Sergei Isupov

Biography to Display:

1963Born Stavropol, Russia

EDUCATION

1982Ukrainian State Art School, Kiev, Ukraine

1990BA and MFA Art Institute of Tallinn, Estonia

PRIMARY WORK EXPERIENCE

1990—Studio Artist, Louisville, Kentucky, and Cummington, Massachusetts

APPRENTICESHIPS AND RESIDENCIES

2003Arts/Industry Residency Program, John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, Wisconsin

BIOGRAPHY

Sergei Isupov’s work is figurative in both form and content. He creates sculptures combining human and animal elements, typically less than 3 feet high. He has created a small group of figures that are 8 feet tall. Isupov depicts dreamlike surreal narratives most often illustrating self-portraits and autobiographical motifs. His work explores male and female relationships often including graphic sexual imagery.

Isupov constructs his porcelain or stoneware sculptures using traditional hand building and sculpture techniques. The tattoo-like drawings that cover the surfaces of his work sometimes turn into three-dimensional elements as a head, hand or leg grows out of the piece. He uses stains and glazes to create colorful sections that work in contrast to the areas of black and white drawings. For a period in the early 2000s, he worked on a series of larger than life heads that were used as canvases for his narratives.

In 1993 Isupov left the Soviet Union for the United States. He settled in Louisville, Kentucky with his first wife, Dana Major. An interview with Sergei Isupov conducted December 21 and 22, 2010 by Mark Shapiro, for the Archives of American Art’s Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America is available at:

http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-sergei-isupov-15919.

PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

Public Collections to Display:

Arizona State University Art Museum, Tempe, Arizona

Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock, Arkansas

The Art Galleries of Florida Gulf Coast University, Fort Myers, Florida

Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Daum Museum of Contemporary Art, Sedalia, Missouri

Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, de Young Museum, San Francisco, California

Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, Massachusetts

Hunterdon Art Museum, Clinton, New Jersey

Mint Museum, Charlotte, North Carolina

Museum fur Angewandte, Kunst, Frankfurt, Germany

Museum of Applied Art, Tuman, Russia

Museum of Arts and Design, New York, New York

Museum of Contemporary Ceramics, Summe, Ukraine

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas

Museum of International Ceramics, Kecskemet, Hungary

National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia

Norwegian Museum of Art, Trondheim, Norway

Oslo Museum of Applied Art, Oslo, Norway

Racine Art Museum, Racine, Wisconsin

Imperial Centre for the Arts & Sciences, Rocky Mount, North Carolina

Tallinn Museum of Applied Art, Tallinn, Estonia

Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, North Carolina

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bibliography to Display:

Bekkerman, Sonya. Sergei Isupov: Androgyny. Mesa, Arizona: Mesa Arts Center, 2008.

Brown, Glen. The Figure in Clay: Contemporary Sculpting Techniques by Master Artists. New York, New York: Lark Books, Sterling Publishing, 2005.

Brown, Glen. “Sergei Isupov–On Multi Stable Ground,” Ceramic Arts & Perception no.51 (2003).

Burkett, Richard, curator. Masters: Porcelain. Asheville, North Carolina: Lark Books, Sterling Publishing, 2008.

Chambers, Karen. “Sergei Isupov,” American Craft Magazine, (February1999).

______________, “Sergei Isupov: From Stavropol to Louisville,” Kerameiki Techni—International

Ceramic Art Review no.30 (December 1998).

Clark, Garth. The Artful Teapot. New York, New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, 2001.

Copeland, Colette. “The Pursuit of Porcelain,” review, Ceramics: Art and Perception no.88 (2012).

Del Vecchio. Mark, Postmodern Ceramics. New York, New York: Thames & Hudson, 2001.

Douglas, Mary. Alan Chasanoff Ceramic Collection. Charlotte, North Carolina: Mint Museum of Craft+Design, 2000.

Friedman, Jane. “Fragile.” American Style (2003).

Hopper, Robin. Making Marks: Discovering the Ceramic Surface. Iola, Wisconsin: Krause Publications Inc., 2004.

Leigh, Bobbie. “All Fired Up,” Art and Antiques (May 2004).

Mathieu, Paul. Sex Pots: Eroticism in Ceramics. Rutgers, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2003.

Meilach, Dona Z. Teapots: Makers and Collectors. Atglen, Pennsylvania: Schiffer Publishing, 2006.

Morgenthal, Deborah. Penland Book of Ceramics: Masterclasses in Ceramic Techniques. New York, New York: Lark Books, Sterling Publishing, 2003.

Newby, Rick. “Sergei Isupov,” American Ceramics (May 1999).

Nigrosh, Leon. “Erotica in Ceramic Art, Sexual, Sensual & Suggestive,” Ceramic Art and Perception no.38 (1999).

Osterman, Matthias. The Ceramic Surface. London, England: A and C Black Publishers, 2002.

_______________ . The Ceramic Narrative. London, England: A and C Black Publishers, 2005.

Schwartz, Judith. Confrontational Ceramics. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008.

Ward, Gerald W., RJulie Muniz and Matthew Kangas. Shy Boy, She Devil, and Isis: The Art of Conceptual Craft, Selections from the Wornick Collection. Boston, Massachusetts: Museum of Fine Arts Publications, 2007.

CV or RESUME: Click Here to Download

CV or RESUME: Click Here to Download
Source: Dorothy Weiss Gallery, Elaine Levin Archive, University of Southern California

WEBSITE(S):

http://sergeiisupov.com/

Typical Marks