CINCINNATI, OH.- What does nature teach us about the ability to embrace life’s challenges? Local ceramic artist Terri Kern explores the theme of resilience in her latest creations in an intimate exhibition located in the Sinton Gallery at the Taft Museum of Art in downtown Cincinnati. Inspired by the natural world, her symbolic works of art tell stories of love, loss, triumph, and hardship.

For the pieces in this exhibition, Kern also sought inspiration from a variety of objects in the Taft Museum of Art’s collection, including Chinese porcelains, Italian maiolica, and European timepieces and portrait miniatures. Much like her ceramics, these richly decorated objects are functional and beautiful, fragile yet resilient. Associate Curator Ann Glasscock, PhD, shared, “Kern weaves the concept of resilience in her ceramics, which tells stories of life’s twists and turns—stories that the artist hopes will connect people through their shared experiences.”

Birds fly among clouds, snakes coil around tree branches, and foxes leap through the air in Kern’s latest creations. Using wheel throwing and hand building techniques, she decorates her intimate narrative works with layers of colors, creating vibrant glazed surfaces. Kern’s award-winning ceramics have been featured in numerous publications and are held in public and private collections throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. Her work has also been exhibited internationally, including shows in China, Japan, Cuba, and Germany. 

Terri Kern is an independent studio artist. She considers herself a storyteller and documents her experiences and the world around her through the richly detailed surfaces of her vessels and the sculptural forms she makes.

Since receiving her Master of Fine Arts Degree in 1991, she has been awarded four Individual Artist Grants and numerous awards for excellence in the field of ceramics. Starting in 2000, she has participated in five international art collaborations with artists from Munich, Germany; Nancy, France; Liuzhou, People’s Republic of China and Barbacoa, Cuba and has traveled to Germany, France and China, as an art ambassador. Terri and her fellow collaborators from Cincinnati, Munich and Liuzhou received an “Innovation Award” for an international drawing collaborative, from the Sister Cities International Conference in Belfast Ireland.

Though she left teaching full time, she continues to inspire art teachers, high school and college students with her lectures and workshops on her studio practice and experiences as a working artist.

She has a strong belief in the importance of building community through the practice of art. To that end, she serves on the board of the Clay Alliance of Greater Cincinnati. She also started a charitable fund that benefits ceramics programs, at not for profit institutions, in the city of Cincinnati.

In her most recent collaboration in 2015, she was the lead designer and project manager of the ArtWorks ArtRX program. She worked with three teaching artists and fourteen student artists to create twenty mixed media paintings for the Ronald McDonald House in Cincinnati.

Terri is currently working on a body of sculptural pieces and a series of illustrations.

Her work is held in private and public collections.