Julie & Tyrone Larson
Julie & Tyrone Larson (American, b. 1940 & 1938) ceramics collection - Available at the Michigan Art Gallery Saturday, October 12th, 2024.
Julie Larson attended the State University of New York at Buffalo (B.S. 1962) and received an M.A. (1966) from Wayne State University, where she studied with William Pitney. After working with John Glick, she and her husband Tyrone, who had no formal training in ceramics, set up a pottery studio in Royal Oak in 1966. Tyrone did most of the wheel work, while Julie concentrated on glazing, and designing new pieces.
Julie often referenced Italian pieces she had seen as she grew up in Italy. She taught at the Birmingham-Bloomfield Art Association before the pair relocated to North Carolina in 1971 to teach at the Penland School of Crafts in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Larson ceramic wares made between 1966 and 1986 are characterized by hand-built and wheel-thrown forms such as boxes, covered hexagonal jars and dinnerware, often luster glazed in 23K gold or platinum.
After 1986, their work was completely collaborative. They began to cast porcelain, allowing them to further develop their interest in the architectural and geometric forms they had earlier created using slab construction techniques. Julie applied a thick coat of glaze directly to the unfired porcelain forms, covering the surfaces with bold geometric areas and often adding the silhouette of an animal. The surfaces of many of these pieces are airbrushed using slip and then given a coat of clear overglaze.
“Their work is imaginative, colorful, and always carefully crafted. The consistently high quality of their work is evidenced by numerous gallery shows and awards in regional and national competitions”
- Tom Schafer, Ceramics Monthly, April 1971
Two-Person & Solo Exhibitions:
1968 Left Bank Gallery, Flint, MI
1969 Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo, MI
1970 Creative Arts Center, Central Michigan University, Mt. Pleasant, MI
1971 Art in the Round, Troy, MI
Group Exhibitions:
1967, 1969, 1961, 1972 Exhibition for Michigan Artist-Craftsman, Detroit Institute of Art, Detroit, MI
1967-1971 Michigan Council for the Arts, Lansing, MI
1968, 1967 Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, MI
1968 Everson Museum, Syracuse, NY
1968 Birmingham-Bloomfield Art Association, Birmingham, MI
1969 Museum of Contemporary Crafts, Portland, OR
1970 Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH
1970 Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, MI
1976 Smithsonian American Art Museum, Renwick Gallery, Washington, D.C.
1977 Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo, MI
Collections:
Arts & Science Center Museum, Statesville, NC
Central Michigan University, Mt. Pleasant, MI
Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH
North Carolina National Bank, Charlotte, NC
Henry Ford Community College, Dearborn, MI
Hans Bechtler Collection, Zurich, Switzerland
Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, MI
Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, SC
Lannan Museum, Palm Beach Community College, West Palm Beach, FL
Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC
Southern Highland Craft Guild, Asheville, NC
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Renwick Gallery, Washington, D.C.
Utah Museum of Art, Salt Lake City, UT