Born- 4-7-44, New York City, U.S.A.
1962-65. Pepperdine College. Studied art on an athletic scholarship for basketball.
a. University of Southern California. Four years of Architecture School. BFA in ceramics.
1971. Came to India. Founded Golden Bridge Pottery in Pondicherry with wife Deborah Smith. Produce a varied line of wheel thrown stoneware pottery. Run training program for students from all parts of India.
Selected Architecture/Construction
1999-97. Fire-stabilized shrine for Nrityagram dance community, Bangalore.
1995. Six low-cost fire-stabilized mud houses for the Volontariat, Pondicherry
1994. Began 50 fire-stabilized mud houses for Salem DRDA, Tamil Nadu. Only 6 houses
were fired and one finished.
1993. Design for Auberge Hotels, Pondicherry.
1992. Staff housing/office/lab/security for Minota Aquatech Ltd. , a subsidiary of The Indian Tobacco
Corporation , Tuticorin. Fire-stabilized construction.
1990. Satyajit/Chintan house, fire-stabilized mud in Auroville.
1991. Demonstrated fire-stabilized construction for low-cost housing at Auroville Information and Reception Center.
1988. Built “Agni Jata”. First fire-stabilized mud house for a very courageous client in
Auroville, India. Produced a 30-minute video on the process.
1985-87. First experiments in “Fire Stabilized Mud Building”.
Selected Exhibitions/Awards
2005. Award for “Best Solo Show of the Year 2004”, India Habitat Centre.
2005. Ardharanishwara. Exhibition of 25 artists at the Tao Art Gallery. Mumbai.
2004. Subject to Change without Notice. Installation at India Habitat Center with Peter Nagy, Nature Morte, New Delhi.
2001. Kurukshetra. An exhibition of sculpture and pottery with Peter Nagy, Nature Morte Gallery, New Delhi.
2000. Perennial Earth, Quickening Fire, an Exhibition of Stoneware at Cymroza Art Gallery, Mumbai.
1999. The video Agni Jata wins Bronze medal at the Ceramics Millennium, Amsterdam
1998. Studio Potters Exhibition. Fourteen potters, Cymroza Gallery, Mumbai.
1996. First one-person show of ceramics at the Eicher Gallery, New Delhi
1985. Exhibition of salt-glazed ceramics with Dutch artist Johnny Rolf at the Adyar Gate
Hotel, Madras
1980-83. All India Studio Potter Exhibition, New Delhi.
Selected Lectures/Workshops/Consultancy
2006. Verge Conference. Brisbane, Australia. Two presentations. “Thirty-five Years with Indian Clay” and “Fired Houses.”
2003. NCECA. Presentation on Indian Ceramics with Deborah Smith and Jane Perryman.
1998. Lecture, Developing a Fired Building Technology, for the “Enduring Image. Treasures from the British Museum.”
1991. Conducted one-month workshop for village potters from the Puddokottai/Tanjavur area of Tamil Nadu for the Madras Craft Foundation
1990. Lecture on fire-stabilized construction at Maryland Art Institute, Hunter College, The
Aga Khan Foundation, M.I.T., Southern California Institute of Architecture, Hartnell
College, Monterey Peninsula College, HUDCO, New Delhi
1989. Six weeks as design consultant to GTZ’s Ceramic Promotion Project, Nepal.
1986. Lecture on fired building process at the International Conference on Mud Architecture, (MUD MUD), Trivandrum.
One month as design consultant to GTZ’s Ceramic Promotion Project, Nepal.
Selected Bibliography
Desai, Prajna, Firing the Imagination, The Art News Magazine of India, Vol. lll, Issue lll, July ’98. Perryman, Jane, Houses on Fire, Ceramic Review, November, December, 1996.
Grewal, Royina, The Potter Architect, Inside/Outside, October, 1993.
T. Manivanan, The Baked Houses of Pondicherry, Indian Express, Nov. 3, 1991.
Kundoo, Anupama, Agni Jata, Indian Architect and Builder, November, 1990.
Selected Published Articles
Thirty-five Years with Indian Clay. Ceramic Art and Perception. June, 2006.
Save the rural potter... and all that, The Economic Times, May 3, 1992.
Mud. Towards a Fire-stabilized Mud Building Technology, Architecture+Design, April, 1991.
Kiln Technology. A Demonstration and a Challenge, Indian Architect and Builder, November, 1990.
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