Beth Cavener Stichter
Encyclopedia
Beth Cavener Stichter is full-time professional studio artist residing in the U.S. state
of Washington.
Stichter focuses her sculpture on human psychology, stripped of context and rationalization, and articulated through animal forms. “On the surface,” says Stichter, “these figures are simply feral animals suspended in a moment of tension. Beneath the surface, they embody the consequences of human fear, apathy, aggression, and misunderstanding”. In making these painstakingly modeled works Stichter has learned to read meaning in the subtler signs; “rely[ing] on animal body language in [her] work as a metaphor for these underlying patterns, transforming the animal subjects into human psychological portraits. Something conscious and knowing is captured in their gestures and expressions, both an invitation and a rebuke.”
in 1972. She was born the daughter of a molecular biologist and an art teacher. As Cavener Stichter writes, ”The connections between art and science have always been at the heart of my work. My mother, a ceramicist, and my father, a molecular biologist, raised me with an appreciation for the world on its most minute and grandiose scale. From my mother I learned the language of clay and the power of ideas passed through hands. My father and I spent hours staring at the night sky, while he stretched the seams of my imagination with tales of recombinant DNA and evolutionary battles on the microscopic scale. Every moment of my memory has been spent investigating the natural world around me.”
Cavener Stichter went on to pursue her studies in physics and astronomy at Haverford College
in Pennsylvania. Though intent early on in her education in following her father’s footsteps with a career in science, Cavener Stichter switched her major her last year of undergraduate studies to Fine Art and received a BA in Sculpture.
Cavener Stichter's interests in science and art persisted through her early professional career. Though she had been trained in the classical atelier style through the art department at Haverford College
, the Cecil Academy of Art in Florence, Italy, and through an apprenticeship with sculptor, Alan LeQuire
in Nashville, Tennessee
, she was drawn to the surrealist movement of the 1920s, and more contemporary narrative artists, such as Francis Bacon
, Joel-Peter Witkin
, George Tooker
, and Odd Nerdrum
. After spending four years in Columbus, Ohio, developing her artistic style and voice, Cavener Stichter entered graduate school at The Ohio State University, where she received her Master's in Fine Arts degree in ceramics. In her thesis exhibition, "tremble shiver," made the transition from working with human figuration to using the human-scaled portrayal of the animal body to express human emotion and psychological portraits.
Following her master's studies at Ohio State University, Cavener Stichter spent two years as a resident artist at the Archie Bray Foundation
for the Ceramic Arts and completed a brief Guest Artist residency at The Clay Studio in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After this intense period of development where she continued to work on life-size and larger scale works, she was represented by the Garth Clark Gallery in New York, NY. Her first solo exhibition with the gallery, "A Modest Proposal" was shown in 2006.
In 2008, Cavener Stichter joined the Claire Oliver Gallery on 26th St. and 10th Ave, New York City, New York. She opened her most recent show “On Tender Hooks” October 22, 2009.
Individual Art Fellowship
2006 Jean Griffith Fellowship
2005 Virginia A. Groot Award, First Prize
2005 Individual Artist Fellowship, Ohio Arts Council
2003 Emerging Artist Grant, American Craft Council
, Washington DC
Chazen Museum of Art
, Madison, WI
The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, HI
21c Museum Hotel
, Louisville, KY
Museum of Fine Arts (Houston), Houston, TX
Racine Art Museum
, Racine, WI
Arizona State University
Art Museum, Tempe, AZ
Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture
, Spokane, WA
Tennessee State Museum, Nashville, TN
2008 "Apologia" Art Spirit Gallery, Coeur d’Alene, ID
2006 "A Modest Proposal" Garth Clark Gallery, New York,NY
2005 "The Wildness Within" G-Spot Gallery, NCECA, Baltimore,MD
2004 Contemporary Crafts Museum, ACC Grant Exhibition, Portland,OR
2003 "Animal Body, Human Space" Archie Bray Foundation, Helena,MT
2002 "tremble, shiver" MFA Exhibition, Columbus,OH
2000 Acme Art Company, Columbus,OH
“Confrontational Ceramics” by Judith Schwartz, University of Pennsylvania Press, August 2008, ISBN 9780812241396
“Clay in Art International Yearbook 06/07” by Kostas Tarkasis (ed.), Clay Art International, 2008
“A Human Impulse: Figuration from the Diane and Sandy Besser Collection” by Peter Held, Arizona State University Art Museum, 2008, ISBN 0977762475
“From the Ground Up: Renwick Craft Invitational 2007” by Jane Milosch and Suzanne Frantz, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2007, ISBN 0979067812
“Beth Cavener Stichter” by Garth Clark, Garth Clark Gallery, 2006
500 Animals in Clay: Contemporary Expressions of the Animal Form by Joe Bova, Lark Books, November 2006, ISBN 978-1579907570
500 Figures in Clay: Ceramic Artists Celebrate the Human Form by Veronika Alice Gunter, Lark Books, September 2004, ISBN 978-1579905477
Spokesman Review Article
Washington Post Article
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
of Washington.
