Karin Putsch Grassi’s recent production, her Figulinae series, has two aspects that were evident in her early work in the 1980’s: connections and compressions. The name of this series derives from the Figulinaes, small vases and statuettes, which were produced in great quantity in Figline Valdarno, near Florence, where the artist has lived throughout her working life. Karin Putsch Grassi’s pieces are compositions, created by putting together multiple elements, small thrown forms, to form a new entity. What Karin Putsch Grassi wants to achieve is a tension and interest between the compressed individual elements and the new identity of the connected and compressed form. The act of compression connects a multitude of individual forms. And each piece is unique not just because the individual elements in each object can be different but because the act of creation, through combination and compression, is infinitely variable. The small individual pot forms lose, in an act of artistic pressure, any vestige of function and emerge transformed in a new form as of a work of art.

1960 Born in Wuppertal, Germany

1986 Master degree “Maestro d’Arte” in ceramics, “Istituto d’Arte Florence”, Italy

1990 Post graduate diploma in ceramics, “Goldsmiths College London”, University of London

2011 Invited artist - “International Ceramic Festival”, Aberystwyth, Wales

2012 First prize - “Rassegna Internazionale di Ceramica Contemporanea”, Albissola Marina, Italy

2013 “Arte Ceramica oggi in Italia”, Villa Necchi, Milano, Italy

2014 ʺKeramik Europas”, Höhr-Grenzhausen, Germany

2015 Artist in residence - Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park, Japan

2016 Personal exhibition -“Kyoto - Firenze Twining”, Gallery Kyoto Ceramic Association, Kyoto, Japan  

          “Martinsons Award”, Latvia International Ceramics Biennale, Daugavpils, Latvia

2017 Invited artist -“International Ceramic Art Festival”, Sasama, Japan

          “XIII Bienal de Cerámica Artística” Aveiro, Portugal

          “Cluj Ceramics Biennale”, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

2018 Coverstory - La Ceramica Moderna & Antica (Ed.), Connessioni e Compressioni, Misterbianco, Italy

         “Porzellanbiennale”, Albrechtsburg,  Meissen, Germany

         “Primedicopertina”, Pinacoteca Comunale, Faenza, Italy

2019 “International Women Ceramist Festival”, Woljeon Museum of Art Icheon, South Korea           

          Member of the International Academy of Ceramics

2020 Opening of the new ceramic studio and gallery, “La Casina” in Figline Valdarno, Tuscany, Italy

Publications

Ceramic Monthly (Ed.), From Idea to Finished Form, Ohio, USA, 2015

Duncan Hooson, Workshop Guide to Ceramics, London, 2012

Lark Crafts (Ed.), The Best of 500 Ceramics, New York/London, 2012

Lark Crafts (Ed.), 500 Vases, New York/London, 2010