Aysha Peltz
Aysha Peltz’s ceramics blur the lines between utility and art, as the material properties of clay itself—the way it swells, fissures, and tears under its own weight—create a certain kind of poetry.
Biography
Peltz’s ceramic vessels explore imagined space, scale, and the poetic properties of the ceramic medium. She approaches making as she wishes people to experience her work: invited in by a pot’s utility to then discover subtle layers of reference. Her work relies heavily on the material phenomenon of clay: volumes forced by swelling, fissures caused by pressure, and tearing due to weight allowing references to become allusions.
In 2000, she was a presenter at the Spirit of Porcelain Conference in Jingdezhen, China. In 2005, Peltz was awarded the Emerging Artist Award at the National Council for the Education of the Ceramic Arts. Her work was included in the Clay National and Diverse Domain – Contemporary North American Ceramic Art, in Taipei, Taiwan the same year. In 2009, she was a Walter Gropius master artist presenter and had a solo exhibition at the Huntington Museum of Art in Huntington, West Virginia. Recent publications include The Art of Contemporary American Pottery, 500 Vases,and Masters: Porcelain.
Peltz has taught at numerous schools and art centers including Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, and the Kansas City Art Institute. BFA and MFA from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. Peltz has been a visiting faculty member at Bennington each spring term since 2006 and joined as faculty in Spring 2012.