Eric Serritella
biography |
portfolio | artists listing
b. 1963, Ellenville, NY
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
Shui-Li Snake Kiln and Cultural Park, Nantou County, Taiwan
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2008 Hot Tea!, del Mano Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2007 Red, Baltimore Clayworks, MD
Kent State University 7th Annual National Juried Cup Show, (Grand Prize), Downtown
Gallery, Kent, OH
History in the Making II, (Third Place), Genesee Pottery, Rochester, NY
Cyberclay: The First International Exhibit of Clayart, NCECA, Gallery Janjobe, Louisville,
KY
Ah Leon & Friends: Taiwan Inspired Ceramic Art, Community School of Music & Arts,
Ithaca, NY
Craft Art Western New York, Burchfield-Penney Art Center, The Museum for Western
Arts, Buffalo, NY
Strictly Functional Pottery National, Lancaster, PA
Feats of Clay XIX, Lincoln Arts & Cultural Foundation, CA
Skin Deep, Francis Marion University, SC
Teapot Invitational, Rochester Folk Art Guild, NY
Art on the Water, Vanishing Point Art Gallery, NY
Opened Earth: The Beauty Within, Solo Exhibition, Cedar Arts Center, Corning, NY
Clay Lover’s Calendar Exhibition, Two Sisters Gallery, NC
It’s Only Clay, Bemidji Arts Council, Region 2 Arts Council, and Bemidji State University
Visual Arts Department, MN
Ceramics 2005-Fifth Biennial Exhibition of North American Clay, Guilford Handcraft
Center, CT
Earth, Wheel & Fire, International Museum of Art & Science, Smithsonian Affiliate, TX
Visions from East Asia, Solo Exhibition, Community School of Music & Arts, Ithaca, NY
Opened Earth: The Beauty Within, Solo Exhibition, Blink Gallery, Andes, NY
Painting with Fire, Solo Exhibition, Wessex-Bristol Gallery, Ithaca, NY
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
2007 Clay Times
“Claymate of the Year”, IC View, The Magazine of Ithaca College, Spring
2006 “Opened Earth: The Beauty Within”, Ceramics Monthly, December
“Unearthing Beauty: Revealing Surfaces from Within”, Pottery Making Illustrated,
September/October
Shu-Lin Wang, Ceramic Art Magazine, Feature
ARTIST'S BIOGRAPHY
Eric Serritella is a nationally exhibiting ceramic artist specializing in hand-carved trompe l’oeil vessels transformed into weathered logs and branches. Clay found him in 1996 when he took a hobby pottery class to find a new creative outlet and bring more balance to a busy corporate career. “I expected to simply discover an enjoyable pastime. Instead, clay dug its way into my very core.” He began Muddy Paws Pottery, a functional pottery production business, in effort to follow clay’s calling and to bring a new spirit and satisfaction to his work life.
Serritella has a BA in Communication from Ithaca College, where he also studied art history in Ithaca and London. His primary applied art training came in the form of two artist residencies studying with masters in Taiwan. The result, Serritella’s one-of-a-kind “Opened Earth” pottery and ‘Forest for the Trees” trompe l’oeil ceramic art, has been awarded and exhibited in galleries and museums from coast to coast. It has been featured in Ceramics Monthly, Pottery Making Illustrated, Clay Times, and Ceramic Art (Taiwan), as well as in several books on ceramic art. He has given workshops in the USA, Canada and Taiwan.
Serritella makes his work in a country studio overlooking rolling hills and farm fields just outside of Ithaca, NY. He starts every work day with Taiwanese Oolong Tea brewed Kung-Fu style in an Yixing teapot. “Sipping it, I listen to the birds and enjoy beautiful views of rolling hills, forests and meadows. This and other connections to nature are expressed and shared in my works.”
ARTIST'S STATEMENT
As an individual and as an artist, the purity of nature and the spontaneous, minimalist approach of the Asian art aesthetic have always inspired me. I appreciate how ceramic reflects the earth’s durability and fragility-strong, yet easily destroyed if disrespected.
Whether premeditated or spontaneously created, each piece is a relationship…the story of shared discovery. The clay and I make the journey together. Often we agree, and many times we do not. Regardless, the final form, the result of our conversation. Has a life all its own.
Forest for the Trees trompe l’oeil tree vessels represent a transformation. They are the reflection of philosophies and aesthetics that have formed me and are expressed anew through me.
The love of nature and the Buddhist principles of harmony. The fine craftsmanship of wares from Yixing, China. The beauty in imperfection, expressed so gracefully by the Japanese concept of wabi sabi and by nature herself. They represent nature’s triumph of existence, regardless of the disregard we humans have shown her.
Coming from disparate sources, these inspirations become one and flow like the wind and the water on the earth that feeds my soul, thus shaping the twisted branches and deeply weathered stumps that are my friends.
These works are inspired by years of climbing, sitting in and observing trees, and are created with meticulous detail to bring forth trees’ magnificence, individuality and energy.
