Winslow Garage

Amy Sanferraro

fruit and stones
fluff and bones

Amy Sanferraro makes brightly colored and playful objects combining handmade ceramic pieces with collected found objects. Sanferraro who sees collecting as a way to organize and make sense of our surroundings through interaction with the material world is both a collector and an investigator into our relationship with objects. In her work, an object’s history, its use and /or sentimental meaning, is embraced or discarded in pursuit of a “new imagined life.” Sanferraro’s sculptures are idiosyncratic and highly personal as she carefully curates and ponders potential object narratives.

The use of thrift store kitsch and the language of mass produced items has been absorbed by Sanferraro’s generation of artists as plentiful and obvious art making material. Possible meanings and the nostalgic warmth of objects is occasionally embraced while artificial sentimentality is highlighted as a questionable reflection of societal values. Ultimately these are brave new creatures emerging from an oversaturated consumer culture landscape.

Amy is currently the Ceramics Area coordinator at Cal State Los Angeles and lives and works in Pomona, CA. Amy Santoferraro, born in Akron, Ohio, is the progeny of a carpenter and retailer. She received her M.F.A in Ceramic Art from The New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, in Alfred, New York in 2012. Amy earned her B.A.E (Art Education) and her B.F.A (Ceramics) from The Ohio State University In 2004. Amy has been a resident artist at Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts in Newcastle, Maine, Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg Tennessee, and a four year Resident Artist at The Clay Studio in Philadelphia, PA.. Amy was awarded a McKnight Residency Grant for Ceramic Artists in a partnership through the McKnight Foundation and The Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She was an Assistant Professor of Art at Kansas State University, a Spring 2017 Visiting Instructor in Residence at Oregon College of Arts and Craft in Portland, Oregon, and the Joan and David Lincoln Visiting Professor at Scripps College and Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, California.

@santoferraro
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