Adero Willard
Sacramento, CA
Biography
Adero was born in New York City. She completed her BFA in Fine Arts at NY State College of Ceramics at Alfred, and later received an MFA from Nova Scotia College Of Art and Design in Halifax, NS, Canada. She has taught ceramics as a visiting assistant professor at NY State College of Ceramics at Alfred University from 2020-2023. Adero is a co-founder and board member of POW! Pots on Wheels, an organization dedicated to bringing ceramics to communities ranging from rural classrooms to city neighborhoods. In the spring of 2023, Adero organized an exhibition at NCECA in Cincinnati titled “Clay Holds Water, Water Holds Memory. " Adero has participated in several ceramics discussion panels, exhibited work nationally and internationally, and has been featured in numerous publications and books on ceramics. Currently, she serves as an assistant professor of ceramics at California State University Sacramento.
Artist Statement
As an artist, my process involves curiosity, exploration, and the unknown. My aim is to create a certain quality of familiarity and strangeness by working with familiar forms like cups, bottles, and bowls, and then pushing them into abstraction that may gesture towards realms of the figure, plant, bird, or animal. I enjoy exploring materials, both ceramic and mixed media, and have started to incorporate materials like Egyptian paste, luster, wire, and fabric. I use a variety of materials to create layers of color and patterns that give a depth and complexity of surface. I use red clay as the foundation of my work, and through a process that involves multiple firings, I develop intricate depth of surface by layering materials and patterns. My goal is to achieve a complexity of surface that can speak to ancestry, ceremony, ornamentation, and hybridity, and combines historical influences with contemporary concepts.
