James C. Watkins

African American; Male; born 1951

From the artist’s website (edited): “James C. Watkins is a ceramic artist who has worked with clay for over 40 years. His work is held in 23 permanent collections, including the White House Collection of American Crafts at the Clinton Library in Little Rock, Arkansas, the Shigaraki Institute of Ceramic Studies in Shigaraki, Japan, the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC, the Everson Museum in Syracuse, New York, the Tweed Museum in Duluth, Minnesota, the Eiteljorg Museum in Indianapolis, Indiana and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Watkins’ work has been widely exhibited in 45 solo exhibitions and 170 group exhibitions.

Watkins was a professor at Texas Tech University but retired as the Horn Distinguished Professor Emeritus. His awards include the Texas Tech University President’s Excellence in Teaching Award and the third recipient of the Art on the Llano Estacada Legacy Award, presented by Texas Tech University Museum Association. He was a 2005 Senior Fulbright Scholar and taught at the Ho Chi Minh City University of Architecture in Vietnam. Watkins is also the recipient of the 2023 Texas State Visual Artist 3D Award presented by the Texas Commission on the Arts and the 2019 recipient of the HCCC Texas Master Award presented by the Houston Center for Contemporary Crafts in Houston, Texas. He received his BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute and his MFA from Indiana University.”

Known for his large-scale, double-walled ceramic vessels and laser-cut porcelain substrate Known for his large-scale, double-walled ceramic vessels and laser-cut porcelain substrate tiles, Watkins has been widely recognized for his textured surfaces that were fashioned using alternative firing techniques. Watkins' experiences growing up in the rural south during the 1950s and 1960s inform his quintessential style of works. Growing up the eldest of six children to parents who were farmers, Watkins grew up during an era when large cast-iron cookware was a key farming tool. His mother used those cast-iron pots to make both household products, such as soap, and to cook foodstuffs like hominy and souse. Therefore, Watkins' large double-walled ceramics forms, like Ritual Display, 1993, which is a part of the KIA collection, are drawn from those memories when he helped keep the fire burning for his mother to use her cast-iron pots.