Eric Ordway

Bio

Eric Ordway was born and raised in the middle of corn and soybean fields near Columbia, MO. He was first exposed to pottery while attending school at Moberly Area Community College in 2006. Eric continued to study clay at Colorado State University-Pueblo. After graduating with his BFA in 2013, Eric began working as a post-baccalaureate student at the University of Missouri (MU). While there, he made high-atmospheric (2350ºF), soda-fired pottery while researching green glazing and sgraffito techniques. 

In 2015, Eric was awarded a residency at the Morean Center for Clay in St. Petersburg, FL, where he researched firing wood kilns of various designs. During this time, Eric also taught ceramics to high school students at Berkeley Preparatory School, where he discovered his passion for teaching. Eric then returned to MU to earn his MFA in 2019, where he made functional and sculptural vessels using thrown and altered techniques that he continues in his artistic practice. 

After graduating, Eric taught ceramics at Truman State University for three years. During this time, he also worked at Access Arts, a local nonprofit art organization in Columbia, MO, as the Department Head of Ceramics. Eric exhibits his work at the national and international levels. Some of his most recent accomplishments include being selected as a 2023 Ceramics Monthly Emerging Artist, exhibiting his work at the 2023 & 2024 NCECA Annual Exhibitions, and the 2024 International Ceramics Competition in Carouge, Switzerland. Eric has also been a Technical Assistant at Penland School of Craft and Haystack Mountain School of Craft.

Eric currently works at the University of Missouri’s School of Visual Studies as the Fine Arts Technician & an Adjunct Professor. Eric lives in Columbia, MO, with his wife, Chelseá, and their dog, Lily.  

Artist Statement

My work delves into historical Scandinavian folk arts and the story of a 150-year-old family farm. In examining Norwegian ale bowls and rosemaling paintings, I echo my great-grandparents who made furniture with their hands and decorated it with fantastical floral motifs. In probing Viking-era burial goods from the Lilleberge and Oseberg Mounds, I rediscover my ancestry apart from stories steeped in dogma. As my hands feel, pinch, turn, lift, and heft the soft clay, I contemplate my ancestors toiling with their hands in the earth, wood, and stone. My forms echo the rich practice of working the land, manifesting as soft-formed clay walls reminiscent of rolling hills. Vertical carved ridges, akin to plow-scraped fields, meet with gentle wave-like rims. Working with a kick wheel becomes an intuitive and meditative experience. My feet propel the work, and I capture the rhythmic movement of my legs juxtaposed by the sharp vertical textures of the work. Through these formal qualities, I take part in my family’s legacy of hard work and oral storytelling with this artistic labor. I unite the farmer and the academic at a common table, evoking a timeless truth: the glorious can be found in the mundane, and the divine in the common.

Exhibitions