Jason Hess

American, b. 1968

Untitled
1996

Stoneware
11 x 9 x 9 in.
Museum Purchase from the Utah Arts Council
1996.24

Jason Hess’s work focuses on the firing process and the vast range of possibilities that this implies. When he was at Utah State University, he experimented with different types of wood (in particular, cottonwood and elm), clay composition, and firing temperatures. He also uses the ash produced by the firing as a decorative glaze. Hess’s production is mostly functional, as represented by this thrown and altered wood-fired jar. It shows the outcomes of the artist’s research on the alterations of surface that derive from wood firing. To highlight these results, he heightens the color and texture contrasts.

Hess was born in Red Wing, Minnesota, in 1968. He studied at Beloit College, Wisconsin, and then specialized in ceramics at Utah State University, where he obtained a master’s degree in fine arts in 1996. Hess worked at McNeese State University as an assistant professor and is currently professor of art and head of the ceramics program at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. He obtained artist residencies at the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramics Arts, the Red Lodge Clay Center, Montana, and the Pottery Workshop in Jingdezhen, China.

Sara Eco Conti, PhD.

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This object was included in the following exhibitions:

• Unearthed , 8/23/2022 - 5/14/2023

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