Artist: Margaret Bohls
Margaret Bohls, NEBRASKA
ARTIST BIO
Margaret Bohls is an American potter and educator who makes hand-built pottery and vessels. Bohls has been teaching ceramics at the college level for thirty years and is currently Professor of Art at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln. She has taught hands-on workshops at art centers such as Greenwich House Pottery in New York, Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Aspen, Colorado and Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina. Bohls’ work has been shown in over 100 group and solo exhibitions since 1995 and is included in the permanent collections of the Minnesota Museum of American Art, the American Museum of Ceramic Art (AMOCA), the Weisman Museum of Art, and the Everson Museum of Art. She has written articles for the Journal of the National Council for Education on Ceramic Arts and Pottery Making Illustrated, and her ceramic work has been featured in periodicals such as Ceramics Monthly and Studio Potter Magazine.
ARTIST STATEMENT
The pieces I create are visual and sculptural objects. I conceive of each body of work with a particular set of formal goals in mind. The contours, volumes, and surfaces of the objects I create compose a dimensional image. Volume is a key element in utilitarian forms as it defines the potential for containment. The visual evidence and the physical quality of this volume is important to the way my work communicates formally. I think of the outlines and edges of the work as drawn lines. I manipulate the softness, weight, and speed of these lines. Surfaces, whether they are visually complex or minimal, are created to respond to and enhance form.
When creating my work, I am engaging in a dialog with the existing vernacular of utilitarian forms. Each of us has an inherent understanding of functional forms that is embedded in our culture and which changes with time and place. I am both utilizing and questioning this slippery language of form and use in my pots. My formal choices, including the style and placement of spouts, handles and feet are based in my understanding and examination of this cultural vernacular. Thus, utility provides a particular form of communication between myself and my audience.
My understanding of this language of forms comes from my study of historical ceramics and the decorative arts. My work owes allegiance to no particular historical tradition. Rather I find the influences and relationships between objects and makers from different cultures and time periods is what fascinates me. Each pottery form carries a particular cultural and historical text that is part of that dialogue. Many of these objects are sources for my work. Most recently I have been studying Modernist era European tea and coffee sets, and earthenware vessels from the ancient civilizations of the Italian peninsula, including the Etruscans.
EDUCATION
1995 Master of Fine Arts, Ceramics, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA
1989 Bachelor of Fine Arts, Ceramics, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI
Selected TEACHING APPOINTMENTS
2025 – present
Professor of Art – Ceramics
University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Department of Art and Art History
2015 – 2025
Associate Professor of Art – Ceramics
University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Department of Art and Art History
2011- 2015
Assistant Professor of Art - Ceramics
University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Department of Art and Art History
2011 Spring Semester
Full Time Visiting Faculty - Ceramics
Anoka Ramsey Community College, Coon Rapids, Minnesota
1998 – 2010
Full Time Temporary Assistant Professor of Art - Ceramics and Member of the Graduate Faculty
University of Minnesota, Department of Art, Minneapolis, Minnesota
1995 -1998
Assistant Professor of Art - Ceramics
Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, Texas
Selected Recent EXHIBITIONS
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2025
Margaret Bohls, Plinth Gallery, Denver, Colorado
Italian Studies, School of Art, Wayne State College, Wayne, NE
Margaret Bohls, Department of Art and Design, Purdue University Fort Wayne, Indiana
2024
Italian Studies, Blanden Art Museum, Fort Dodge, Iowa
Margaret Bohls, Clay AKAR, Iowa City, Iowa
2023
Margaret Bohls, Spotlight Exhibition, Clay AKAR, Iowa City, Iowa
2021
Italian Studies, Museum of Nebraska Art, Kearney, Nebraska
CURATED/INVITATIONAL EXHIBITIONS
2025
Pattern! Schaller Gallery, Baroda, MI
Perfect Pour- A Celebration of Coffee Rituals, AKAR Gallery, Iowa City, IA
Women in Clay, Schaller Gallery, Baroda, MI
Sculptural Form, Painterly Surface, Red Lodge Clay Center, Red Lodge, MT
NCECA Expo, Artstream Nomadic Gallery, Salt Palace Convention Center, Salt Lake City, UT
2024
21st annual Ceramics Invitational, Abel Contemporary Gallery, Stouton, WI
The Road to Demarest: a 50-Year Retrospective of the Annual Pottery Show at Old Church, Antennae Gallery, NCECA Conference Richmond, Virginia
2023
Pouring. Filling., online exhibition, Schaller Gallery, Baroda, Michigan, invitational
Teapot Show, Abel Contemporary, Stouton, Wisconsin, invitational
2022
Ceramics National Invitational Exhibition, Reuben Saunders Galley, Wichita, Kansas
What a Cup Knows, online exhibition, Artstream Nomadic Gallery, Fort Collins Colorado, invitational
