Desiree Warren

Bio

Desiree Warren was born in Ottawa, Kansas, and grew up outside of town on eighty acres of land. The far youngest in the family, she had plenty of time to herself to explore and create on the farm and always had a love of making and decorating.

Majoring in sculpture and minoring in art history, she finished her career at the University of Kansas in August of 2005. Since 2006 she has lived in the Hyde Park neighborhood of KCMO. Several years ago she went all-in to focus solely on art making. Her work continues to grow and morph, jumping from abstract works on metal to using reclaimed materials to collage to drawing to ceramics.  She sells her work under the company name Eighty Acres Art in the Kemper Museum shop, the Nelson-Atkins Museum store, and various other stores around the Kansas City area.

Warren has been included in group shows across the country, most notably in a five-person exhibit sponsored by the National Museum of Women in the Arts at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art called Women to Watch | Metals. She was chosen to be an artist in the Gifts of Art program at the University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor and has work in Henry Ford Health System in West Bloomfield, Michigan; Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis; and Blue Cross Blue Shield collection in Kansas City.

Artist statement

Every new lump of clay is a new opportunity to express myself. Many of my most exciting pieces are experiments. I am a hand builder and, drawing on my sculpture degree, am pretty loosey-goosey with my techniques and ideas--especially in my surface treatments. I love experimenting with glazes and textures, adding interest to what might be some otherwise typical forms. For the last ten years I’ve added clay to my artistic discipline and see no end in sight.

Exhibitions