The career of ceramic artist Betty Woodman spans four decades and several continents.
Woodman has served as a Professor of Fine Arts at the University of Colorado at Boulder (1979-98) and won numerous awards, including a Fulbright-Hays Scholarship to Florence, Italy, in 1966, and two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships in 1986 and 1987.
She lives and works in New York City and Antella, Italy, but her work expresses a spectrum of artistic influences, bringing together the flair of Chinese vessel forms, T'ang Dynasty glazes, Japanese silk-screen prints, Persian textiles and Italian majolica ware.
Although she's linked to the traditional craft heritage by her choice of material and technique, Woodman creates highly individual works that go beyond function by transforming vase shapes into painterly compositions that are brought together in multiple freestanding combinations and as installations and wall pieces.
Woodman discusses her work at 6 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 13, at a reception to unveil Sensuous Triptych, a new acquisition of her work by the Tampa Museum of Art. The event is open to the public and admission is free.
Her work is also currently included in the traveling exhibit, Craft is a Verb: Selections from the Collection of the American Craft Museum, on display at the Tampa Museum of Art until Dec. 30.
Tampa Museum of Art is at 600 N. Ashley Drive, Tampa (813-274-8130).
This article appears in Dec 13-19, 2001.
