My work is about nostalgia and play. These pieces are meant to evoke feelings of times past, and to revere certain motifs and patterns from historical decorative arts. They offer a contemporary perspective on those traditions while recontextualizing their content. These objects are meant to be functional and entertaining, to embellish the home and daily practices.
—David Swenson
David Swenson is a ceramic artist originally from Rhode Island. He relocated to Minnesota in 2009 after receiving a Fogelberg Fellowship from Northern Clay Center. Before that he studied ceramics at Töpferei Dambeck in Germany, and decorative techniques in Deruta, Italy, and Bergen, Norway. In 2012 he received a Minnesota State Arts board grant to research the integration of his ceramics with sonic arts. He has been a visiting artist and lecturer at the University of Minnesota, the University of Wisconsin, and The School of the Art Institute in Chicago. He actively teaches in community education and after-school programs in the Twin Cities and surrounding areas.