Harris Deller

Harris Deller?s work is made from slab-built or wheel-thrown abstract porcelain forms. He often alters the thrown pieces by adding slab-built or extruded components. The surface treatment includes patterns that are incised ...
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Typical Marks

    About
    Biography

    Harris Deller?s work is made from slab-built or wheel-thrown abstract porcelain forms. He often alters the thrown pieces by adding slab-built or extruded components. The surface treatment includes patterns that are incised into the leather-hard clay and then bisque-fired. The patterns he uses are drawn from nature or geometry and typically involve organic repetitive lines, like the ripples from a pebble thrown into water.

    Deller intentionally limits his visual vocabulary and explores the effect of repetition, intersection and glazes. For instance, he uses a fine celadon glaze that wells into relief white porcelain borders to create a pattern or, he bisque fires patterns inlayed with a satin matte black glaze, sponged clean and sanded before the second firing. His other surface techniques includeterra sigillata,low-fired glazes and an underglaze transfer based on his finger prints.

    "
    Apprenticeships & Residencies
    Primary Work Experience
    1975
    -
    2013

    Professor and Professor Emeritus, Southern Illinois University, School of Art and Design, Carbondale, Illinois

    2013
    -

    White Roof Studio

    Other

    Public Collections

    Arizona State University Museum of Art, Tempe, Arizona

    City of Mesa, Mesa, Arizona

    Cranbrook Museum of Art, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan

    Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, California

    Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, DeYoung, San Francisco, California

    Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, New York

    Evansville Museum, Evansville, Indiana

    HoniIk University Museum, Seoul, South Korea

    Illinois State Museum, Springfield, Illinois

    Indiana State Museum, Indianapolis, Indiana

    Kirkland Fine Arts Center, Decatur, Illinois

    Korean-American Education Commission, Seoul, South Korea

    Law School, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, Illinois

    Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, California

    Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Evanston, Illinois

    Museum of Art, Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana

    Museum of Arts and Design, New York, New York

    New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico

    Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art, Utah State University, Logan, Utah

    Racine Art Museum, Racine, Wisconsin

    San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts, San Angelo, Texas

    Shigaraki Museum of Contemporary Art, Japan

    University of Iowa Museum of Art, Mannheimer Collection, Iowa City, Iowa

    Yixing Ceramics Museum, Yixing, China

    Bibliography

    Brown, Glen R. "Harris Deller: Made in China." Ceramics Monthly (January 2008).

    Lawton, Jim. 500 Teapots, Volume 2. Asheville, NC: Lark Books, 2013.

    Smith, Paul J. Craft Today Poetry of the Physical. New York, NY: Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1986.

    Zakin, Richard. Ceramics-Ways of Creation. Iola, WI: Kraus Publications, 1999.

    CV or Resume

    Website(s)
    Tags (related topics)

    Scripps College Ceramic Annual

    Carbondale, Illinois

    Citation: Harris Deller, "The Marks Project."
    Last modified April 29, 2026. https://www.themarksproject.org/artists/harris-deller

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