Artist Statement

“I am interested in what the past can reveal about the future. I create ceramic objects that look decayed, weathered and beaten up by time.

Recent work builds on the previous platform of decay but begins to refer to more singular vessel structures fabricated from a composition of many vessels. As a result, there is a macro/micro cellular/building block reference that I hope suggests some of the insights that quantum mechanics, chaos theory and mythology might bring to our insight of the world.

My newest work returns to figurative vessels and solid forms with fossil references. Ideas about time, the past, the future and the often subtle and sometimes chaotic relationships between the inside and the outside drive the narrative.”

James Ibur is a potter, vessel-maker, sculptor, and curator living in St. Louis, Missouri.

He is the Coordinator of Ceramic Art and Assistant Chair of Design, Visual and Performing Arts at Saint Louis Community College – Meramec. Ibur received an MFA from the University of Illinois/Champaign-Urbana, studied at UC/Davis and a BA from the University of Colorado/Boulder as well as residencies at the Archie Bray Foundation and Banff Centre for the Arts.