Karl Schwiesow

Karl Schwiesow is an artist and educator both teaching and making in a variety of tactile media. He holds his BFA in Sculpture and Ceramics from Sierra Nevada University and an MFA in Studio Art from the University of Montana. His interest in the arts, particularly ceramics and sculpture, has led him to artists residencies at the Red Lodge Clay Center in Red Lodge Montana, the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, and a Ceramic Artist in Residence at the Sonoma Community Center in Sonoma California. He continues to teach and mentor within local communities through art centers, residencies, and visiting artist workshops and seasonally works as an associate and artist’s assistant at Dick and Jane’s Spot in Ellensburg Washington. His artworks often explore the degradation of functional fixedness through modes which employ found and altered objects with ceramic components. Karl often draws on his visceral experiences as a laborer, commercial fisherman, builder, and outdoor enthusiast to inform his current art’s aesthetics and concepts. Karl is currently an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the University of Montana’s School of Visual and Media Art.