Joel Edwards
Ceramicist
American,
(1924–2018)
Joel Edward Epstein changed his name to Joel Edwards. Born in 1923, Edwards was an American postwar and contemporary ceramic artist who studied at the Brooklyn Museum School in Brooklyn, New York as well as at Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles, California. Due to the influence of such mentors as Shoji Hamada, Peter Voulkos, and Marguerite Wildenhain, Edwards was equally well known for his functional tableware and monumental works with intricate surfaces of abstract floral sprigs, sgraffito and brush work. These rich surface were often inspired by Abstract Expressionism and his functional forms were frequently used as ‘Ikebana ware’ for Japanese floral arrangements.