Charles Birnbaum BFA

<< >>

Artist’s Statement

When I graduated Kansas City Art Institute, I was making functional pieces, but as I matured, I realized that I was creating vessels to explore identity and sexuality.  I was pushing out the “bellies” of teapots, pulling on their undulating “spouts,” and making pots with lids that completely sealed off their interiors.  So I began making abstract sculptures and liberated myself from the safety of containers.  Freedom and containment have been the key dualities of my life and my art.  Indeed, I chose clay as a medium because it enabled me to accomplish my artistic visions spontaneously, and I chose to sculpt every piece free-hand.

 Recently, I’ve been examining issues of freedom and loss, and looking to the images and stories of past cultures to try to reclaim a sense of community and self because I think their  forms and patterns hold universal meaning in the Jungian sense.  Whether viewers understand the extent to which these explorations are attempts to reclaim my own identity as an artist and a man doesn’t really matter.  What matters is whether the work connects with everyone’s longing to have an intrinsic sense of identity, to be independent, and to be intimately connected to others.

 Brief Bio

Charles Birnbaum graduated Kansas City Art Institute as one of a select group of Ken Ferguson’s “ceramic stars”—artists who questioned the cultural premises and constraints of “craft” by producing postmodern interpretations of ancient Asian forms.  Over the next two decades, despite working-full time in a variety of businesses, he continued developing the unique vision that makes his art so extraordinary.  Today, his work is abstract and sculptural, but it retains his fascination with the visual and narrative power of pattern and form.  Now a full-time artist, he creates one-of-a-kind gallery and commissioned pieces.  His recent series has been very well-received; several pieces won awards in various national and international competitions.  In a recent essay, the art critic Robert Morgan noted, “Birnbaum creates a critical discourse between the personal and social by exploiting the physical properties of his material.  His hand-sculpted porcelain art is unique.  He is not interested in copying anyone else, but he does spend his time looking at historical sources, as all real artists do.  He is putting himself in relation to history.”   His new work can be seen in Casa Nova Gallery, Santa Fe, NM; Loveed Fine Arts, New York, NY; and Wexler Gallery, Philadelphia, PA.