Tyler Lotz

Artist Reception & Art Talk: Tuesday, January 23, 6 pm—8 pm
Sponsored by Steve and Anne Matter

Tyler Lotz is Assistant Professor at ISU’s School of Art. He received his MFA from Alfred University and his BFA from Penn State University. Using ceramic materials and techniques, Lotz creates organic forms that mimic structures and colors found in nature. Contrasting complex patterning with monochromatic surfaces, Lotz explores the uncanny strength and simplicity found in blades of grass and pedals of flowers. As Lotz states, “Nature’s architecture, the consummate marriage of physics and aesthetics, provides the basis for the structure and energy of my ceramic vessels and sculptures. I attempt not to imitate nature but to draw from its ingenuity and creativity.”

ISU faculty member Tyler Lotz to display monochromatic forms at McLean County Arts Center

Sunday, January 21, 2007

BY HOLLY RICHRATH

OF THE JOURNAL STAR

When Tyler Lotz is not teaching ceramics and 3-D fundamentals to art students at Illinois State University, he creates pieces of his own from the inspiration he finds in the "architecture of nature."

His latest collection of monochromatic forms, titled "Concatenations," mimics what might be found in a pristine park or lush garden ... if people looked closely.

"I create ceramic sculpture informed by the human inclination to imitate, interpret and manipulate aspects of the physical universe," Lotz said of his unique work that is on display in the Armstrong Gallery at the McLean County Arts Center in Bloomington through Jan. 27.

To concatenate is to join or link together in a series. Lotz's work emulates this linking, both literally and figuratively, as an exploration of the complexity found in often underestimated elements of nature such as blades of grass and flower petals.

"There is safety in numbers, as every blade of grass on an open plain contributes to the survival of its neighbor and of the whole," Lotz said. "This consummate marriage of physics and aesthetics provides the basis for the structure and energy of my ceramic vessels and sculptures."

In creating each piece for the exhibit, Lotz molds clay into specific individual shapes and then binds these shapes together, linking the individual shapes into complex configurations. He then fires the structure in a kiln and pours acrylic paint over it until it is completely saturated.

"The mold-made conglomerations I make, with their plasticlike acrylic surfaces, speak of the intersection of our artificial and natural worlds," Lotz said of his art. "Nature has perfected strategies for building stronger, lighter structures, securing survival in an ecology that is simultaneously cutthroat and delicate."

Lotz received his masters of fine arts degree from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University and his bachelor's degree in ceramic art from Penn State University. Before joining the faculty at ISU, he worked as a studio technician and adjunct instructor at Ohio State University, a teaching assistant at Alfred University and a ceramic instructor at Penn State.

His work has been displayed in galleries across the United States including the Harvey/Meadows Gallery in Aspen, Colo., Dubhe Carreno Gallery in Chicago, and the Cervini Haas Gallery/Gallery Materia in Scottsdale, Ariz. He has shown work abroad at the first World Ceramic Biennale in South Korea.

"The members of the MCAC and the people that work there are phenomenal supporters of the arts in central Illinois," Lotz said. "I am very excited to show here locally because I don't often get to share my work, at least in an exhibition environment, with my friends and ISU colleagues here in Bloomington-Normal."