Justin Donofrio

bio

Justin Donofrio grew up in Santa Cruz, CA where he was introduced to pottery at Cabrillo Community College. He then joined the vibrant Colorado community of artist in 2013 in the Roaring Fork Valley where he continued his clay education with the support of Anderson Ranch, The Carbondale Clay Center and The Studio for Arts and Works (SAW). He remained in Colorado to complete a Bachelors of Fine Arts degree from CSU Fort Collins in 2016. He is nationally represented in galleries throughout the U.S. and was an exhibiting artist and tour manager with the Artstream Nomadic Gallery in 2017.

He now maintains a full time studio pottery at Art 342 in Fort Collins. The diversity of the front range of the Rockies lends itself to a balance between his love of rock climbing, the outdoors and the arts. His palette of color and form are drawn from the exquisite and enduring beauty of the alpine landscape.

Artist statement

"Through the lens of functional pottery I focus on questions about our relationship with objects. I explore the concept of humanity’s authority over landscape and record of construction as a form of time materialized. The geographical layered strata of each vessel represent fragments or glimpses into the density of every assemblage. With the intersections and overlaps, I contemplate the dynamic relationship between materiality and landscape and our attempt to control it. Each vessel is made using clay that is artificially colored to reference natural tones. The juxtaposition of the natural and artificial speaks to a notion of manicured space in an attempt to cultivate order.

Focusing on the fluidity of process and materials as remnants of making, I work with a limited number of tools and movements to allow the clay to actively inform the line quality and elegant volume. Relying heavily on the physicality of the technique I generously push and pull these lines to develop an undulation that resembles natural rhythms. The harmony of repetition comes through meditation of movement. The presence of process in the work is essential as my forms are searching for confidence in their construction. The conversation between the stained clay and glaze, obscuring or revealing, explores a didactic look at color as body and color as skin."

exhibitions