Mark Kolinski
Biographical Info MARK KOLINSKI CERAMICS Artist Biography I come by art very honestly; both my parents were artistically inclined, and all five of their children were encouraged and active in making art from an early age. In high school, I was a “studio rat” spending much of my free time working in clay, drawing, and sculpture spaces. College brought greater opportunities to develop clay skills, first studying with Susan Galloway, an excellent traditional potter, and then with Harris Deller, a more conceptual-nonfunctional ceramic artist. At SIU, I met my wife, Ellen Levenhagen in the clay studio. We have been studio and life partners for over 40 years. After graduating, we traveled in Europe for six months before moving back to Chicago where I worked four years as studio assistant to ceramicist, Ruth Duckworth. The years working with Ruth provided me with close and formative connections with Alice Westphall, owner of Exhibit A Gallery and sculptor Martin Puryear. Ellen and I moved to Wisconsin in 1985, where I began teaching. I showed my work at Edgewood Orchard Gallery in Fish Creek, Wisconsin and the Leigh Gallery in Chicago. In 1992, Ellen and I began our lives overseas, spending 28 years teaching in international schools in Kuwait, Malaysia, Japan, China, Singapore, and Austria. I immersed myself in the culture of each location, mining the rich visual language offered and incorporating that language into images. My work has been shown at various galleries internationally and in the Midwest. We own Clay on Steele Studio and Gallery, in Algoma, WI. My work is also exhibited at the Idea Gallery in Door County, Wisconsin.
Level Northeast Wisconsin Chapter
Membership Type Member