About Matt Nolen

Artist Statement

As a painter, storyteller and architect, ceramics provides the means by which I can marry my loves: the painted surface, the three dimensional form and narrative content. Ceramics gives me the language to communicate my stories to a world audience.

In 1998 I was commissioned to hand render a functioning men’s restroom at the Kohler plumbing factory. The result is a narrative environment that uses the charged nature of private rituals occurring in public spaces to chart a social history of man and architecture. I am currently pursuing projects that allow me to create architectural installations and sculptures that explore the role of ceramics in the public realm.

bibliography

Schwartz, Judith, Confrontational Clay, A&C Black, London, 2007.
Ostermann, Mattias, The Ceramic Narrative, A&C Black, London, 2006.
Mattieu, Paul. Sexpots, Rutgers University, 2003.
“Architectural Ornamentation”, Ceramics Monthly, pp. 48-49, February 2003.
Scott, Paul. Painted Clay, Thames and Hudson, 2002.
Del Vecchio, Mark. Postmodern Ceramics, Thames and Hudson, 2002.
Ferrin, Leslie. Teapots Transformed, Guild Publishing, 2001.
Nolen, Matt. “Artist as Citizen” The Studio Potter, Vol. 27, No. 2, June 1999.
Lovelace, Joyce. ”Rest Rooms” American Craft, August/September 1999.
Folk, Dr. Thomas. "Matt Nolen's Crusade for Healing" Ceramics: Art and Perception, No. 21. 1995.
Dormer, Peter. The New Ceramics. 2nd edition. London: Thames & Hudson, 1994.
“Matt Nolen” American Ceramics. 10, No. 1(Spring 1992), p.50

exhibitions

2007 Spence Gallery, New York, NY.
2006 James Patrick Gallery, Wiscasset, ME.
2001 Hopkins Hall Gallery, The Ohio State University, OH.
1998 Garth Clark Gallery, New York, NY.
1996 Garth Clark Gallery, New York, NY.
1994 Garth Clark Gallery, Los Angeles, CA.
1994 Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY.
1985 The Gadsden Museum of Art, AL.

awards

New York Foundation for the Arts, Artists’ Fellowship. (1995)
Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation/NEA Regional Fellowship (1995)
NCECA Emerging Talent (1992)
Cintas Corp./Good Morning America “Best Restroom In America” design award (2004)

collections

The Houston Museum of Fine Arts, TX.
The Newark Museum, Newark, NJ.
The Racine Art Museum, Racine, WI.
The Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY.
The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution, New York, NY.
The Gadsden Museum of Art, Gadsden, AL.
John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, WI.
The Banff Centre for the Arts, Banff, Alberta, Canada.
France Telcom, New York, NY.

Full curriculum vitae available upon request. Email Matt Nolen.