Stichter focuses her sculpture on human psychology, stripped of context and rationalization, and articulated through animal forms. “On the surface,” says Stichter, “these figures are simply feral animals suspended in a moment of tension. Beneath the surface, they embody the consequences of human fear, apathy, aggression, and misunderstanding”. In making these painstakingly modeled works Stichter has learned to read meaning in the subtler signs; “rely[ing] on animal body language in [her] work as a metaphor for these underlying patterns, transforming the animal subjects into human psychological portraits. Something conscious and knowing is captured in their gestures and expressions, both an invitation and a rebuke.”
Biography
Cavener Stichter was born in Pasadena, CaliforniaPasadena, California
Pasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Although famous for hosting the annual Rose Bowl football game and Tournament of Roses Parade, Pasadena is the home to many scientific and cultural institutions, including the California Institute of Technology , the Jet...
in 1972. She was born the daughter of a molecular biologist and an art teacher. As Cavener Stichter writes, ”The connections between art and science have always been at the heart of my work. My mother, a ceramicist, and my father, a molecular biologist, raised me with an appreciation for the world on its most minute and grandiose scale. From my mother I learned the language of clay and the power of ideas passed through hands. My father and I spent hours staring at the night sky, while he stretched the seams of my imagination with tales of recombinant DNA and evolutionary battles on the microscopic scale. Every moment of my memory has been spent investigating the natural world around me.”
Cavener Stichter went on to pursue her studies in physics and astronomy at Haverford College
Haverford College
Haverford College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college located in Haverford, Pennsylvania, United States, a suburb of Philadelphia...
in Pennsylvania. Though intent early on in her education in following her father’s footsteps with a career in science, Cavener Stichter switched her major her last year of undergraduate studies to Fine Art and received a BA in Sculpture.
Cavener Stichter's interests in science and art persisted through her early professional career. Though she had been trained in the classical atelier style through the art department at Haverford College
Haverford College
Haverford College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college located in Haverford, Pennsylvania, United States, a suburb of Philadelphia...
, the Cecil Academy of Art in Florence, Italy, and through an apprenticeship with sculptor, Alan LeQuire
Alan LeQuire
Alan LeQuire is an American sculptor from Nashville, Tennessee. Many of his sculptures are installed in the city.LeQuire's father, Virgil, was a physician and researcher on the faculty of Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. His mother, Louise, was a painter, art teacher, and writer. The...
in Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
, she was drawn to the surrealist movement of the 1920s, and more contemporary narrative artists, such as Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Albans, KC was an English philosopher, statesman, scientist, lawyer, jurist, author and pioneer of the scientific method. He served both as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England...
, Joel-Peter Witkin
Joel-Peter Witkin
Joel-Peter Witkin is an American photographer who lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. His work often deals with such themes as death, corpses , and various outsiders such as dwarfs, transsexuals, hermaphrodites, and physically deformed people...
, George Tooker
George Tooker
George Clair Tooker, Jr. was a figurative painter whose works are associated with the Magic realism and Social realism movements...
, and Odd Nerdrum
Odd Nerdrum
Odd Nerdrum , is a Norwegian figurative painter. Themes and style in Nerdrum's work reference anecdote and narrative, while primary influences by the painters Rembrandt and Caravaggio place his work in direct conflict with the abstraction and conceptual art considered acceptable in much of his...
. After spending four years in Columbus, Ohio, developing her artistic style and voice, Cavener Stichter entered graduate school at The Ohio State University, where she received her Master's in Fine Arts degree in ceramics. In her thesis exhibition, "tremble shiver," made the transition from working with human figuration to using the human-scaled portrayal of the animal body to express human emotion and psychological portraits.
Following her master's studies at Ohio State University, Cavener Stichter spent two years as a resident artist at the Archie Bray Foundation
Archie Bray Foundation
The Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts is a public, nonprofit, educational institution located 3 miles from downtown Helena, Montana, USA....
for the Ceramic Arts and completed a brief Guest Artist residency at The Clay Studio in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After this intense period of development where she continued to work on life-size and larger scale works, she was represented by the Garth Clark Gallery in New York, NY. Her first solo exhibition with the gallery, "A Modest Proposal" was shown in 2006.
In 2008, Cavener Stichter joined the Claire Oliver Gallery on 26th St. and 10th Ave, New York City, New York. She opened her most recent show “On Tender Hooks” October 22, 2009.
