TYLER QUINTIN

BIOGRAPHY

Tyler Quintin received his BFA from Washburn University in 2016 and is currently a Long Term Artist in Residence at Red Lodge Clay Center. After graduating, Tyler continued his education through various internship and work study opportunities. He has completed Long Term residencies at the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts and the Morean Center for Clay, as well as a the Open Studio Residency at the Haystack Mountain School of Craft. Tyler is 2024 Ceramics Monthly Emerging Artist and has work in multiple permanent collections, such at the San Angelo Museum of Art.

ARTIST STATEMENT

My work tends to focus on identity, with a specific interest in the internet’s role in navigating and defining identity. I am a gay Korean-American with an exclusively American cultural upbringing. I sought community using the internet as my window into my cultural heritage and my queerness. I found manifesting my research through art helps to strengthen my ties to my community and explore those missing parts of my identity.

With the idea of the internet and the wire-frame structures found in 3D modeling as visual inspiration, I recreate traditional Korean ceramic forms out of sticks of clay. The wire-frame structure appears as if the vessel is still in the process of being rendered, without the traditional pattern or imagery of a historical form. Without its surface, the resulting vessel becomes a metaphor for my Korean body that lacks the language and cultural background. Ambiguous, surfaces develop on these vessel frameworks through swirling clouds, as I form my own relationships to the vessel. The developing surface areas then become canvases for personal imagery.

My figurative work and the narratives behind them are inspired by both mythological research and interactions within online communities. These sculptures are often fragmented, either abstracted into wire-frame structures or emerging from clouds. Whether it be research or active online engagement, I find that these resources have helped me to learn and shape my identity. Although highly influential, the internet is no substitute for lived experiences. The fragmentation of the figure either through incomplete rendering or as a partially formed thought is meant to acknowledge both what is gained and what is missing.

tylerquintin.com
Instagram: @tyler_quintin_arts