COPUS, JOSH
NORTH CAROLINA
NORTH CAROLINA
Josh Copus was raised in a close-knit community of farmers and artisans in Floyd County, located in the Blue Ridge Mountains of southwestern Virginia. The local traditions of crafts and agriculture, blended with the new ideas and outlook of the alternative community to form the basis of Josh’s life philosophy and instill an appreciation for art and nature that strongly influences his current work in ceramics.
During his youth in Floyd, Josh was introduced to ceramics through an opportunity to work in Tom Phelps’ pottery studio. Tom is the father of one of Josh’s childhood friends, and he offered both boys a medium for expression in a setting that was creative and unrestrictive. Tom served as a mentor to Josh during his transformative adolescence and planted the seed that has grown into Josh’s love for clay.
Since moving to North Carolina in 1998, Josh has continued to study ceramics at a variety of schools and through countless hours of working with potters in the Asheville area and throughout the nation and world. During this time, Josh has developed a personally significant approach to making pottery that values the importance of local materials through his studies of folk potteries throughout the world, focusing specifically on the ceramics traditions of the Korea, Japan, England, and North Carolina. By combining his experiences in the academic classroom with more traditional pottery teaching models, such as working with and talking to a variety of professionals, Josh’s work references historical forms and processes while remaining relevant to the contemporary art world of our age.
Since graduating from UNCA in the fall of 2007, Josh has continued his involvement in the Clay Space Co-op, a cooperative studio that he founded in the River Arts District of Asheville during 2003. In addition to his work at the Clay Space, Josh has established his own pottery in Marshall, NC. Initially using funds from the Windgate Fellowship, he has designed and built a 27ft long woodfired climbing chamber kiln, a large tube kiln, and an egg-shaped kiln buried in a hillside. He has also built an outhouse, a covered sleeping platform, a studio, and a barn on his property. In the true spirit of a potter he has chosen to save building the house for last. When he is not building and making things, Josh spends most of his time on his land stacking rocks, swimming in rivers, operating a shovel, and constantly searching for interesting materials to build and make things with.
EDUCATION
Attendance and participation in numerous workshops at the Odyssey Center for Ceramic Arts, Penland School of Crafts, UNCA, and Hurricane Mountain Center for Earth Arts
2003-2006
University of North Carolina at Asheville, Awarded Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree with Honors
2001-2003
Haywood Community College, Awarded Associated Degree in Applied Sciences
1998-2000
Warren Wilson College
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
2012
Invited Artist, East Tennessee University
2011
Arrowmont School of Crafts, Teaching Assistant for Christa Assd
2009
Carolina Kiln Build, organize and facilitator
2008-2013
UNCA Demonstrations
2008
Penland School of Crafts, Teaching Assistant for "Wild Clay, Precise Fire" Class
UNCA, Wood-Fire kiln workshop
2006
UNCA, Teaching Assistant
2005
Odyssey Center for the Ceramic Arts, Beginning Wheel Throwing
2004
Penland School of Crafts, Teaching Assistant for Sequoia MIller
2003
Odyssey Center for the Ceramic Arts, Teaching Assistant for David Crane
2002
Odyssey Center for the Ceramic Arts, Teaching Assistant for Mark Shapiro
EXHIBITIONS
2013
Yunomi Invitational, AKAR Gallery, Iowa City, IA
2012
Potters Market Invitational, Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC
Yunomi Invitational, AKAR Gallery, Iowa City, IA
Art of the Cup, Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, LA
2011
Early Career Woodfirers of the USA, curated by Tara Wilson, Deloraine,
Australia
16 Hands, AKAR Gallery, Iowa City, IA
Potters Market Invitational, Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC
Art of the Cup, Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, LA
Yunomi Invitational, AKAR Gallery, Iowa City, IA
2010
The Southern Pot, Signature Shop, Atlanta GA
Ohio University Ceramic Invitational, Trisolini Gallery, Athens, Ohio
2009
Wood-fired Clay, Blue Spiral1, Asheville NC
2008
Clay: The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth, Pasadena CA
