Ryan Caldwell received his Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree with emphasis in Ceramics and Sculpture from Washburn University in 2015. Ryan was awarded the Charles A. and Margaret Pollak Art Purchase Award in 2015. He has received awards for his work such as the “out of the box” purchase award, and a honorable mention equipment award at the KC clay guild tea bowl national. His work is in art collections small and large, including the Mulvane Art Museum’s permanent collection. Ryan is currently a Graduate Student at the University of Montana in Missoula.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Through the manipulation of dualities my work aims to explore my personal phenomenological view of our inherent “being”, or existence. By using the vessel as an object of metaphor, I strive to create purposeful connections to a state of liminal experience that confronts such issues as spirituality, personhood, mortality and the paradox of living with others, while being ultimately alone with oneself. With the use of arrangement and still-life these spaces suggest a notion of stillness, and an uncertainty of belonging with moments of absurdity that can feel enticing as well as a leave sense of anxiety.
January, 2018
