Alix Knipe is a ceramic artist and educator. She makes sculptural ceramic vessels that precariously balance between monumentality and intimacy. After completing artist residencies at both Anderson Ranch Arts Center and Carbondale Clay Center, she made Carbondale, Colorado her home. She has studied ceramic traditions in both Turkey, as a Fulbright Research Scholar, and in Burma with the help of a Graduate Fellowship from the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts. With the support of the Career Advancement Award, from Colorado Creative Industries, she was a resident artist at the Arts and Industry Residency at John Michael Kohler Arts Center. She currently teaches at Colorado Mountain College, Aspen.
The duality of softness and structure are integral elements that I employ in the conceptual approach to my work. Clay’s response to touch and its intrinsic materiality support the idea of change and pliability. There is a gentleness in the curves and billowing planes, existing on the edge of flexibility and collapse. Each enigmatic work precariously balances between monumentality and intimacy, abstraction and figuration, employing these tensions to transform familiar shapes into something new and full of curiosity.
Teaching Experience
Present
Colorado Mountain College, Aspen, CO
Past
Colorado Mountain College, Rifle, CO
Carbondale Clay Center, Carbondale, CO
Mendocino Art Center, Mendicino, CA
University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE
Erciyes University, Kayseri, Turkey
Education
Masters of Fine Arts, Emphasis- Ceramics, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE
Bachelors of Arts, Art, Emphasis- Ceramics, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN (GPA: 3.8 on a 4.0 scale)
Bachelors of Arts, Environmental Studies and Religious Studies with emphasis in Eastern Religions, Eckerd College, St. Petersburg, FL
International Student Exchange Program, Semester abroad, Northern Environment and Culture, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland
Selected Publications
500 Vases: Contemporary Explorations of a Timeless Form, Rae Hemachandra and Julia Galloway, Lark Books, NC
Past Professional Activities
Board Member, Carbondale Council on Arts and Humanities/Carbondale Arts
Presenter at the National Ceramics Conference, National Council on Education in the Ceramic Arts)
Invited Artist Demonstrator, KeravanSaray Bulusmas-IV 2011 International Symposium, Battalgazi, Turkey
Research Fellowships/ Grants/ Residencies
Arts/Industry Residency, John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, WI
Fulbright Research Fellowship, J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship through the US State Department, 9 month Research Fellow in Turkey, Turkish Islamic Ceramics, University of Erciyes, Kayseri Turkey
National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts Graduate Fellowship, Diversity in Contemporary Burmese Ceramic Traditions
Artist Residency, Carbondale Clay Center, Carbondale, CO
Artist Residency, Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Snowmass Village, CO
Artists invite Artists group mini-residency Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts, Newcastle, ME
Recent Exhibitions
Influenced and Evolved, Northern Clay Center, Minneapolis, MN (Curated by Mark Pharis)
Past and Present, Carbondale Clay Center, Carbondale, CO 2015
Solo Exhibition, ArtShare, Traces of Place: Sculpture by Alix Knipe, Solo Show Colorado Mountain College, Glenwood Springs
Solo Exhibition, Carbondale Clay Center, Carbondale, CO
Abstraction, R2 Gallery, Carbondale, CO
Roaring Fork Open, Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, CO
SWAN, R2 Gallery, Carbondale, CO
Past and Present, Colorado Mountain College, Aspen, CO
SAW Collaboration Show, R2 Gallery, Carbondale, CO
Solo Exhibition, Threshold, Eisentrager Gallery, Lincoln, NE
Vase Forms, Studio 101, Woodstock, GA (First in Show)
Erciyes Art Postmodernist Approaches International Exhibition, “Erciyes Art Postmadernist Yaklaşımlar Ulaslarası Sanat Etkinliği ” Erciyes University, Kayseri, Turkey
Honors/ Awards
Career Advancement Award, Colorado Creative Industries, Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade, Denver, CO
Albert K. Murray Grant, Fine Arts Educational Fund, Adamsville, OH
Full Graduate Assistantship, Department of Art, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE
Department Fellowship, Department of Art, University of Nebraska- Lincoln, Lincoln, NE
Edgren Fellowship, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE (award declined)
Spring Studio Assistantship Scholarship, Penland School of Crafts, Penland, NC
Fall Studio Assistantship Scholarship, Penland School of Crafts, Penland, NC
Bob and Peggy Culbertson Scholarship, Penland School of Crafts, Penland, NC, fully funded two-week workshop
Nanette Laitman Scholarship, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Deer Isle, ME, Teaching Assistant Grant
Kiln God Scholarship, Laguna Clay Company, Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts, Newcastle, ME, fully funded two-week residency
William Randolph Hearst Endowed Scholarship, Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Snowmass Village, CO, fully funded two-week workshop,
Mary B. Bishop/Francis S. Merrit Scholarship, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Deer Isle, ME, Teaching Assistant Grant
Brown-MacKenzie Arts Scholarship, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN
Graduated with Honors, Eckerd College, St. Petersburg, FL, included completion and oral defense of an 80 page thesis paper
Distinguished Religious Studies Student Grant, Eckerd College, St. Petersburg, FL
Tuition Exchange Scholarship, Eckerd College, four-year tuition remission scholarship, St. Petersburg, FL
Distinguished Award for Writing Portfolio, Eckerd College, St. Petersburg, FL
Building Process
I usually start with a solid form made out of clay that I make a slump mold from. I mound cast plaster to make a slump mold. I build my forms in a slump mold to engage the space under and around my work. In this image you can see a slump mold that I made out of clay (not fired) and have covered it with a sheet (this technique I employ in workshop settings). I build double wall forms. I enjoy the variety of perceived thickness I can get by employing two walls.
The inside wall and the outside wall are held together with rough coil built connectors, that help to stabilize the clay through the kiln. I put a powdered flux in the cavities before I seal the wall with the last slab, so that if, in my “roughly sketched inside”, a small piece of clay is loose, it gets glazed to the piece in the firing. I have worked in many temperatures, cone 10 soda firing, cone 6 electric, cone 1 electric and 03. I currently mostly fire earthenware in an electric kiln. For my surfaces I use a combination of glazes, slips and washes with added fluxes, and paint mixed with dry materials, all sprayed.
Surface Finish
I have worked in many temperatures, cone 10 soda firing (shown in the picture), cone 6, cone 1, and 03 electric. I currently mostly fire earthenware in an electric kiln. For my surfaces I use a combination of glazes, slips and washes with added fluxes, and paint mixed with dry materials, all sprayed.
“I fell in love with clay because of the idea of pottery communicating a universal language that transcends time and cultural differences, the romantic idea of the slow and steady treadle wheel being a record keeper, and the physical rhythm of a potters life that is defined by ones hands.
I continue to love clay because of ceramics possibility of endless discovery, the joy of play in the studio without a defined goal, and the continual challenge of navigating clay’s materiality.”
