Justin D'Onofrio
Fort Collins, CO
Biography
Justin Donofrio grew up in Santa Cruz, CA where he was introduced to pottery at Cabrillo
Community College. He then joined the vibrant Colorado community of artists in 2013 in the
Roaring Fork Valley where he continued his clay education with the support of Anderson Ranch,
The Carbondale Clay Center, and The Studio for Arts and Works (SAW). He then went on to
complete a B.F.A. from CSU Fort Collins and an M.F.A. from NYSSC at Alfred University. He
is both internationally as well as nationally represented in galleries throughout the U.S. and
abroad. Donofrio has been a Windgate Summer Scholar at the Archie Bray Foundation and
resident at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, and a participant in the Walter Gropius Master
Artists Symposium at the Huntington Museum of Art. He has been an exhibiting artist and tour
co-manager with the Artstream Nomadic Gallery, in addition to being selected as one of
Ceramics Monthly’s 2018 Emerging Artists.
Artist Statement
Through the lens of functional pottery, I focus on questions about our relationship with objects. I explore the concept of humanity’s authority over landscape and record of construction as a form of time materialized. The geographical layered strata of each vessel represent fragments or glimpses into the density of every assemblage. With the intersections and overlaps, I contemplate the dynamic relationship between materiality and landscape and our attempt to utilize it. Each vessel is made using clay that is colored to reference vibrant natural tones found in the wilderness. My work has a desire to cultivate order and my pots are designed to manicure domestic space.
Focusing on the fluidity of process and materials as remnants of making, I work with a limited number of tools and movements to allow the clay to actively inform the line quality and elegant volume. Relying heavily on the physicality of the technique I generously push and pull these lines to develop an undulation that resembles natural rhythms. The harmony of repetition comes through meditation of movement. The presence of process in the work is essential as my forms are searching for confidence in their construction. The conversation between the stained clay and glaze obscures or reveals a bodily response to a continuum between clay and ceramic.
