Press Release: Janet Williams: A Topography of Touch

CPCC Ross Gallery to feature works of Janet Williams

CPCC will host a solo exhibition of work by internationally exhibited ceramic artist Janet Williams titled, “Janet Williams: A Topography of Touch” this summer in CPCC’s Ross Gallery.

The exhibit will feature a collection of ceramic and porcelain works inspired by the concept of identification. Born in the United Kingdom, Williams recently became a citizen of the United States, a process that required the documentation of her physical body through fingerprinting. This experience inspired her to explore the ways people identify themselves from a cultural and geographical standpoint.

As a result, she commonly uses her fingerprint as a starting point; with digital and hands-on techniques, she translates it into a porcelain relief piece, creating topographic and architectural structures. This juxtaposition, using a technological program to digitally map out ways to manipulate an ancient, organic material, led her to a new question of identity: humanity’s place in a technological world.

A recipient of a Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant and two McKnight Foundation fellowships, Williams earned an undergraduate degree in Fine Arts and Ceramics in London, and a master’s degree in ceramics from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan. After co-founding and co-directing Art Farm, a nonprofit artist residency program in Marquette, Neb., she taught ceramics at various universities. She is currently an assistant professor of ceramics and a ceramics area coordinator at UNC Charlotte. She has exhibited and attended residencies both within the United States and abroad.

 

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