Tony Marsh (artist)

Overview

Tony Marsh (born in 1954) in New York City, New York is an American ceramic artist. He first learned about ceramics after he had hurt is rotator cuff playing baseball in his last year of High School. He had never been that good of a student and was sent by his guidance conselor to the pottery lab at his high school to receive a discipline from the strict and dedicated professor. The day he walked in to the lab, he never left, from then on he knew he would be working with clay [ Tony Marsh - Ceramicist. The University of Colorado department of Fine Arts presents, Tony Marsh, "What Follows." Can be found at www.researchchannel.org. ]

Biography

Tony Marsh (born in 1954 in New York City, New York) is a contemporary American ceramic artist. He lives and works in Long Beach, California. Marsh received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1978 from California State University, Long Beach. From 1978 to 1981, Marsh studied as an apprentice under Japanese potter Shimaoka, in Mashiko, Japan. After receiving a Master of Fine Arts degree in 1989 from New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, Marsh returned to CSU Long Beach to teach in the art department's ceramics program. He has been the department chair for ceramics at CSU for much of his tenur career.Marsh credits his experience in Japan with much of his personal development: "Working every day at pottery seems now to have served as a vehicle for great lessons that have stayed with me. I painfully taught myself to speak another language, which in turn allowed me to begin to see the world through the lens of another culture. I was introduced daily to the power, beauty, and confines of history." In this way, the work that Tony Marsh creates is many times refers to the homage of ceramics he hopes to provoke in his work.

Shimaoka's method provided an example for Marsh that contrasted with his experience of art-making in the United States. Marsh says of his time spent at Shimaoka's pottery:

"His art was not the art school stuff (my frame of reference) of taking aim at the fringe in order to explore the new. Nor was it an overly self-conscious attempt at radical expression. His art was homage and a walk through the heart of an enormous and rich pan-Asian ceramic tradition. I have always thought that it seemed more difficult to add to a rich history in a meaningful way when the measuring-stick, by which the contribution will ultimately be understood, is long."

Description of work

Tony's description of his own work:"I am fascinated by [the ceramic vessel's] deep and unparalleled history and position between nature and culture. While the vessels that I make are not utilitarian nor do they specifically refer to an historical pottery type or style, I believe that I use them as a device to address the essential. On a simple level they do attempt to pay homage to what pottery from around the world has always been required to do: hold, store, preserve, offer, commemorate, and beautify. In the end, whether it might be a vase on a table, an empty coin bank, the bowl on the night stand, a burial urn or a ballot box, what could be more natural than to put something in a vessel? " [ Marsh, Tony. General Artist's Statement, December 2001 ]

As these images of Tony's most current work provide, he has been interested in the history of the vessel, while developing a new language for this. This language asks the simple question of what to hold? The items he chooses to contain create a discussion of curiosity and interest. Some of Tony's earlier work has many times been referred to ideas of play, whether it be the game like parts, such games as Bao, a traditional African game or Perfection, an early 90's children's game. He also plays with the capabilities of clay in the conscious contradiction of material with his attempts to make items float or to be fully perforated. Tony has referred to this idea of perforation and floating with, "gravity is what ceramics is about" [ Tony Marsh - Ceramicist, "The Univsesity of Colorado department of fine arts presents, Tony Marsh, What Follows." Interview with Kim Dickey from Colorado University at Boulder. Available at www.researchchannel.org] He discusses the element of clay and its boundaries such as a material of the earth that has a very evident weight as " a thorn," [ Tony Marsh - Ceramicist, "The Univsesity of Colorado department of fine arts presents, Tony Marsh, What Follows." Interview with Kim Dickey from Colorado University at Boulder. Available at www.researchchannel.org] you can choose to react or obey these boudries, and clearly Tony has made the choice to react.

Public Collections

*Alfred University
*Arizona State University, Tempe
*The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, Hawaii
*Cranbrook Museum of Art
*Daum Museum of Contemporary Art, Missouri
*Downey Museum of Art
*Foothills Art Center, Golden, Colorado
*Foshan Museum of Contemporary Art, China
*Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art, Toronto
*Hong-Ik University, Seoul, Korea
*JINRO Cultural Foundation, Seoul, Korea
*Long Beach Museum of Art
*Los Angeles County Museum of Art
*Mendocino Art Center
*Metropolitan Museum of Art
*Minneapolis Institute for the Arts
*Monterey Museum of Art
*Museum of Contemporary International Ceramic Art, Inchon, S. Korea
*Napa College
*Newark Museum of Art, New Jersey
*Oakland Museum of California
*Palo Alto Cultural Center
*Rancine Art Museum, Wisconsin
*San Jose Museum of Art
*Taipei Ceramics Museum, Taiwan
*Takumi Folk Art Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
*Walnut Creek Art Center

