The passing of a legend - Malcolm Davis

Malcolm Davis died in the morning of 12/11. He had hip replacement surgery last Thursday, recovered over the weekend...and evidently collasped in PT Mon morning and died instantly."

His wife has requested no calls for a few days.

The following is from the AKAR website:

"I first touched clay at age 40 and knew immediately that I had been a potter all along. I love to make pots! For me, the joy and the challenge comes from making things that will become an intimate part of the daily lives of others - pots that will be held, eaten from, poured from, sipped from and perhaps even licked from. For me the making of pots is a way to celebrate the mundane rituals of daily life and to make them holy." 

Malcolm Davis has been a full-time studio potter since 1984 when he left his previous life as campus minister. He took his first ceramics class in 1974 and since 1985 has maintained his mountaintop studio in Upshur County, WV. He is internationally recognized for his work with shino-type glazes, specifically for the creation of a unique ultra Carbontrap shino-type formula with a high concentration of soluble soda ash, which encourages the trapping of carbon in the early stages of the firing.

He is the recipient of numerous awards, including four grants from the District of Columbia Commission on the Arts and Humanities, and was a finalist in the 1995 Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation/NEA Visual Artists Fellowships. Other awards include the Purchase Award at the Ceramics Monthly International Competition (1999), First Place in the 1996 Strictly Functional Pottery Show, Feats of Clay XIII and XIV Merit Awards, Orton Purchase Awards in 1994 and 1996, Crosscurrents All Media Award at the Stifel Fine Arts in Wheeling (1990. 1996), WV Juried Exhibition Merit Award in 1996, and Awards for Clay Cup VII and Clay Cup IV.

He has exhibited at the Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show, the Smithsonian Craft Show and the American Craft Council Craft Shows. He has been an artist-in-residence at Artpark in Lewiston, NY; Baltimore Clayworks; Greenwich House Pottery (NYC); The Clay Studio in Philadelphia; Red Star Studios in Kansas City; Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis; Waubonsee Community College in Illinois and the Lee Arts Center in Virginia.

Malcolm’s work is included in collections at the American Crafts Museum; The Schein-Joseph International Museum of Ceramic Art, Alfred, NY; the Everson Museum, Syracuse, NY; Mobach Collection, Utrecht, Holland; Orton Permanent Collection; Arthur and Lillian Weiss Collection; Bailey Ceramics Collection; Old Church Cultural Center in Demarest, NJ; Highwater Clay Permanent Collection, Asheville, NH; American Art Clay Collection, Indianapolis, IN and the Twentieth Century Collection, Sarah Lawrence College in NY.

He has been featured in over 15 books and publications, he has published articles in American Shino by Lester Richter and Stayin’ Alive by Robin Hopper; and curated an issue of The Studio Potter Magazine on carbon trapping. The December, 2003 issue of The Studio Potter Magazine featured an extensive interview: “Malcolm Davis, Shino Warrior.” His work with carbontrap shinos was recently featured in Ceramica (Spain) and Ceramic Review (England).

Malcolm has taught and lectured widely throughout the United States and Canada, and has conducted Masters’ classes at Penland School of Crafts, Peters Valley Craft Center, Touchstone Center for Crafts, and others. Recent exhibitions include AKAR, Iowa City, Iowa; Blue Heron Gallery, Deer Isle, Maine; Blue Spiral 1, Asheville, NC; Santa Fe Clay and “Our Cups Runneth Over” at the Society of Arts and Crafts in Boston.

Malcolm recently curated a national exhibition of work with shino-type glazes, “Endless Variations: Shino Review 2005,” featured at the 2005 NCECA Conference in Baltimore. In 2007 he juried the 15th annual Strictly Functional Pottery National and was one of three presenters at the 20th annual NC Potters’ Conference in Seagrove. He also taught a two-week carbontrap shino workshop at La Meridiana in Tuscany in 2007 and 2008.

Here are a few other links to info and images:
http://www.18handsgallery.com/bios/malcolm.html