Ceramics Monthly: How have your career and work evolved since you were recognized as an Emerging Artist?
Qwist Joseph: I’ll never forget the day I saw myself listed as an Emerging Artist in Ceramics Monthly. It was the spring of 2016, and I had just completed my thesis defense at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Seeing my sculptures on the pages of a magazine I’d admired since I first started working in clay was a wonderful bookend to the intense and rewarding experience of graduate school.
After completing a residency at the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramics Arts that summer, I moved to Southern California where my partner was beginning her own graduate program. For the next two years, I focused on teaching while doing my best
to maintain a studio practice on the side. Along the way, I met inspiring artists and engaged in stimulating discussions, but between the long commutes, financial stress, and intimidating Los Angeles art scene, I did not have the energy to push
my work in a meaningful way. Unsure of what else to do, I decided to take matters into my own hands and put on a show in a dilapidated swimming pool. The site-specific installation reminded me that I didn’t need permission to share my work
with others and propelled me into a better emotional place. It was on the heels of this show that I was honored as an NCECA Emerging Artist and granted a spot at the Roswell Artist-in-Residence Program.
Spending a year in Roswell, a funky, isolated desert town, finally gave me the space I needed to propel my work to new places. Having so much time to reflect on my life thus far was a privilege and a challenge, as it forced me to grapple with who I was as a person, how I treated those around me, and how I could use my work to promote healing and change. Suddenly, the abstract nature of my work read as fearful rather than intriguing, and I felt increasingly less interested in being one more white, able-bodied, cis man talking only about materiality. I wanted to talk about masculinity instead. With this new clarity, I felt like I was stepping out from behind a veil. By the end of my residency, my partner and I were married, and I had gained a deeper understanding of the person I wanted to be and the work I wanted to make.
Currently, I am a visiting artist, instructor, and technician at the University of Arkansas. I'm excited to continue unpacking my identity and the cultural conditioning that came with it. As so many other artists have taught me, when we are honest in our work, not only do we get to share our own story, but also shape future ones as well.
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Ceramics Monthly: How have your career and work evolved since you were recognized as an Emerging Artist?
Qwist Joseph: I’ll never forget the day I saw myself listed as an Emerging Artist in Ceramics Monthly. It was the spring of 2016, and I had just completed my thesis defense at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Seeing my sculptures on the pages of a magazine I’d admired since I first started working in clay was a wonderful bookend to the intense and rewarding experience of graduate school.
After completing a residency at the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramics Arts that summer, I moved to Southern California where my partner was beginning her own graduate program. For the next two years, I focused on teaching while doing my best to maintain a studio practice on the side. Along the way, I met inspiring artists and engaged in stimulating discussions, but between the long commutes, financial stress, and intimidating Los Angeles art scene, I did not have the energy to push my work in a meaningful way. Unsure of what else to do, I decided to take matters into my own hands and put on a show in a dilapidated swimming pool. The site-specific installation reminded me that I didn’t need permission to share my work with others and propelled me into a better emotional place. It was on the heels of this show that I was honored as an NCECA Emerging Artist and granted a spot at the Roswell Artist-in-Residence Program.
Spending a year in Roswell, a funky, isolated desert town, finally gave me the space I needed to propel my work to new places. Having so much time to reflect on my life thus far was a privilege and a challenge, as it forced me to grapple with who I was as a person, how I treated those around me, and how I could use my work to promote healing and change. Suddenly, the abstract nature of my work read as fearful rather than intriguing, and I felt increasingly less interested in being one more white, able-bodied, cis man talking only about materiality. I wanted to talk about masculinity instead. With this new clarity, I felt like I was stepping out from behind a veil. By the end of my residency, my partner and I were married, and I had gained a deeper understanding of the person I wanted to be and the work I wanted to make.
Currently, I am a visiting artist, instructor, and technician at the University of Arkansas. I'm excited to continue unpacking my identity and the cultural conditioning that came with it. As so many other artists have taught me, when we are honest in our work, not only do we get to share our own story, but also shape future ones as well.
Photo: Wes Magyar.
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