Joseph Pintz

Bio

Joseph Pintz’s functional and sculptural ceramic work explores the role that domestic objects play in fulfilling our physical and emotional needs. Inspired by his Midwestern roots, Pintz creates mundane forms based on utilitarian vessels and other implements associated with the hand. In the process, the dense meaning of these objects is transferred into clay. Pintz earned his BA in anthropology and urban studies at Northwestern University and his MFA from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He has been a resident artist at the Archie Bray Foundation, the Northern Clay Center, and the Roswell Artist-in-Residence program. He has received the NCECA Emerging Artist Award as well as the Individual Excellence Award from the Ohio Arts Council. He is currently a professor at the University of Missouri.

Artist Statement

Objects act as silent witnesses to our lives. Even simple household objects become dense with meaning through use; they reveal a wealth of information about our culture’s traditions, values, and beliefs. My work explores the role that domestic objects play in fulfilling our physical and emotional needs.

Our contemporary culture of convenience has traded vegetable gardens and homemade meals for fast food drive-throughs and TV dinners. This cultural shift motivates my interest in the objects related to the production and processing of food. Even at rest, they speak of visceral labor as well as the fruits of that labor. Although some of my vessels do not function in the traditional sense, they cause us to reconsider our preconceived ideas about usefulness and the notions of worth we associate with it.

We often begin to grasp the significance of objects when they are lost, broken or worn out. The weathered surfaces of my work suggest this history of use; they serve as symbols of self-sufficiency and doing things by hand. As the distance between consumers and the sources of our food grows, my strong reference to the hand draws attention to our complex and evolving attitudes toward labor and food.

The physicality of making defines who I am---whether it is working in clay, tending to the garden, or cooking a homemade meal. In response to the ever-increasing pace of life, I choose to slow down and celebrate the poetics of the commonplace.