Alex Anderson
Hellscape 1, 2021
Earthenware, glaze, and gold luster
22 x 21 x 3 in (55.9 x 53.3 x 7.6 cm)
Alex Anderson
Dark Portrait with a Gazing Pool, 2021
Earthenware, glaze, and gold luster
21 x 17 x 2 in (53.3 x 43.2 x 5.1 cm)
Alex Anderson
White Rabbit II, 2019
Earthenware, glaze, gold luster
10.5 x 9 x 13 in (26.7 x 22.9 x 33 cm)
Alex Anderson
Spiraling, 2020
Earthenware, glaze, and gold luster
22 x 17 x 2 in (55.9 x 43.2 x 5.1 cm)
Alex Anderson
Narcissus Vessel I, 2020
Earthenware, glaze, and gold luster
24 x 8 x 8 in (61 x 20.3 x 20.3 cm)
Alex Anderson
Must be Love IV, 2020
Earthenware and glaze
21.5 x 22.5 x 3.5 in (54.6 x 57.2 x 8.9 cm)
Alex Anderson
Holding On, 2020
Earthenware, glaze, and gold luster
12 x 9 x 2 in (30.5 x 22.9 x 5.1 cm)
Alex Anderson
Narcissus, 2020
Earthenware, glaze, and gold luster
20 x 38 x 22 in (50.8 x 96.5 x 55.9 cm)
Your Last Meal III, 2019
Earthenware, glaze, and gold luster
10 x 18 x 16 in (25.4 x 45.7 x 40.6 cm) Sculpture
Black Heart, 2017
Stoneware, porcelain, glaze
17 x 10 x 9 in (43.2 x 25.4 x 22.9 cm)
Detail, Black Heart, 2017
b. 1990, Seattle, WA
Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA
Alex Anderson received his Bachelor of Arts in Studio Art and Chinese from Swarthmore College and his Master of Fine Arts in Ceramics from the University of California, Los Angeles. Anderson previously studied at the Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute in Jingdezhen, China and was awarded a Fulbright Grant in affiliation with the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, where he continued his studies in ceramic art. His work has been exhibited internationally, and across the US and Southern California, including at Human Resources, Los Angeles, The Long Beach Museum of Art, and American Museum of Ceramic Art.
![[Object As...] Alex Anderson](https://img.artlogic.net/w_300,h_230,c_limit/exhibit-e/5374f947a9aa2c98748b4568/dfadb1a08a6af114552677d5e1bca761.jpeg)
Just Like Gold, by Scarlet Cheng
Cuteness is the first aesthetic most of us encounter in life. We are exposed to it as babies, through consumer goods, even before we are conscious of what we are seeing. Simply defined, a cute object is typically one that resembles a baby human or animal. Anthropomorphism, a strategy used since antiquity to make others, including gods, more relatable to humans, is key to cuteness’s effectiveness and requires very little to be successful. The gesture of a face combined with soft textures, rounded forms and cheerful colors produces a tender and vulnerable feeling that inspires the desire to care for and protect. Cute objects are compelling because they are approachable, but, more importantly, because they can be possessed.
School of the Art Institute is excited to welcome artist Alex Anderson into our ceramics department this week to give a lecture this forthcoming Thursday, October 1st at 4:00 CST.
My life right now... and forever is being an artist. This is what it means for me to be an artist today.
Watch Alex Anderson's video diary entry featured on PBS's American Portrait series: A National Storytelling Project.
Alex Anderson’s exhibition of 21 ceramic sculptures, dramatically lit and arranged on pink pedestals—with additional low reliefs hanging from the gallery’s white walls—is an oblique counter-narrative to the conventions of European decorative arts
Alex Anderson shows three ambiguous ceramic sculptures that poetically reference the artist’s Asian-African American and gay experiences using aesthetic styles historically related to Western imperial power.
One Thing to Fight For is part of Five Artists, Five Mediums, Five Days – A Curated Selection for One Thing, featuring drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, and film/video, accompanied by a series of online talks.
Andy Campbell on Alex Anderson's solo show at GAVLAK Los Angeles.
“Lore Re-Imagined: Shadows of Our Ancestors” focused on the preservation of cultural and personal memory. Organized by independent curator Chieko Phillips, who has a decade-long history of working both curatorially and administratively at cultural institutions in Seattle, the exhibition featured artworks by three Seattle-based artists of Asian descent: Alex Anderson, Satpreet Kahlon, and Megumi Shauna Arai.
