Ken Price

Old Sparky by Ken Price

1994

Ken Price (1935 - 2012) received a BFA from the University of Southern California after studying at Chouinard Art Institute, and Otis Art Institute with Peter Voulkos. He was part of the Otis group, which was instrumental in transforming clay from a craft medium into a vehicle for personal aesthetic expression. Any attempt to simply delimit Price's work in relation to art or craft, sculpture or pottery, is problematic, as his work effortlessly traverses these artificial divisions. In 1959, Price received an MFA from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. Price’s work has appeared in countless exhibitions since his first solo installation at Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles in 1960. He has had over sixty one-person exhibitions at galleries and institutions, including L.A. Louver Gallery, Venice; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; The Menil Collection, Houston; Leo Castelli Gallery, New York; Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston; Santa Barbara Museum of Art; and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. His work has been included in many prestigious group exhibitions including Made in California, 1900-2000, Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Contemporary Ceramics, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Sunshine and Noir: Art in L.A. 1960-1997, UCLA Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, and Louisiana Museum, Denmark; and 1981 Biennial Exhibition, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Price has recently had three major retrospectives- 2012 Ken Price Retrospective Fall 2012 Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA 2013 Ken Price Retrospective Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY 2013 Ken Price Retrospective Winter 2013 Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, TX