Matthew Ward

Lives in La Puebla, New Mexico USA (b.1976)

Matthew Ward is an artist/studio potter. He studied painting and sculpture at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, and graduated with a BFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts, Boston, MA. He is a self taught ceramic artist and former longtime resident of New York City and currently lives and works in a rural valley region in Northern New Mexico. His work is both functional and decorative studio pottery with a focus on unique handmade ceramic works and small batch production wares. Matthew’s work is playfully modern and minimalist in both shape and pattern. His designs oscillate between bold graphic patterns using symbolically suggestive motifs often in a well balanced and mixed color palette. One sees this used interchangeably throughout the variety of his handmade forms. The surface area of the pieces are tactile, at times revealing an underlayer of the raw clay in contrast with the glazed surface areas. The designs are scribed into the clay giving the impression of the artist’s hand.

His works have been sold at Barneys New York, The Store at Museum of Arts and Design, NY, NY. He has worked with West Elm as a design consultant on multiple projects as well as designing a successful collection of vases in collaboration with them. Matthew’s works continue to be featured and sold through many high end design showrooms and stores internationally.