Erin Paradis is a ceramic sculptor, living and working in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She received her MFA from the University of Minnesota and her BFA from Alfred University. She has worked extensively as an artist, resident, business owner, and instructor at art centers and academic settings both nationally and internationally. Erin lectured Ceramics and Sculpture from 2015-2020 at the University of Minnesota and currently instructs at Northern Clay Center. She received the MSAB Artist Initiative Grant in 2017 and 2020, the Open Studio Fellowship through Franconia Sculpture Park in 2018, was a recipient of the 2019 Jerome Ceramic Artist Project Grant, and received the 2021 Early Career Project Grant through Forecast Public Arts. Most recently, Paradis installed her piece Encountering the Subtle Threshold in 2021 at Silverwood Park in St. Anthony, MN, and exhibited her show A Way Through at SOOVac Gallery in June 2023.
Statement
I habitually observe the natural and unnatural environments around me to absorb my surroundings and find the interesting shapes, objects, and compositions that seemingly ordinary spaces reveal to me. My ceramic work is a recollection of these spatial encounters, highlighting the spark of intrigue that occurs when we first become captivated by something new. I create work to acknowledge these moments I have in architectural and natural settings and question how I can create a physical space that promotes intellectual openness, a portal to curiosity, and creates pause. My way of exploring these moments is through drawing in space with ceramics; an impression of line, texture, and color.
I have created a library of forms that I investigate in my studio through an evolution of renditions and interpretations. The arch is a recurring shape that I explore in my practice by uncovering ways that it can be built and formed. An arch frames the space around it in a particular way that I gravitate towards compulsively. I have been exploring the physical compositions that doorways, entryways, and staircases create the spaces they compose visually and conceptually. Our bodies shift into certain actions and our minds into certain thoughts depending on the spaces we enter. In a sense, passageways reference the space in between moments, thoughts, or periods of time. I examine these ideas and their significance personally.
With the compilation of built ceramic forms, I am interested in the space they occupy and how layering and rearranging them can visually create new compositions. I materialize spatial encounters I have had in my installations with the hope that viewers find intrigue and perhaps ponder their significance and origin.
CV
Education:
2015 University of Minnesota; MFA: Ceramics and Sculpture, Minneapolis, MN
2010 Colorado State University; Post Baccalaureate Study, Fort Collins, CO
2008 Alfred University; BFA: Concentration in Ceramic Art and Painting, Alfred, NY
Minors: Art History, Music
2007 Lorenzo De’ Medici; Concentration in art, Florence, Italy
Solo Exhibitions:
2025 Solo exhibition forthcoming; Silverwood Park Gallery, St. Anthony, MN
2023 A Way Through; Soo Visual Arts Center, Minneapolis, MN
2021 Encountering the Subtle Threshold. Solo public arts installation; Silverwood Park, St. Anthony, MN
Towards Veracity; Artistry Theater and Visual Arts Center; Inez Greenberg Gallery, Bloomington, MN
2019 Amended Accounts; Solo Exhibition; Ridgewater College Galleries, Willmar and Hutchinson, MN
2018 Comfort and Entanglement; Solo Exhibition; MacRostie Art Center, Grand Rapids, MN
Steadying pause.; Franconia Sculpture Park Installation, Shafer, MN
2017 Impetus of Entanglement; Solo Exhibition; Hair and Nails Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
Group Exhibitions:
2021 Hard and Soft; Juried Exhibition at the Center for the Visual Arts; Wausau, WI
2020 Emerging Artist Grant Recipients; Northern Clay Center Main Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
After Hours; Quarter Gallery; Minneapolis, MN
C4W: 2020; Gamut Gallery; Minneapolis, MN
2019 You’re Still One of Ours; CSU Alumni exhibition curated by Del Harrow and Sanam Emami; Carbondale Clay Center, Carbondale, CO
Object Lessons; NCECA Concurrent Exhibition; Regis Center for the Arts, Minneapolis, MN
Little Red Quartet.; Co-Organized NCECA Concurrent Exhibition; The White Page Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
