Amy Nolan Ceramics
Artist Biography
Amy Nolan is a clay sculptor living and working in Rye, NH. Her handbuilt pieces, fired mid range with slips, stains and underglazes, involve ecology and conservation themes featuring local flora and fauna. Amy is a community student and former staff member of the Harvard Ceramics Program, and a juried member of the Barn Gallery and Ogunquit Art Association in Ogunquit, ME. Influenced by Daisy Youngblood and Picasso’s ceramics, Amy credits seeing Viola Frey’s large pieces as a young woman for inspiring her to become a sculptor.
Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, she graduated from Carnegie Mellon with a B.F.A. in Sculpture and earned an MS in Elementary Education from Duquesne University. Working in clay for forty years, Amy has exhibited throughout New England and in select group shows nationwide. New England shows include the Society for Arts and Crafts Boston, Harvard University’s Three Columns Gallery, Lexington Arts and Crafts Society and the Whistler House Museum of Art. Counted among Amy’s group exhibitions are Kent State University, Texas A&M University, the Holter Museum of Art and Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition, NYC.
Artist Statement
My formal training began with figure drawing. I immediately fell in love with gesture studies. They are about line and immediacy; the quick, precise motion of your hand honing in, finding the nuances that make your drawing look like the person being drawn. When it’s right, the whole drawing comes alive. I bring that sensibility to my clay work, beginning with a quick gesture in clay. Slowly, the gesture is refined, paying particular attention to subtleties that animate the piece and reveal character, like the angle of a hand on a hip.
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Education
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Duquense University
M.Ed Elementary Education
1990
Carnegie Mellon
Bachelor of Fine Arts, Sculpture
1987
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Work Experience
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Sole Proprietor, Sea Change Farm, Rye, NH
2017-2023
Assistant to the Director, administrator teaching assistant, Radcliffe College and Harvard Ceramics Programs Allston, MA
1997-2002
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Playspace Program Developer and Author, The Boston Children's Museum, Boston, MA
1990-1997
Selected Exhibitions
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Beyond Mud, 2024, Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition, Brooklyn, NY
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Harvard Ceramics Program, Show and Sale May 2023, December, May 2024
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Barn Gallery, Ogunquit Art Association, Ogunquit, ME
Rotating exhibitions May through October 2018-2022
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State of Clay, Lexington Arts and Crafts Society, Lexington MA 2016
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Kent State Cup Show, Kent State University, Kent, OH 2010
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The Funhouse Mirror: Artists Reinvent the Human Body, Three Columns Gallery, Harvard University, Cambridge MA 2022
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Tempe Tea Party, Arizona Commission on the arts, traveling Exhibition Program 1998-2000
Venues included: Leihyawy Woodsen Museum, Wasau, WI, J. Wayne Start Gallery, Texas A&M University, College Station TX