Women Working with Clay Presenters Exhibition, in conjunction with the 11th annual Women Working with Clay Symposium, The Eleanor D. Wilson Museum, Hollins University, Roanoke, Virginia
2021
Women Working with Clay 10th Anniversary Exhibition, The Eleanor D. Wilson Museum, Hollins University Roanoke, Virginia
POTTERY TOURS/SHOWS
2022 – 2026
Lincoln Clay Tour, host site on annual studio crawl, Lincoln, NE
2023
Old Church Pottery Show, the Art School at Old Church, Demarest, New Jersey
2022
Old Church Pottery Show, the Art School at Old Church, Demarest, New Jersey
St. Croix Valley Pottery Tour, host Jeff Oestrich, Taylors Falls, MN
Selected Recent PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
WORKSHOPS/ VISITING ARTIST
2026
Inspired by History: Handbuilding, Sugar Maples Center for Creative Arts, Maplecrest, NY upcoming
Coil Building Pottery and Vessel Forms, Pocosin Arts School of Fine Craft, Columbia, NC upcoming
Handbuilding Expressive Pottery, Wayne Art Center, Wayne, PA
Italian Series - Coil Building Vessels, Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo, MI
2025
Visiting Artist - Wayne State College, Wayne, NE
Visiting Artist - Northwestern Missouri State University, Maryville, MO
Visiting Artist - Purdue University Fort Wayne, Fort Wayne, IN
Coil Building Pottery and Vessel Forms, Peter’s Valley School of Craft, Layton, NJ
From Ancient Vessels to Contemporary Forms, La Meridiana International School of Ceramics, Certaldo, Tuscany, Italy
2024
Pottery for the Table: Thrown and Handbuilt, with Suze Lindsay, Doug Casebeer and David Pinto, Jamaica Clay Workshops,
Good Hope Plantation Pottery, Trelawney, Jamaica
2023
Collaboration, Cultivation, Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Aspen, CO
NCECA 2023 Pre-Conference Workshop, Queen City Clay, Cincinnati, Ohio, fellow presenters: Josh DeWeese, Didem Mert, and Shalene Valenzuela
2022
From Ancient Vessels to Contemporary Forms, La Meridiana International School of Ceramics, Certaldo, Tuscany, Italy
Harvard University, with Suze Lindsey, Ceramics Program, Office of the Arts, Boston, MA
LECTURES
2024
“Ceramics of the Ancient Near East and Islamic Ceramics”, Cohorts in Clay Guest Lecture Series, international online craft
mentorship program, https://cohorts.art
“Pre-Columbian Ceramics”, “Ancient Ceramics of the Mediterranean”, and “African Ceramics”, series of lectures for a small break-out group, Continuum Program, Cohorts in Clay, international online craft mentorship program, https://cohorts.art
2023
“20th Century Ceramics”, Cohorts in Clay Guest Lecture Series, international online craft mentorship program, https://cohorts.art
CONFERENCES/PANELS
2025 Panelist, Introducing the C.I.R.C.A. Organization and Network, National Council on Education in the Ceramic Arts Conference, Salt Lake City, UT, Moderator Professor Kim Dickey of the University of Colorado, Boulder, fellow panelists: Associate Professor Andrew Casto - University of Iowa, Associate Professor Matthew McConnel - University of Arkansas
2022 11th Annual Women Working with Clay Symposium, Hollins University, Roanoke Virginia, fellow presenters: Chotsani Elaine Dean, Lorna Meaden, and Linda Sormin
2019 Panelist, “She, Her, Herself – Four Generations of Women and the Mingei”, Weisman Museum of Art, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, moderator Rebecca Sive, fellow panelists: Sandy Simon, Linda Christensen, Jan McKeachie Johnston, Maren Kloppman, Rhonda Willers
2019 Panelist, Ringside Seats: Pots vs MFA, National Council on Education in the Ceramic Arts Conference, Minneapolis, MN moderator: Ryan Caldwell, MFA Candidate University of Montana fellow panelists: Professor John Neely, Utah State University, Professor John Balistreri, Bowling Green State University
COLLECTIONS
Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo, Michigan
Weisman Art Museum, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, New York
International Museum of Dinnerware Design, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Red Wing Collectors Society Foundation Collection, Red Wing Pottery Museum, Red Wing, Minnesota
Plains Art Museum Permanent Collection, Fargo, North Dakota
Minnesota Museum of American Art, Saint Paul, Minnesota
AMOCA American Museum of Ceramic Art, Pomona, California
Kamm Teapot Foundation Collection, Sonny and Gloria Kamm, Sparta, North Carolina
The Rosenfield Collection, David and Louise Rosenfield, Dallas, Texas
The Mary and Bruno Moser Collection, West Lafayette, IN
Selected Recent PUBLICATIONS
An Abiding Interest in History”, Studio Potter, Aug. 2022
“Some Thoughts on Making Pottery in Graduate School”, NCECA Journal, volume 40, 2019, 88-89
“ Soft Slab Teapot”, in Pitchers, Teapots, Cups, and Mugs, ed. Sherman Hall, 22-27, Ceramic Arts Select Series, Westerville, OH: The American Ceramic Society, 2016
“Soft Slab Teapot”, in Handbuilding Techniques, ed. Bill Jones, 51-56, Ceramic Arts Handbook Series, Westerville, OH: The American Ceramic Society, 2015
Selected Recent BIBLIOGRAPHY
2019
Weisman Art Museum, University of Minnesota, The Persistence of Mingei: Influence Through Four Generations of Ceramic Artists, Exhibition Catalog, 2019, p. 76
2017
Weisman Art Museum, University of Minnesota, A Culture of Pots: The 25th Anniversary of the St. Croix Valley Pottery Tour, Exhibition Catalog, 2017, p. 60
“Exposure”, Ceramics Monthly, periodical, May 2017, 17
Benjamin Carter, Margaret Bohls on Handbuilding Meaningful Pots, Tales of a Red Clay Rambler, Podcast, episode 166, January 12, 2017