Education
2018 M.F.A. Ceramics, University of California, Los Angeles, CA
2015 Fulbright Grant, Ceramics and Ink Painting, China Academy of Art, Hangzhou, China
2013 BFA Studio Art and Chinese, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA
2011 Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute, Jingdezhen, China
Solo Exhibitions
2021 The Gazing Pool, Gavlak Gallery, Palm Beach, FL
2020 Little Black Boy Makes Imperial Porcelains, Gavlak Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2018 Wonderland, Gavlak, Los Angeles, CA
Group Exhibitions
2022 Alex Anderson and Michael Stamm, Deli Gallery, New York, NY
Plush, Alma Thomas Fine Arts Center, Southwestern University, Georgetown, TX
2021 Clay Pop, Jeffrey Deitch Gallery, New York, NY
Summer Group Exhibition, Gavlak Gallery, Palm Beach
2020 Spatial Recollections, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA
Summer Group Exhibition, Gavlak Gallery, Palm Beach
The Body, The Object, The Other, Craft Contemporary, Los Angeles, CA
18 LA Artists, Outono Projects, Los Angeles, CA
2019 The GAG, De Buck Gallery, New York, NY
Youngbloods, Quotidian, Los Angeles, CA
Inaugural Group Exhibition, Gavlak Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Lararium, Deli Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2018 China and US Contemporary Ceramics Exhibition, Wanlin Art Museum, Wuhan, China
Wonderland, Gavlak, Los Angeles, CA
Lore, Wing Luke Museum, Seattle, WA
The New Masters, Vol 1, RESIDENCY, Inglewood, CA
Fahrenheit 2018, American Museum of Ceramic Art, Pomona, CA
52nd-Annual National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) National Student Juried Exhibition, Pittsburgh Center
for the Arts, Pittsburgh, PA
Praxis, The Art Exchange, Long Beach, CA
The New Contemporaries, Residenct Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Human Resources, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA
2017 Art Basel Miami Beach, Booth F24, Gavlak Gallery, Miami Beach, FL
Meet Jingdezhen, China and US Academic Clay Works, Jingdezhen, China
SoCal MFA Exhibition, Millard Sheets Art Center, Pomona, CA
Fear Itself: Haunted Memories, Center for the Arts Eagle Rock, Los Angeles, CA
Hotel Kalifornia, Galerie Lefebvre et Fils, Paris, France
The Far Bazaar, Cerritos College, Cerritos, CA
2016 Without Design or Sketch: The Story of The Room, Launch LA Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
What You See is What You Sweat, Center on Contemporary Art, Seattle, WA
50th-Annual National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) National Student Juried Exhibition, Leedy-Voulkos Art Center, Kansas City, MO
Always a Body, Glass Box Gallery, University of California, Santa Barbara
MFA Biennial Exhibition, City of Brea Art Gallery, Brea, CA
2014 海内外艺术家作品展，山朗艺术空间 (Shanlang Art Dimension), Hangzhou, China
2014 Hangzhou International Contemporary Ceramic Biennial Exhibition, China Academy of Art Museum, Hangzhou, China
Evergreen Association of Fine Arts 38th Annual Juried Exhibition, Seattle Design Center, Seattle, WA
大道, Zhejiang Science and Technology Museum, Hangzhou, China
四海藝同, China Academy of Art Museum, Hangzhou, China
SELECT PRESS
2020 Angelik Vizcarrondo-Laboy, "Seriously Cute: Six Artists Harnessing the Power Dichotomy of Cuteness" Cultured, November 17, 2020
Scarlet Cheng, "Alex Anderson, Just Like Gold", Artillery, November/December 2020 edition
Andy Campbell, “Alex Anderson", Art Forum, July 22, 2020
Justin Kamp, "5 Must-See Ceramics Shows You Can View Online", Artsy, April 28, 2020
Paul Laster, "Social Studies: 5 Artists Addressing Communal Concerns", Art and Object, April 28, 2020
Julie Weitz, "Alex Anderson at Gavlak", Contemporary Art Review Los Angeles, April 2, 2020
2019 Laster, Paul. "Lore Re-Imagined: Shadows of our Ancestors," Art Asian Pacific Magazine, April 2019.
2018 Ollman, Leah. "The Disturbing Meets the Sweet in Alex Anderson's New Sculptures at Gavlak", L.A. Times, July 4, 2018.
“Wonderland,” Wall Street International, July 3, 2018.
“Alex Anderson’s “Wonderland” at Gavlak Los Angeles,” Blouin Artfinfo, June 22, 2018.
Kunimatsu, Susan. “Lore Re-imagined at the Wing Luke Museum,” International Examiner, June 20, 2018.
GRANTS & AWARDS
2017 Laura Anderson Scholarship
Edward J and Alice Mae Smith Scholarship
UCLA Arts Council Award
Lilian Levinson Foundation Scholarship
2016 ArtSlant Magazine, Best Artist Interview of 2016
UCLA Arts Council Award
NCECA Retired Professors Award
UCLA Elaine Krown Klein Scholarship
2015 UCLA Graduate Opportunity Fellowship
2013 Fulbright Scholar (China), U.S. Department of State
Frank Solomon Art Prize, Swarthmore College
2012 Arthur S. Obermayer '52 International Summer Internship Grant, Swarthmore College,
The Orville and Pat Chatt Memorial Scholarship, Penland School of Crafts
COLLECTIONS
Swarthmore College Inn
Swarthmore College McCabe Library
Swarthmore College Department of Studio Art
Swarthmore College Black Cultural Center
RESIDENCIES
2017 Warehouse Art Center, Jingdezhen, China
2014 -15 China Academy of Art MFA Studio, Hangzhou, China
Lectures & Demonstrations
2020 School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), Chicago, IL
Pomona College, Pomona, CA
New York University, New York, NY
Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA
2018 University of Southern California (USC), Roski School of Art, Los Angeles, CA
California State University, Long Beach (CSULB), Long Beach, CA
2017 Orange Coast College, Costa Mesa, CA
California State University, Fullerton, Fullerton, CA
2015 Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA
PUBLICATIONS
2017 Studio Visit Magazine issues 39 and 40