Suggestions for Perplexing Thoughts; Co-Organized NCECA Concurrent Exhibition; SpringBOX, St. Paul, MN
Two-person exhibition; in collaboration with Allison Rose Craver; Rochester Community and Technical College Gallery, Rochester, MN
2017 One year later, one day after; Invitational: Yeah, Maybe #13; Yeah, Maybe Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
Juried Exhibition: Candice Hopkins; Space 369, St. Paul, MN
2016 Receding Environments and Ambiguous Forms; The Island Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
Group Show #5: Yeah, Maybe Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
2015 Underlined Action; MFA Thesis Exhibition; Nash Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
Summer Arts Discovery: Invitational; Landmark Center, St. Paul, MN
That gives the urgency and getting there is not all that difficult, you see? Solo Installation; Scottish Sculpture Workshop, Lumsden, UK
2014 Featured Artist: Lillstreet Art Center, Chicago, IL
For A Limited Time Only; Invitational; Quarter Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
2013 Pairing Pottery Dining Experience; Sapor Café, Minneapolis, MN
Let There Be Light; Lillstreet Art Center, Chicago, IL
2012 Made for Each Other: Juried Show; Studio 550 Art Center, Manchester, NH
Containment III: A Nesting Instinct; Invitational; Crimson Laurel Gallery, Bakersville, NC
Combined Forces; Odyssey Center Gallery, Asheville, NC
2011 Collect(ive) Components: Resident Artist Show; Odyssey Gallery, Asheville, NC
2010 Post Baccalaureate Ceramic Students’ Show; CSU Art Department, Fort Collins, CO
2008 BFA Thesis Exhibition, Harder Hall, Alfred, NY
Awards:
2021 Early Career Project Grantee; Forecast Public Art; St. Paul, MN
2020 Recipient of the 2020 Artist Initiative Grant; Minnesota State Arts Board, Minneapolis, MN
Silverwood Park Outdoor Sculpture Artist Award; St. Anthony, MN
2019 Recipient of Jerome Ceramic Artist Project Grant awarded by Northern Clay Center, Minneapolis, MN
2018 Recipient of Franconia Sculpture Park Open Studio Fellowship, Shafer, MN
2017 Recipient of Sculpture Garden Commission; Hair and Nails Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
Recipient of the 2017 Artist Initiative Grant; Minnesota State Arts Board, Minneapolis, MN
2014 Recipient of Summer Travel Fellowship; U of M Art Department, Oaxaca, Mexico
Publications:
2017 Christina Schmid; “Erin Paradis: Impetus of Entanglement”; InReview: Winter 2017
Gallery Affiliations:
2017-2018 Lacuna Gallery; Co-Founder, Curator, and Gallery Coordinator, Minneapolis, MN
2016-2018 Board of Directors member at The White Page Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
2016 Island Gallery; Curator and Gallery Coordinator, Minneapolis, MN
Teaching Experience:
2021-present Teaching Artist at Northern Clay Center, Minneapolis, MN
2021 Teaching Artist- Workshop: Digging in Clay- Abstract Art; Silverwood Park, St. Anthony, MN
Workshop: Abstract Clay Sculpture; Franconia Sculpture Park, Schafer, MN
2018-2022 Teaching Artist at Artistry Theater and Visual Arts, Bloomington, MN
2016-2020 Lecturer; University of Minnesota; Ceramics and Sculpture Department, Minneapolis, MN
2016-2017 One Year Full time, Visiting Assistant Professor; University of Minnesota; Ceramics and Sculpture, Minneapolis, MN
2015 Instructor of Record: University of Minnesota: Beginning Ceramics, Minneapolis, MN
2012-2015 University of Minnesota: Teaching Assistant, Minneapolis, MN
Related Experience:
2022 Juror for Artistry Theater and Visual Arts 2023-2024 Exhibition Program, Bloomington, MN
2020 Minnesota State Fair Fine Arts Competition: Sculpture Juror, St. Paul, MN
2019 Haystack Mountain School of Crafts: workshop with Linda Lopez, Deer Isle, ME
2015 Scottish Sculpture Workshop; Emerging Artist In Residence, Lumsden, Scotland, UK
2013 Penland School of Craft- Studio Assistant for Tetsuya Yamada, Penland, NC
2011 Assistant for Matt Kelleher and Shoko Teruyuma: Slow Pottery Workshop; Odyssey Center for Ceramic, Asheville, NC
2010-2012 Odyssey Center for Ceramics Resident Artist, Asheville, NC
2009 Watershed Center for Ceramic Art Assistantship, Newcastle, ME
2008 Women’s Studio Workshop; Chili Bowl Fellow, Rosendale, NY
2007 Alfred University Ceramics Summer Intern for David Freddy Fredrickson, Alfred, NY