Image and detail: Golden Ager Bundle, 2024, ceramic/underglaze/glaze/gold luster/fibers, 38”x16” x6”.

Figure as Memento: New Ceramic and Mixed Media Artwork by Tom Bartel will be featured in Studio M from April 26, 2025 through June 8, 2025.  A reception with the artist will be held on June 5th, coinciding with the opening reception for Juxtaposed: Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Future, a painting and ceramics exhibition which is on display in the Main Gallery from June 5 through October 12, 2025.  

Tom Bartel grew up on the Erie shores of Cleveland, Ohio and is known for his disturbing and humorous fragmented figures that take cues from a “shotgun blast” of influences ranging from antiquity to popular culture. He received his BFA from Kent State University, and his MFA from Indiana University-Bloomington. 

Tom has lectured, conducted workshops and exhibited extensively throughout the United States and internationally. His work is included in numerous public and private collections and he has received Individual Artist Fellowships from the Pennsylvania arts council, the Kentucky Arts Council and the Ohio Arts Council.

He has numerous publications to his credit, including American Craft, Ceramics Monthly, Clay Times, Ceramics Art and Perception as well as many other periodicals and books.

Bartel is currently a Professor and Ceramics Chairperson at Ohio University in Athens, Oh.