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
Shui-Li Snake Kiln and Cultural Park, Nantou County, Taiwan
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2008 Hot Tea!, del Mano Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2007 Red, Baltimore Clayworks, MD
Kent State University 7th Annual National Juried Cup Show, (Grand Prize), Downtown
Gallery, Kent, OH
History in the Making II, (Third Place), Genesee Pottery, Rochester, NY
Cyberclay: The First International Exhibit of Clayart, NCECA, Gallery Janjobe, Louisville,
KY
Ah Leon & Friends: Taiwan Inspired Ceramic Art, Community School of Music & Arts,
Ithaca, NY
Craft Art Western New York, Burchfield-Penney Art Center, The Museum for Western
Arts, Buffalo, NY
Strictly Functional Pottery National, Lancaster, PA
Feats of Clay XIX, Lincoln Arts & Cultural Foundation, CA
Skin Deep, Francis Marion University, SC
Teapot Invitational, Rochester Folk Art Guild, NY
Art on the Water, Vanishing Point Art Gallery, NY
Opened Earth: The Beauty Within, Solo Exhibition, Cedar Arts Center, Corning, NY
Clay Lover’s Calendar Exhibition, Two Sisters Gallery, NC
It’s Only Clay, Bemidji Arts Council, Region 2 Arts Council, and Bemidji State University
Visual Arts Department, MN
Ceramics 2005-Fifth Biennial Exhibition of North American Clay, Guilford Handcraft
Center, CT
Earth, Wheel & Fire, International Museum of Art & Science, Smithsonian Affiliate, TX
Visions from East Asia, Solo Exhibition, Community School of Music & Arts, Ithaca, NY
Opened Earth: The Beauty Within, Solo Exhibition, Blink Gallery, Andes, NY
Painting with Fire, Solo Exhibition, Wessex-Bristol Gallery, Ithaca, NY
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
2007 Clay Times
“Claymate of the Year”, IC View, The Magazine of Ithaca College, Spring
2006 “Opened Earth: The Beauty Within”, Ceramics Monthly, December
“Unearthing Beauty: Revealing Surfaces from Within”, Pottery Making Illustrated,
September/October
Shu-Lin Wang, Ceramic Art Magazine, Feature
ARTIST'S BIOGRAPHY
Eric Serritella is a nationally exhibiting ceramic artist specializing in hand-carved trompe l’oeil vessels transformed into weathered logs and branches. Clay found him in 1996 when he took a hobby pottery class to find a new creative outlet and bring more balance to a busy corporate career. “I expected to simply discover an enjoyable pastime. Instead, clay dug its way into my very core.” He began Muddy Paws Pottery, a functional pottery production business, in effort to follow clay’s calling and to bring a new spirit and satisfaction to his work life.
Serritella has a BA in Communication from Ithaca College, where he also studied art history in Ithaca and London. His primary applied art training came in the form of two artist residencies studying with masters in Taiwan. The result, Serritella’s one-of-a-kind “Opened Earth” pottery and ‘Forest for the Trees” trompe l’oeil ceramic art, has been awarded and exhibited in galleries and museums from coast to coast. It has been featured in Ceramics Monthly, Pottery Making Illustrated, Clay Times, and Ceramic Art (Taiwan), as well as in several books on ceramic art. He has given workshops in the USA, Canada and Taiwan.
Serritella makes his work in a country studio overlooking rolling hills and farm fields just outside of Ithaca, NY. He starts every work day with Taiwanese Oolong Tea brewed Kung-Fu style in an Yixing teapot. “Sipping it, I listen to the birds and enjoy beautiful views of rolling hills, forests and meadows. This and other connections to nature are expressed and shared in my works.”
ARTIST'S STATEMENT
As an individual and as an artist, the purity of nature and the spontaneous, minimalist approach of the Asian art aesthetic have always inspired me. I appreciate how ceramic reflects the earth’s durability and fragility-strong, yet easily destroyed if disrespected.
Whether premeditated or spontaneously created, each piece is a relationship…the story of shared discovery. The clay and I make the journey together. Often we agree, and many times we do not. Regardless, the final form, the result of our conversation. Has a life all its own.
Forest for the Trees trompe l’oeil tree vessels represent a transformation. They are the reflection of philosophies and aesthetics that have formed me and are expressed anew through me.
The love of nature and the Buddhist principles of harmony. The fine craftsmanship of wares from Yixing, China. The beauty in imperfection, expressed so gracefully by the Japanese concept of wabi sabi and by nature herself. They represent nature’s triumph of existence, regardless of the disregard we humans have shown her.
Coming from disparate sources, these inspirations become one and flow like the wind and the water on the earth that feeds my soul, thus shaping the twisted branches and deeply weathered stumps that are my friends.
These works are inspired by years of climbing, sitting in and observing trees, and are created with meticulous detail to bring forth trees’ magnificence, individuality and energy.