Work
Cavener Stichter's working method is unusual - she builds her stoneware sculptures solid on metal armatures, often with 2,000 or more pounds of clay at a time, then cuts the piece into 30-160 sections, hollows each section out to 1/4" thickness, and reassembles them before firing. In order to work on a larger scale, the reassembled hollow pieces are then cut again to fit inside the kiln, fired, and then reassembled with glues and epoxies. A slideshow of this process can be seen on her website under the Materials and Techniques section.Awards
2009 Artist TrustArtist Trust
Artist Trust is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to supporting Washington artists working in all creative disciplines. Artist Trust provides artists the time and resources necessary to prosper...
Individual Art Fellowship
2006 Jean Griffith Fellowship
2005 Virginia A. Groot Award, First Prize
2005 Individual Artist Fellowship, Ohio Arts Council
Ohio Arts Council
The Ohio Arts Council is an agency serving the U.S. state of Ohio.Established in 1965, its mission is to "foster and encourage the development of the arts and assist the preservation of Ohio's cultural heritage." Each year it awards grants to arts organizations and individuals throughout the state...
2003 Emerging Artist Grant, American Craft Council
American Craft Council
The American Craft Council , was founded in 1943 as a national, nonprofit, educational organization to support and foster interest in the crafts in America. The council sponsers national craft shows, publishes American Craft magazine, and has an extensive awards program...
Museum Collections
Smithsonian InstitutionSmithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
, Washington DC
Chazen Museum of Art
Chazen Museum of Art
The Chazen Museum of Art is an art museum accredited by the American Association of Museums located at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in Madison, Wisconsin. It was known as the Elvehjem Museum of Art until 2005...
, Madison, WI
The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, HI
21c Museum Hotel
21c Museum Hotel
21c Museum Hotel is a combination contemporary art museum and 90-room boutique hotel in Louisville, Kentucky. Five historic 19th century tobacco and bourbon warehouse buildings were renovated to house the museum, hotel, and its restaurant. The restaurant and bar is named Proof on Main, and is...
, Louisville, KY
Museum of Fine Arts (Houston), Houston, TX
Racine Art Museum
Racine Art Museum
The Racine Art Museum and RAM’s Charles A. Wustum Museum of Fine Arts are located in Racine, Wisconsin.-History:The Charles A. Wustum Museum was founded in 1941. Jennie E. Wustum, widow of Charles A. Wustum, donated their house, property and small trust fund to the City of Racine, Wisconsin...
, Racine, WI
Arizona State University
Arizona State University
Arizona State University is a public research university located in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area of the State of Arizona...
Art Museum, Tempe, AZ
Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture
Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture
The Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture, formerly the Cheney Cowles Museum, is located in Spokane, Washington's Browne's Addition. It is associated with the Smithsonian Institution and is accredited by the American Association of Museums....
, Spokane, WA
Tennessee State Museum, Nashville, TN
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2009 "On Tender Hooks" Claire Oliver Gallery, New York,NY2008 "Apologia" Art Spirit Gallery, Coeur d’Alene, ID
2006 "A Modest Proposal" Garth Clark Gallery, New York,NY
2005 "The Wildness Within" G-Spot Gallery, NCECA, Baltimore,MD
2004 Contemporary Crafts Museum, ACC Grant Exhibition, Portland,OR
2003 "Animal Body, Human Space" Archie Bray Foundation, Helena,MT
2002 "tremble, shiver" MFA Exhibition, Columbus,OH
2000 Acme Art Company, Columbus,OH
Publications
“Innovation & Change: Ceramics from the Arizona State University Art Museum” by Peter Held, Arizona State University Art Museum, 2009, ISBN 0981795730“Confrontational Ceramics” by Judith Schwartz, University of Pennsylvania Press, August 2008, ISBN 9780812241396
“Clay in Art International Yearbook 06/07” by Kostas Tarkasis (ed.), Clay Art International, 2008
“A Human Impulse: Figuration from the Diane and Sandy Besser Collection” by Peter Held, Arizona State University Art Museum, 2008, ISBN 0977762475
“From the Ground Up: Renwick Craft Invitational 2007” by Jane Milosch and Suzanne Frantz, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2007, ISBN 0979067812
“Beth Cavener Stichter” by Garth Clark, Garth Clark Gallery, 2006
500 Animals in Clay: Contemporary Expressions of the Animal Form by Joe Bova, Lark Books, November 2006, ISBN 978-1579907570
500 Figures in Clay: Ceramic Artists Celebrate the Human Form by Veronika Alice Gunter, Lark Books, September 2004, ISBN 978-1579905477
Sources
New York Times ArticleSpokesman Review Article
Washington Post Article
External links
- http://www.followtheblackrabbit.com/ Artist’s Website
- http://www.claireoliver.com/current.html?artist_no=47&exhibition_no=115&image=1 The Claire Oliver Gallery- representing Beth Cavener Stichter
- http://www.artnet.com/artist/425351299/beth-cavener-stichter.html ArtNet page on Cavener Stichter
- http://www.archiebray.org/ The Archie Bray Foundation
- http://accessceramics.org/results/artist/36/ Artist Entry on AccessCeramics