Awards

*2005
**Curator: Scripps 61st National Ceramics Exhibition
*1998
**Individual Artist Fellowship, Public Corporation for the Arts, Long Beach
**Distinguished Faculty Scholarly and Creative Achievement Award, California State University, Long Beach
*1996
**Drockman Distinguished Alumni Award, Alfred University, New York, NY

Sources

*Marsh, Tony. "Art as Homage", "Studio Potter" 29, number 2.
*Marsh, Tony. "General Artist's Statement", December 2001.
*Lauria, Jo. "Dialogues in Clay: A Conversation Between Tony Marsh and Kurt Weiser", "Ceramics: Art and Perception" no. 50, 2002. pp. 8-13.

Further reading

Books and Catalogues

*Clark, Garth. "The Artful Teapot". London: Thames & Hudson, 2001.
*Del Vecchio, Mark. "Postmodern Ceramics". New York: Thames & Hudson, 2001.
*Lauria, Jo. "Color and Fire – Defining Moments in Studio Ceramics, 1950 – 2000" Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Rizzoli International Publications, New York, 2000.
*Lynn, Martha Drexler. "Clay Today: Contemporary Ceramists and Their Work", Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Chronicle Books, San Francisco
*Peterson, Susan. "Contemporary Ceramics". New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, 2000.

Periodicals

*____. “Bay Area Potters”, "Studio Potter", Winter/1985.
*____. “West Coast Clay”, "Artweek", May 1995, Vol. 26, No. 5.
*____. “Acquisitions”, "American Craft", April/May 1997, p. 31.
*____. “Interview with American Artist Tony Marsh”, "Korean Monthly Art Magazine", August 1994, p. 142.
*____. "Kerameiki Techni", Panorama, Exhibition Notice, Summer 1996.
*____. “Exhibition Review”, "Artweek", October 17, 1993, Vol. 24, No. 19.
*____. Photo, "American Craft", August/September 1983, Vol. 43, No. 4, p. 62.
*____. “Building a Ceramics Program at the Mendocino Art Center”, "Mendocino Beacon", February 6, 1984, p. 4.
*Cavener, Jim. “Exhibition Review”, "San Gabriel Valley Weekly", January 26, 1996, p. 10.
*Colby, Joy Hakanson. “Exhibition Review”, "The Detroit News", March 8, 1991.
*Deragon, Rick. “Tony Marsh”, "American Ceramics", 1995 Vol. 11, Issue 4, p. 56.
*Hohenboken, Steve. “Tony Marsh”, "The New Art Examiner", Summer, 1996.
*Lagorio, Irene. “Review”, "Monterey Peninsula Herald", August 14, 1983.
*Lauria, Jo. “Dialogues in Clay: A Conversation between Tony Marsh & Kurt Weiser”, "Ceramics Art and Perception", December 2002, Issue 50, pp.8- 13.
*Mansfield, Janet. “Exhibition Review”, "Ceramics: Art and Perception", 1998, Issue 31, p. 33.
*Marsh, Tony. “Juror’s Statement”, "Ceramics Monthly", November, 1991.
*Melrod, George. "Tony Marsh Profile", "Art Ltd.: West Coast Art + Design", March 2007, p.73.
*Merino, Tony Dubis. “Tony Marsh’s Puzzling Narratives”, "Contact", (Spring 1998), pp. 21-23.
*Ollman, Leah. "Exhibition Review", "Los Angeles Times", March 2, 2007.
*Pincus, Robert L. “Exhibition Review”, "Los Angeles Times", February 3, 1984.

Interviews

Tony Marsh - Ceramicist. The University of Colorado department of Fine Arts presents Tony Marsh, "What Follows." Can be found on www.researchchannel.org.

External links

* [http://www.art.csulb.edu/academics/faculty/Marsh_Tony/index.html Tony Marsh CV] at CSU Long Beach Art Faculty website
* [http://www.franklloyd.com/dynamic/artist.asp?ArtistID=18 Frank Lloyd Gallery] official gallery web site with images of Marsh artworks, resumé, etc.
* [http://www.researchchannel.org/prog/displayevent.aspx?rID=2039] Website with "What Follows," Visiting Artist interviews at the University of Colorado at Boulder. The interview is with Kim Dickey from the department of Ceramics at CU at Boulder and Tony Marsh as a visitor.