I have been working in the field of visual art since 1996 when I began my undergraduate fine arts education at the University of Tennessee at Martin. I was initially a painting student; having spent my youth focused in 2-D discipline, but became enamored with clay immediately upon contact.
In the beginning, my emphasis was on craft, being more interested in what the clay had to say, than what I had to say with the material. My focus has changed considerably over time and now I use the clay to explore questions and issues that lay beyond the materiality and craft of the studio.
Richard W. James is currently an assistant professor of ceramics at Miami University, Oxford OH. Prior to this, he was the assistant professor of sculpture and ceramics at Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi and held long-term artist-in-resident positions at The Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts in Helena, MT (2017-2019), Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, Tennessee (2016-2017), and Zhenrutang in Jingdezhen, China (summer 2015). Richard received his BFA from the University of Tennessee at Martin in 2001 and his MFA in ceramics from the University of Kansas in 2016, where a portion of his thesis work received the 2016 International Sculpture Center and Sculpture Magazine Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award. He was the recipient of the James Renwick Alliance Chrysalis Award (2019) for emerging artist in contemporary craft as well as the Ceramics Monthly Emerging Artist Award (2018). He has written multiple articles for Ceramics: Art and Perception, Ceramics: Technical and Ceramics Monthly. His work is featured in numerous private collections, publications, and websites including HI-FRUCTOSE and Glass Tire. He continues to exhibit regularly across the country, as well as past exhibits in China and Italy.

For any questions or comments feel free to contact me.

richardwjames01@gmail.com