Earth: In It, Of It, Loyola College's Julio Gallery, Baltimore MD
State of the Art 2008: National Biennial Ceramics Invitational, Champaign IL
Wood Fired Raw Clay, Crimson Laurel Gallery, Bakersville NC
Woodfired Invitational, Hand in Hand Gallery, Flat Rock NC
Clayspace Co-op, Asheville Area Arts Council, Asheville NC
Clayspace Co-op, Clingman Café, Asheville NC
Invited Artist ‘Art of the Pot’ Studio Tour, Austin TX
Invited Artist ’16 Hands’ Studio Tour, Floyd VA
2007
Regional Juried Student Exhibition, Allan R. Hite Art Institute Gallery at
University of Louisville in Louisville, KY
Put a Lid On It, Mudfire Gallery, Atlanta GA
New Work, New Space (solo exhibition), Crimson Laurel Gallery, Bakersville, NC
Pushing Tradition: Asheville’s New Voices (Curator), Good Dirt Gallery, Athens, GA
Clayspace Co-op, Roswell Art Center West Gallery, Roswell GA
2006
Wild Clay: Exhibiting the Influence of Local Materials (co-curator), American
Folk Art and Framing, Asheville NC
UNCA Juried Student Art Show, University Gallery, Asheville NC
LAAFF Underground Art Show, Bobo, Asheville, NC
Haywood Community College Retrospective, Folk Art Center, Asheville NC
Building Community (BFA Thesis Exhibition), University Gallery, Asheville NC
Sculptural/Functional, UNC Asheville Clay Faculty, Students, and Alumni, Center for Craft, Creativity, and Design, Hendersonville NC
Coming Up Down South (Emerging Clay), Blue Spiral 1, Asheville NC
Untitled 06 an ArtFront Exhibit, Highsmith Gallery, Asheville NC
UNCA Clay (curator), Artemesia, Asheville NC
Sketchbooks Forever, EM Gallery, Winston-Salem NC
2005
UNCA Juried Student Art Show, University Gallery, Asheville NC
High Odds a NAAC Exhibit, Push Gallery, Asheville NC
Art as if the Earth Mattered, AAAC Front Gallery, Asheville NC
Local Materials, Warren Wilson Store, Asheville NC
Local Clay, AAAC Front Gallery, Asheville NC
RDA Group Show, Clingman Avenue Café, Ashville NC
UNCA Emerging Artist Exhibit, Asheville Art Gallery, Asheville NC
2004
UNCA Emerging Artist Exhibit, Asheville Art Gallery, Asheville NC
Floyd Community Alumni Show, Hayloft Gallery, Floyd VA
Hot Pots and Cool Shots, Warren Wilson Store, Asheville NC
Butter Dish Exhibit, Odyssey Center, Asheville NC
2003
Haywood Community College Graduate Show, Folk Art Center, Asheville NC
Asheville in Atlanta, Mudfire Gallery, Atlanta GA
ORGANIZATIONS & AFFILIATIONS
Clay Space Co-op (Founder)
Asheville Area Arts Council (AAAC)
National Conference For Education of Ceramic Arts (NCECA)
Asheville Art Museum
16 Hands (member)
Potters of Madison County (member)
PUBLICATIONS
Asheville Disclaimer
Asheville Citizen Times
Mountain Express
Lark Books “500 Pitchers”
Headwaters Literary Magazine: 2004, 2005
Studio Potter: June 2006 Vol. 34, Number 2, Neil Woody’s Turkey Creek Field
The Laurel of Asheville Magazine, February 2007
Asheville NC: 2007 Edition, A Stream of Energy; Revitalization Efforts Continue
in Asheville’s River Arts District
The Log Book: Issue 29, Building Community: A Student Perspective on Wood Firing
Clay Times: 20+1 Years of Tozan Kilns: Jan/Feb 2007
Studio Potter: June 2007 Vol. 35 Number 2 : Cover photograph
Clay Times: Material Influence: The Works of Josh Copus: Nov/Dec 2007
WNC Magazine: artist profile, June 2008
Southern Living: Work featured in Davidson Gap ‘idea home’. August 2008
Log Book: Issue 40, Carolina Kiln Build.
Our State Magazine: 40 Years of Clay. Februrary 2010
Log Book: Issue 44: Report: European Woodfire Conference
Clay Times: Mentoring a New Generation of Potters: Autumn 2010
AWARDS & HONORS
2011
Invited Panelist for Woodfire Tasmania Conference, Australia
Resident Artist with Ben Richardson, Tasmania, Australia
2010
Asheville Area Arts Council Project Grant
Invited Panelists for the First European Woodfire Conference, Broellin, Germany
Presenter at Ohio University Woodfire Symposium, Athens, Ohio
Invited Panelist for CreaBiz Ceramics Conference, Hjoerring, Denmark
2006
Honorable Mention (Best in Ceramics). UNCA Juried Student Art Show
Windgate Fellowship Award. $15,000 award through the Center for Craft
Creativity and Design
Best in Show, LAAFF Underground Art Show
2005
Blue Award for Excellence in Functional Ceramics. UNCA Juried Student Art Show
Honorable Mention (Best in Printmaking). UNCA Juried Student Art Show
Undergraduate Research Grant Scholar. Recreating Tradition: Observing the Effects of Local, Non-industrially Processed Ceramic Material on the Work of Contemporary Ceramists
GALLERY AFFILIATIONS
Blue Spiral1, Asheville NC.
