the moulds to make clay frogs. My kids and I loved meeting her and have not forgotten the experience.
I love how her works are inspired by the ceramic discourse I especially like her piece titled Potter’s Field using slip trailed decorated earthenware in the method of 18th century Staffordshire slipware traditions.
Michelle is an artist and designer of amazing skill and fantastic imagination. Seeing an exhibit of her work is always a remarkable experience.