Peter Beasecker
Peter Beasecker – guest artist
Peter Beasecker was born in Toledo, Ohio and received a BS degree from Miami University and his MFA from Alfred University. He is a Professor of Art teaching ceramics and graduate studies at Syracuse University’s College of Visual and Performing Arts. Beasecker has received numerous awards and distinctions in his career, and in 2015 was named a NYFA Fellow. He has exhibited extensively in national and international venues, and his work is included in the collections of the Everson Museum of Art, Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution, The Minneapolis Institute of Art and the Mint Museum in North Carolina. Beasecker has been a visiting artist and workshop leader at over sixty institutions, including Anderson Ranch, Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, Curaumilla Art Centre (Chile), Golden Bridge Pottery (India), Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, and the Penland School of Crafts. He has been the co-coordinator of the Utilitarian Clay Symposium at Arrowmont since 1996.
The relationships that most interest me right now are those found in such formal, well-worn queries as transparency/opacity, vertical/horizontal, and symmetry/asymmetry - as negotiated by intention and chance. As there is an increased premium on speed and efficiency, I feel more compelled to offer a slow and sometimes awkward experience, both in the reading and real use of a pot. Perhaps this is an antiquated and knee-jerk response for anyone involved with the production of a handmade object, and the inherent inefficiencies of time-intensive processes (at least mine). In response to the obsession with ‘fast’, I find myself more drawn to making the ‘slow’ object, such as a simple martini cup.
Peter Beasecker has exhibited extensively in national and international venues, and his work is included in the collections of the Everson Museum of Art, the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution, The Minneapolis Institute of Art, and the Mint Museum in North Carolina. He has been a visiting artist and workshop leader at over sixty institutions, including Anderson Ranch, Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, Centro de Arte Curaumilla (Chile), Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, and the Penland School of Crafts. He was the co-coordinator of the Utilitarian Clay Symposium at Arrowmont from 1996 - 2016. He currently is the Ceramics Coordinator at Syracuse University and maintains a studio in Cazenovia, New York.
Cazenovia, New York
