Adam Chau will speak about the long history of ceramic production in Jingdezhen, China.  He will focus on the history of the six factory sites and how they have evolved over time, especially the Sculpture Factory and Taoxichuan.  These two factory sites have taken radically different approaches to revitalizing Jingdezhen, with Sculpture Factory housing individual trade shops and Taoxichuan creating a public gateway for ceramics funded by the government.  Adam will discuss the ceramic techniques used for generations as well as cutting edge digital technology.  There will be a comparison between the old and new ways of working as well as thoughts on the vision to transform Jingdezhen into a tourist destination, gentrifying and changing the economic landscape of a city rooted in tradition.

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Biography

Adam Chau is an artist living in Cold Spring,  New York.  A past board member of the Connecticut Ceramics Circle, he is a graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago's Industrial Design program, and his interests focus on digital manufacturing within ceramics.  He has published his research in Ceramics Monthly, Ceramics Technical, Ceramics Art and Perception, and Neue Ceramics.  He has exhibited his ceramics and delivered lectures internationally, including in Italy, China, and Taiwan.

In 2018 he received the NCECA Emerging Artist Award, and he became a member of the International Academy of Ceramics in 2019.  He holds board positions at Artaxis and The Color Network which, in part, help raise the presence of ceramic artists on digital platforms.  Adam's solo exhibitions include SCREENSHOT at Harvard Ceramics, HIM at the Manchester Craftsman's Guild, and the recent SENT at The Clay Studio in Philadelphia.  In 2017 he curated an international 13-person exhibit featuring artists working with digital technology titled Reinvented, which travelled to five locations in the US over a two-year period.