Ceramics

Walter Hall | This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
Associate Professor
MFA: University of Massachusetts, Amherst
BA: Haverford College

Walter Hall received his BA in Fine Arts from Haverford College in 1971 and his MFA in ceramics from the University of Massachusetts/Amherst in 1975. His ceramics education also includes workshops with several prominent ceramists at the Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina, the Kohler Company in Kohler, Wisconsin and the personal studio of Robert Turner in Alfred Station, New York, among others.

After completing graduate school, he began teaching ceramics at the Hartford Art School in 1975. He has been a full-time member of the faculty since 1976, receiving tenure in 1982. He has coordinated ceramics workshops at the Hartford Art School featuring the artists Richard Shaw, Ron Nagle, John Roloff and Jun Kaneko.

Known first for painterly porcelain wall plates, since the mid-eighties Hall has focused on sculptural ceramic pieces, made by combining steel mesh with ceramic mortar. His work has been shown in solo exhibitions at The Clay Studio in Philadelphia (twice), Haverford College, the College of William and Mary in Virginia, and the Paul Mellon Arts Center at Choate-Rosemary Hall in Wallingford, Connecticut, among others. His work has been included in many invitational and competitive group exhibitions throughout the country, including "Yankee Clay: Ceramic Artists of the Northeast" at the Slater Museum in Norwich, Connecticut; the "27th Ceramic National" at the Everson Museum (NY) and the American Craft Museum (NYC); "American Porcelain" at the Renwick Gallery, National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution (show traveled throughout the U.S. and Southeast Asia); Pewabic Pottery in Detroit; "The Contemporary Ceramic Plate" at the Everson Museum; "Clay From Molds" at the Kohler Arts Center in Wisconsin; "Young Americans: Clay/Glass" at the Museum of Contemporary Crafts (NYC). Hall’s work is included in the following books on contemporary ceramics: The Craft and Art of Clay by Susan Peterson, The New Ceramics by Peter Dormer, Porcelain: Traditions and New Visions by Axel and McCready, and Finding One’s Way With Clay by Paulus Berensohn. His work has also appeared in the leading journals of ceramic art, including American Ceramics, American Craft, Ceramics Monthly and the West Coast art periodical, Artweek.

Matthew Towers | This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
Associate Professor
MFA: New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University
BFA: New York University

Matthew Towers received his B.F.A. in Theater from New York University and his M.F.A. in Ceramics from The New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University in 1996. He is currently an Associate Professor of Ceramics at the Hartford Art School, University of Hartford in Connecticut, where he has been teaching since 1997. In the summer of 2000 Towers was an artist-in-residence at the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, Montana. In 2004 he received a grant from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts. His work has been shown nationally and internationally in solo and group exhibitions such as Ceramics ‘97, Ceramics ‘99 , Ceramics 2001 and Ceramics 2005 (CT), White on White (MD), NCECA 2005 Clay National Exhibition (MD), Greenwich House Pottery (NYC), Pewabic Pottery (MI), The Elmhurst Art Museum, (IL), The Slater Memorial Museum (CT), The Archie Bray Foundation (MT) and the Wexler Gallery (PA). He has also lectured at the University of Washington (WA), Sienna Heights University (MI), The University of Connecticut (CT), The University of Long Beach (CA), Rhode Island School of Design (RI), Alfred University (NY), Northern Arizona University (AZ) and the University of Alaska (AK). His work is in collections such as The Jingdezhen Museum of Ceramics (China), The Schein-Joseph International Museum of Ceramic Art, (NY), The Archie Bray Foundation (MT) and the Pfannebecker Collection (PA). His work is also featured in the books Sex Pots Eroticism in Ceramics by Paul Mathieu and Overseas Contemporary Ceramic Art Classics by Bai Ming.