Oval Bowl

Samuel Johnson

Having started his studies in the United States and continued his work as far as Copenhagen and Japan, Samuel Johnson is an artist well-traveled with a CV that is desirable by all.

With various cultural influences, Samuel's work is robust, powerful, and seemingly undisturbed by modern motivation. It is hard to come across such complex work when limited by a single medium, but Johnson's dark and varied wood-fired surfaces hold an almost ancient presence about them. After throwing symmetrical forms, he scrapes and inlays them into slight disorder before exposing them to the extreme heat of the kiln. Within the natural variations of texture, wonderful scenes of nature emerge and dissolve — mountains and hills, lakes and streams, all existing within the mysterious surface of his work.

Now a Professor of Art and the Chair of the Art Department at the College of St. Benedict and St. John’s University, Johnson continues to push the boundaries of functional and sculptural art, reminding us that the possibilities of each medium (pottery, drawing, and painting) and their function in daily life are as deep and limitless as our imaginations.