Shawn Spangler

Shawn Spangler's work draws inspiration from craft, industrial design and digital technology. His installation projects raise questions concerning authorship and commodification of objects, highlighting the connections and margins between digital and analog processes of producing ceramic vessels. After attaining his MFA from Alfred University he was a resident artist at The Clay Studio in Philadelphia PA. Spangler is a founding member of a co-op educational gallery site called Objective Clay. His wheel thrown porcelain forms can be complex, yet clearly articulated, oftentimes created through the combination of multiple parts. The forms are reminiscent of both the Koryo dynasty and Song dynasty, examples he observed as a resident artist in China in 2002. He states, ”My work is an amalgamated map of the world I reflect upon. Producing pottery is a kind of play; a regenerative act ripe with reverence, revealing the human hands enduring connection to creativity. It guides us through stories of our past remaining as a cultural signifier to help us locate where we once were and where we are going."

Noted for his distinct work, Spangler is widely collected and his ceramics  can be found in numerous public collections nationally and internationally, including in the The American Museum of Ceramic Arts, Pomona, CA; the Newark Museum of Art. NJ;  the Schein-Joseph International Museum of Ceramics, Alfred, NY;  Jingdezhen Institute of Art, Museum of Ceramics Art, P.R. China; the John and Maxine Belger Family Foundation Collection, Kansas City, MO; National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts, CO; Shiwan Ceramic Museum, P.R. China; The Clay Studio, Philadelphia, PA; and in the Western Illinois University, University Art Gallery Collection, Macomb, IL.