Liam McSteen
Bio
Liam McSteen is a ceramic artist and art historian. An alumni of Ohio University and Athens, Ohio native, he has been surrounded by clay and ceramic works his entire life. His interest in functional pottery took shape during his deep investigation into the domestic space working as a home renovator during his college years. Studying art and history in his hometown furthered his interest, as he began to learn the significance of clay in the Ohio Valley. In 2023, Liam published a thesis written about the history of clay in the Ohio Valley; beginning with the glacial formation which made clay abundant in the region, and continuing on to discuss its significance to indigenous people of Ohio, the European settlers of the region, and finally considering the current state of clay in the region.
Liam now resides on Chautauqua Lake in Western New York, where he continues to teach ceramics and explore art that matters to the planet at the Roger Tory Peterson Institute. His work has been selected for showing regionally at Juried Exhibitions hosted by Ohio University juried by Matt Wedel and Noah Reidel, Juried National Shows hosted by the Majestic Gallery in Nelsonville, OH, at Watermark Gallery in Bemidji, MN, and Liam was recently selected as an Emerging Artist by the Ohio Craft Museum in Columbus.
Statement
I am greatly influenced by the writing of David Pye, a craft philosopher who writes at length about the importance of diversity in handwork in his book, The Nature and Art of Workmanship. Pye’s notes on the relationship between highly refined work, roughness, and functionality have inspired my making philosophy. My work is therefore exploratory in nature, focusing on the subtle diversities of form and surface returned by the workmanship of risk.
As a maker, I am drawn to the contrasting beauties of rough surfaces characteristic of woodfiring and the precise and simple beauties of hand-refined works. Exploring the push and pull of precision and roughness, my practice helps me find meaning in the relationship between the made-world and the natural.