Current whereabouts: Home > National Forums > Choosing craft > Vicki Halper Biography
National Forums
National forums
2011: Choosing craft
Vicki Halper Biography
Vicki Halper is a noted curator of American crafts and co-editor of Choosing Craft: The Artist's Viewpoint, a recently published anthology of artists' writings and transcribed interviews. Vicki Halper is visiting Australia from 1 - 21 April 2011.
Vicki Halper Biography
Vicki Halper is a noted curator of American crafts and co-editor of Choosing Craft: The Artist's Viewpoint, a recently published and well-reviewed anthology of artists' writings and transcribed interviews.
Halper received an undergraduate degree with honors in Art History (Oberlin College, 1966) and completed graduate studies in American Civilization, an interdisciplinary field combining modern art and social history (University of Pennsylvania, M.A., 1967). In the 1970s she became a professional potter, eventually creating ceramic tile for architects and interior designers.
In 1983 Halper joined the Modern Art Department of the Seattle Art Museum (1983 - 97), where she focused on contemporary regional art and American crafts, a field that has been under-represented in museums and universities. Halper's dual training as an art historian and crafts practitioner, and her skill as a clear and concise writer, quickly gave her opportunities to curate crafts exhibitions.
Exhibitions
Her first traveling exhibition in the field, Clay Revisions: Plate, Cup, Vase (1987), focused on the persistence of utilitarian forms in non-utilitarian sculptures. The catalogue essay was reprinted in American and Canadian art journals.
Other craft exhibitions Halper has curated include solo retrospectives in:
- Fibre: John McQueen, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 1992,
- Glass: Richard Marquis, Seattle Art Museum, 1997,
- Clay: Patty Warashina, Bellevue Art Museum, 1991 and Clayton James, Museum of Northwest Art, 2002, and
- Jewelry: Ramona Solberg, Bank of America Gallery, 2001.
Her thematic exhibitions include:
- Holding the Past: Historicism in Northwest Glass Sculpture (Seattle Art Museum, 1995)and
- Look Alikes: The Decal Plates of Howard Kottler (Tacoma Art Museum, 2004).
Essays and publications
Her essay for the Kottler exhibition, which travelled nationally, decodes the hidden gay imagery in the artist’s complex collages.
In Contrasts: A Glass Primer (Museum of Glass, Tacoma, 2006), Halper created an introduction to the medium for an audience of first-time museum goers, synthesizing complex material in a lucid and visually riveting manner. By pairing glass objects from all periods, she illustrated key concepts related to technique (hot/cold, for example), history (factory/studio), iconography (political/poetic), and style (beautiful/brutal). The exhibition was on view to a consistently engaged audience for three years.
Lecture tours and residencies
Halper is known as an articulate and impassioned speaker and a clear and insightful writer. Recently she has been lecturing on and reading from Choosing Craft, which was conceived as a companion reader to an upcoming textbook in American studio crafts. Critics have called Choosing Craft 'amusing, controversial, enlightening, and witty' (Sandra Alfoldy), and 'essential for those who want to understand the American craft movement' (Glenn Adamson).
During a writer's residency at Pilchuck Glass School in 2009, Halper presented Choosing Craft and participated in art critiques with classes and individuals. Her critical skills were first developed as an artist in the 1970s, then refined as a museum curator. She is regularly invited to participate in juries and academic critiques, including sessions at the University of Washington, The Banff Center, and Cranbrook Academy of Art.
Current work
Halper is currently editing a volume of the selected letters of Morris Graves (1910 - 2001), a Northwest American artist who is well known nationally for paintings influenced by Japanese aesthetics and Asian philosophy.
Vicki Halper is visiting Australia in April from 1 - 21 April 2011. Craft Australia is bringing her to Australia because of her expert knowledge of contemporary craft and visual arts practice.
Craft Australia has developed the itinerary for Vicki's visit in collaboration with the network of Australian Craft and Design Centres (ACDC), as well as some of the key tertiary education institutions. Throughout her tour, Vicki will be giving talks about Choosing Craft, her focus will be on the roles of tradition and innovation within current craft practice.
Related links
- Vicki Halper Speaking Tour
- Vicki Halper Program Notes
- Vicki Halper Tour Sponsors
Image credits: 1. Vicki Halper 2. John McQueen Voices c1992 3. Vicki Halper & Diane Douglas, Choosing Craft.
