SHANNA FLIEGEL

Emerging artist, Shanna Fliegel has a lot to say and her clay tablets and pots are the vehicle for her stories. Initially, trained as a painter with a BFA in Studio Art from James Madison University, Harrisburg, Virginia, she became involved with clay through a residency at the Greenwich House Pottery in NYC.  Painting and drawing was Fliegel’s first love and she continued to search for the perfect marriage of image and clay while fulfilling her MFA at Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville. 

After graduate school in 2008 Fliegel worked as a resident artist and instructor at the Clay Art Center in Port Chester, NY and as a summer resident at the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, MT.  In 2010 she moved to Billings, MT where she taught as Assistant Professor of Art at Montana State University until 2014.

With this body of work, “Preservation: Weeding through it all” Fliegel has found the method and means of expression.  In her artist statement, Fliegel says of her work:

“Does every moment exist forever? What is it that compels us to preserve thoughts, memories and events? Ancient Sumerian culture used clay to keep track of items, counting, tallying, creating civilization's first inventory. Clay has an innate ability to record marks, scratches, and impressions, and it is my intention to take part in that story through color, texture and imagery. Preserving both personal and universal experiences on clay surfaces seems to legitimize and celebrate every moment.”

In 2018, Fliegel will be involved in two curatorial projects during NCECA 2018  (National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts) and will be presenting at SOFA Chicago for the first time. 

Fliegel is currently based out of New Bern, NC and teaches ceramics in Washington DC at the Sidwell Friends School.