Several years ago, I was asked to do a collaboration with Callie Luhrman, a ceramicist in San Antonio, Texas. This was my introduction to clay. I was taken by the shapes and forms that Callie made. I was excited by the process of etching and painting on these forms, and I enjoyed the results. At the time I did not contemplate building my own forms/shapes.
In 2023, Henning Hummerdal of Gallerie Hedenius (in Stockholm, Sweden) who I’ve been working with for a number of years, challenged me to create ceramic forms of my own. I have been working in clay ever since – this work is a result of that challenge.
Prior to my exploration of clay my work was, and continues to be, on found materials (paper, book covers, wood) with some three-dimensional work - drywall boxes, old children’s blocks made into ships and houses. A consistent and primary aspect of my work is the use of my non-dominant (left) hand.
For more than thirty years now I have done my work with my left hand. Working this way has allowed me to use what I consider to be my true or authentic voice and has offered a freedom from overthinking the work – though working in clay forces me to use my right hand for some of the more delicate painting of underglazes. Happily for me the right hand remains under the gentle guidance of my more free, loose self – my left hand.
I didn’t approach ceramics to learn to create classic shapes and forms, I used the medium as an extension of my previous work. I was uncertain as to how this would translate, but I think the medium has allowed me to take the characters in my work “off the page”, out of a 2-dimensional realm, and into 3-dimensional forms.
The title of this show is “I made these things for you”. The truth is that when I kneel to do my work or sit to hand build in clay, I am simply doing it for myself – exploring what is going on inside of me and in the world around me. When the work is finished, then it is for you.
Bio
W. Tucker was born in July of 1959 in Goldsboro, North Carolina. He began drawing and painting in 1986.
Tucker’s work has been represented in the US by galleries in California, Texas and Wyoming. In 2025 he had his second solo exhibition with Galleri Hedenius in Stockholm, Sweden - and has had his work shown in various galleries in Switzerland. He continues to work with Koelsch Gallery in Houston, TX, Conduit Gallery in Dallas, TX and Maya Fordeman Gallery in Jackson Hole, WY. His second solo exhibition with grayDUCK gallery in Austin, TX will take place August 2025.
Tucker’s work has been published in volume number 67, 102, 144 (online) of New American Painting’s, a juried show in print. Residencies have included a stay at the Fountainhead Residency in Miami in 2008 and at Dorland Mountain Arts Colony in Temecula, California in 1991. For the 2012-13 season Tucker was awarded Austin Critics Table Award for “Best Installation” as well as “Artist of the year” for his installation at Texas State University. He attended Circle in the Square through New York University and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Drama in1982.
Tucker lives and works in Austin, Texas.
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