Crimson Laurel Gallery, Bakersville NC.
Signature Shop, Atlanta GA.
Troika Gallery, Floyd VA.
COLLECTIONS
Kennedy Museum of Art, Ohio University, Athens, OH
During his youth in Floyd, Josh was introduced to ceramics through an opportunity to work in Tom Phelps’ pottery studio. Tom is the father of one of Josh’s childhood friends, and he offered both boys a medium for expression in a setting that was creative and unrestrictive. Tom served as a mentor to Josh during his transformative adolescence and planted the seed that has grown into Josh’s love for clay.
Since moving to North Carolina in 1998, Josh has continued to study ceramics at a variety of schools and through countless hours of working with potters in the Asheville area and throughout the nation and world. During this time, Josh has developed a personally significant approach to making pottery that values the importance of local materials through his studies of folk potteries throughout the world, focusing specifically on the ceramics traditions of the Korea, Japan, England, and North Carolina. By combining his experiences in the academic classroom with more traditional pottery teaching models, such as working with and talking to a variety of professionals, Josh’s work references historical forms and processes while remaining relevant to the contemporary art world of our age.
Since graduating from UNCA in the fall of 2007, Josh has continued his involvement in the Clay Space Co-op, a cooperative studio that he founded in the River Arts District of Asheville during 2003. In addition to his work at the Clay Space, Josh has established his own pottery in Marshall, NC. Initially using funds from the Windgate Fellowship, he has designed and built a 27ft long woodfired climbing chamber kiln, a large tube kiln, and an egg-shaped kiln buried in a hillside. He has also built an outhouse, a covered sleeping platform, a studio, and a barn on his property. In the true spirit of a potter he has chosen to save building the house for last. When he is not building and making things, Josh spends most of his time on his land stacking rocks, swimming in rivers, operating a shovel, and constantly searching for interesting materials to build and make things with.
EDUCATION
Attendance and participation in numerous workshops at the Odyssey Center for Ceramic Arts, Penland School of Crafts, UNCA, and Hurricane Mountain Center for Earth Arts
2003-2006
University of North Carolina at Asheville, Awarded Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree with Honors
2001-2003
Haywood Community College, Awarded Associated Degree in Applied Sciences
1998-2000
Warren Wilson College
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
2012
Invited Artist, East Tennessee University
2011
Arrowmont School of Crafts, Teaching Assistant for Christa Assd
2009
Carolina Kiln Build, organize and facilitator
2008-2013
UNCA Demonstrations
2008
Penland School of Crafts, Teaching Assistant for "Wild Clay, Precise Fire" Class
UNCA, Wood-Fire kiln workshop
2006
UNCA, Teaching Assistant
2005
Odyssey Center for the Ceramic Arts, Beginning Wheel Throwing
2004
Penland School of Crafts, Teaching Assistant for Sequoia MIller
2003
Odyssey Center for the Ceramic Arts, Teaching Assistant for David Crane
2002
Odyssey Center for the Ceramic Arts, Teaching Assistant for Mark Shapiro
EXHIBITIONS
2013
Yunomi Invitational, AKAR Gallery, Iowa City, IA
2012
Potters Market Invitational, Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC
Yunomi Invitational, AKAR Gallery, Iowa City, IA
Art of the Cup, Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, LA
2011
Early Career Woodfirers of the USA, curated by Tara Wilson, Deloraine,
Australia
16 Hands, AKAR Gallery, Iowa City, IA
Potters Market Invitational, Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC
Art of the Cup, Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, LA
Yunomi Invitational, AKAR Gallery, Iowa City, IA
2010
The Southern Pot, Signature Shop, Atlanta GA
Ohio University Ceramic Invitational, Trisolini Gallery, Athens, Ohio
2009
Wood-fired Clay, Blue Spiral1, Asheville NC
2008
Clay: The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth, Pasadena CA
Earth: In It, Of It, Loyola College's Julio Gallery, Baltimore MD
State of the Art 2008: National Biennial Ceramics Invitational, Champaign IL
Wood Fired Raw Clay, Crimson Laurel Gallery, Bakersville NC
Woodfired Invitational, Hand in Hand Gallery, Flat Rock NC
