15th Annual Everson Ceramics Arts Lecture: Kathy Butterly

Pushing the Boundaries of Studio Ceramics

Join us for an inspiring evening with Kathy Butterly, a renowned artist celebrated for her innovative approach to ceramic sculpture. Butterly’s work challenges tradition while honoring the rich history of the vessel, offering viewers a profound and visceral connection to the medium.

Kathy Butterly has created distinct, evocative sculptures for more than two decades, contributing to and expanding the tradition of studio ceramics. Through her practice, Butterly engages with concepts ranging from materiality and line to the history of the vessel. She uses traditional ceramic forms as her starting point, referring to these historical templates as her “canvas”; however, Butterly contorts and misshapes these forms in ways that veer toward the iconoclastic. She then adds layer upon layer of glaze – sometimes to the point of creating additional volume – and fires the works repeatedly. The colors and textures Butterly chooses, and their relationships with one another, are simultaneously seductive and jarring. Her strange forms and surprising palette decisions often generate an uncanny awareness in the viewer and produce a visceral impact.

The Annual Everson Ceramic Arts Lecture is co-presented by Syracuse University College of Visual and Performing Arts, the Everson Museum of Art, and the Chronicles of American Ceramics Foundation.