----------------------BIO---------------------
Tom Bartel is known for his "disturbing yet humorous" fragmented figures that take cues from a "shotgun blast" of influences ranging from antiquity to popular culture.
Bartel is currently an Associate Professor at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, KY, has taught summer workshops at Ox-bow (SAIC), MI, Idyllwild Arts, CA, Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts and has taught at Allegheny College and Viterbo University. He received his B.F.A. from Kent State University in 1993 and his MFA from Indiana University, Bloomington in 1996. Bartel has an extensive exhibition record, including 20 solo shows, has participated in exhibitions in Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan and the Czech Republic and has conducted many artist lectures and workshops.
In the summer of 2005 he was invited as an artist-in-residence at the White Mountain Academy of the Arts, Ontario, Canada, received a Grant to research ceramics in Spain, and Italy and in the summer of 2006 he was invited to participate in the Bechyne, International Symposium of Ceramics in the Czech Republic. Bartel's work is included in numerous public and private collections and he has received Individual Artist Fellowships from the Pennsylvania arts council and the Kentucky Arts Council. He has numerous publications to his credit, most recently a feature article in Ceramics Monthly, entitled "Challenging Beauty; The Sculpture of Tom Bartel."