Clayspace Co-op, Asheville Area Arts Council, Asheville NC
Clayspace Co-op, Clingman Café, Asheville NC
Invited Artist ‘Art of the Pot’ Studio Tour, Austin TX
Invited Artist ’16 Hands’ Studio Tour, Floyd VA
2007
Regional Juried Student Exhibition, Allan R. Hite Art Institute Gallery at
University of Louisville in Louisville, KY
Put a Lid On It, Mudfire Gallery, Atlanta GA
New Work, New Space (solo exhibition), Crimson Laurel Gallery, Bakersville, NC
Pushing Tradition: Asheville’s New Voices (Curator), Good Dirt Gallery, Athens, GA
Clayspace Co-op, Roswell Art Center West Gallery, Roswell GA
2006
Wild Clay: Exhibiting the Influence of Local Materials (co-curator), American
Folk Art and Framing, Asheville NC
UNCA Juried Student Art Show, University Gallery, Asheville NC
LAAFF Underground Art Show, Bobo, Asheville, NC
Haywood Community College Retrospective, Folk Art Center, Asheville NC
Building Community (BFA Thesis Exhibition), University Gallery, Asheville NC
Sculptural/Functional, UNC Asheville Clay Faculty, Students, and Alumni, Center for Craft, Creativity, and Design, Hendersonville NC
Coming Up Down South (Emerging Clay), Blue Spiral 1, Asheville NC
Untitled 06 an ArtFront Exhibit, Highsmith Gallery, Asheville NC
UNCA Clay (curator), Artemesia, Asheville NC
Sketchbooks Forever, EM Gallery, Winston-Salem NC
2005
UNCA Juried Student Art Show, University Gallery, Asheville NC
High Odds a NAAC Exhibit, Push Gallery, Asheville NC
Art as if the Earth Mattered, AAAC Front Gallery, Asheville NC
Local Materials, Warren Wilson Store, Asheville NC
Local Clay, AAAC Front Gallery, Asheville NC
RDA Group Show, Clingman Avenue Café, Ashville NC
UNCA Emerging Artist Exhibit, Asheville Art Gallery, Asheville NC
2004
UNCA Emerging Artist Exhibit, Asheville Art Gallery, Asheville NC
Floyd Community Alumni Show, Hayloft Gallery, Floyd VA
Hot Pots and Cool Shots, Warren Wilson Store, Asheville NC
Butter Dish Exhibit, Odyssey Center, Asheville NC
2003
Haywood Community College Graduate Show, Folk Art Center, Asheville NC
Asheville in Atlanta, Mudfire Gallery, Atlanta GA
ORGANIZATIONS & AFFILIATIONS
Clay Space Co-op (Founder)
Asheville Area Arts Council (AAAC)
National Conference For Education of Ceramic Arts (NCECA)
Asheville Art Museum
16 Hands (member)
Potters of Madison County (member)
PUBLICATIONS
Asheville Disclaimer
Asheville Citizen Times
Mountain Express
Lark Books “500 Pitchers”
Headwaters Literary Magazine: 2004, 2005
Studio Potter: June 2006 Vol. 34, Number 2, Neil Woody’s Turkey Creek Field
The Laurel of Asheville Magazine, February 2007
Asheville NC: 2007 Edition, A Stream of Energy; Revitalization Efforts Continue
in Asheville’s River Arts District
The Log Book: Issue 29, Building Community: A Student Perspective on Wood Firing
Clay Times: 20+1 Years of Tozan Kilns: Jan/Feb 2007
Studio Potter: June 2007 Vol. 35 Number 2 : Cover photograph
Clay Times: Material Influence: The Works of Josh Copus: Nov/Dec 2007
WNC Magazine: artist profile, June 2008
Southern Living: Work featured in Davidson Gap ‘idea home’. August 2008
Log Book: Issue 40, Carolina Kiln Build.
Our State Magazine: 40 Years of Clay. Februrary 2010
Log Book: Issue 44: Report: European Woodfire Conference
Clay Times: Mentoring a New Generation of Potters: Autumn 2010
AWARDS & HONORS
2011
Invited Panelist for Woodfire Tasmania Conference, Australia
Resident Artist with Ben Richardson, Tasmania, Australia
2010
Asheville Area Arts Council Project Grant
Invited Panelists for the First European Woodfire Conference, Broellin, Germany
Presenter at Ohio University Woodfire Symposium, Athens, Ohio
Invited Panelist for CreaBiz Ceramics Conference, Hjoerring, Denmark
2006
Honorable Mention (Best in Ceramics). UNCA Juried Student Art Show
Windgate Fellowship Award. $15,000 award through the Center for Craft
Creativity and Design
Best in Show, LAAFF Underground Art Show
2005
Blue Award for Excellence in Functional Ceramics. UNCA Juried Student Art Show
Honorable Mention (Best in Printmaking). UNCA Juried Student Art Show
Undergraduate Research Grant Scholar. Recreating Tradition: Observing the Effects of Local, Non-industrially Processed Ceramic Material on the Work of Contemporary Ceramists
GALLERY AFFILIATIONS
Blue Spiral1, Asheville NC.
Crimson Laurel Gallery, Bakersville NC.
Signature Shop, Atlanta GA.
Troika Gallery, Floyd VA.
COLLECTIONS
Kennedy Museum of Art, Ohio University, Athens, OH
