March 30, 1927, Madrid, NE – January 20, 2019, Carlsbad, CA
EDUCATION
1955-1956 Otis Art Institute, Los Angeles, CA
1953-1954 Chouinard Art Institute, Los Angeles, CA
SELECTED SOLO/ TWO PERSON EXHIBITIONS
(* indicates a publication)
2021 SOKYO ATSUMI, Tokyo, Japan
2017 Sokyo Gallery, Kyoto, Japan
2013 David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2010 Frank Lloyd Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
2008 Frank Lloyd Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
2007 Stremmel Gallery, Reno, NV
Frank Lloyd Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
2006 Holter Museum, Helena, MT
2005 Frank Lloyd Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
2004 Sheppard Fine Arts Gallery at the University of Nevada, Reno, NV
Franklin Parrasch Gallery, New York, NY
2002 Frank Lloyd Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
2000 Frank Lloyd Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
Perimeter Gallery, Chicago, IL
1999 Frank Lloyd Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
1998 Frank Lloyd Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
Perimeter Gallery, Chicago, IL
1997 Frank Lloyd Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
1995 Habatat/Shaw Gallery, Pontiac, MI
Perimiter Gallery, Chicago, IL
1994 Garth Clark Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1993 Garth Clark Gallery, New York, NY
1992 Garth Clark Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1991 Garth Clark Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1990 Garth Clark Gallery, New York, NY
1987 Rena Bransten Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1986 L.A. Louver Gallery, Venice, CA
1982 The Boise Gallery of Art, Boise, ID
1981 Max Hutchinson Gallery, New York, NY
1979 California State University at Long Beach, Long Beach, CA
Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Minneapolis, MN
Wright State University, Dayton, OH
University of Nevada at Reno, Reno, NV
1978 University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY
The Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, NY
Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, IA
Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
The Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
University Art Museum at the University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX
1976 Hansen Fuller Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1974 Pasadena Museum of Art, Pasadena, CA
1966 Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
1963 Ferus Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1961 Ferus Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1960 Pasadena Museum of Art, Pasadena, CA
1959 Ferus Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1957 Ferus Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Oregon Ceramic Studio, Portland, OR
1956 Gump’s Gallery, San Francisco, CA
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
(* indicates a publication)
2022 Response and Contrast with Contemporary Japanese Ceramics, Sokyo Annex, Kyoto, Japan.
2014 *2014 Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City, NY
2012 *Clay’s Tectonic Shift: John Mason, Ken Price, Peter Voulkos 1956-1968 at Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery, Scripps College, Claremont, CA.
2011 *Pacific Standard Time: Cross Currents in L.A. 1950-1970. The Getty Center, Los Angeles, CA
*Civic Virtue: The Impact of the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery and the Watts Towers Arts Center, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery and Watts Towers Arts Center, Los Angeles, CA
*Best Kept Secret: UCI and the Development of Contemporary Art in
Southern California 1964-1971, Laguna Art Museum, Laguna, CA
2009 *Innovation & Change: The Ceramics Collections at Arizona State University Art Museum, Huntsville Museum of Art, Huntsville, AL; Wichita Art Museum, Wichita, KS; Vero Beach Museum of Art, Vero Beach, FL; Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, SC
2008 *Innovation & Change: The Ceramics Collections at Arizona State University Art Museum, The Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, AR; J.
Wayne Stark Gallery, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX; Roswell Museum and Art Center, Roswell, NM; The Plains Art Museum, Fargo, ND; Las Cruces Museum of Fine Art & Culture, Las Cruces, NM
2007 *Innovation & Change: The Ceramics Collections at Arizona State University Art Museum, Arizona State University Art Museum, Tempe, AZ; Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Fort Wayne, IN
2006 *Otis: Nine Decades of Los Angeles Art, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Barnsdall Park, Los Angeles, CA
1999 *The Museum: Highlights from the Collection and Archives of the Pasadena Art Museum, Norton Simon Museum of Art, Pasadena, CA
1996 Generations: The Lineage of Influence in Bay Area Art, Richmond Art Center, Richmond, CA
Masterworks, Frank Lloyd Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
Six From California, Frank Lloyd Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
1994 Current Trends in Ceramics, Aichi Prefectural Ceramic Museum, Asahi Shimbun, Japan
Revolution in Clay: The Marer Collection of Contemporary Ceramics, Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery, Scripps College, Claremont, CA
Otis Then and Now, Garth Clark Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
KPMG Peat Marwick Collection of American Craft, Renwick Gallery,
National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
1993 The Anne Davis Collection: Contemporary British and American Clay, El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso, TX
1992 The 1992 International Invitational Exhibition of Contemporary Ceramic Art, National Museum of History, Republic of China, Taipei, Taiwan
Five by Seven, Fosdick-Nelson Gallery of the New York State College of Ceramics Alfred University, Alfred, NY
1991 Keepers of the Kiln: Seven Contemporary Ceramic Artists, Smith Kramer, Kansas City, MO
48th Scripps Ceramic Annual, Scripps College, Claremont, CA
1990 The Eloquent Object: The Expansion of Contemporary American Crafts,
The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo and Kyoto, Japan
1989 Craft Today USA, American Craft Museum (Museum of Arts and Design, MAD), New York, NY
Mira Morgan Gallery, Kansas City, MO
1988 East West Contemporary Ceramic, Art Center of Korean Culture and Arts Foundation, Washington, DC
1987 American Ceramics Now: The 27th Ceramic National Convention, Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY
The Eloquent Object, Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, OK
1986 Craft Today-Poetry of the Physical, American Craft Museum, New York, NY
*Pacific Connections, Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, WA; University Art Gallery, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA; University Art Collections, Matthews Center, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ;
University of Iowa Museum of Art, Iowa City, IA
1985 *Pacific Connections, Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
Clay, Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, OH
1984 The First Show: Painting and Sculpture From Eight Collections, 1940-1980, Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
The 20th Century: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Collection, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
Art in Clay: 1950s-1980s in Southern California, Los Angeles Municipal Gallery,
Los Angeles, CA
1982 100 Years of California Sculpture, The Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA
1981 Ceramic Sculpture: Six Artists, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
1979 A Century of Ceramics in the United States: 1878-1978, Everson Museum, Syracuse, NY, and Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.
1977 The Foundations of Clay, Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
California Painting and Sculpture: The Modern Era, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
American Artists: A New Decade, The Fort Worth Art Museum, Fort Worth, TX
The Last Time I Saw Ferus 1965-1975, La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art, La Jolla, CA
1976 *200 Years of American Sculpture, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
1975 University of California, Irvine, 1965-75, La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art, La Jolla, CA
1974 Public Sculpture Urban Environment, Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA
1973 1973 Biennial Exhibition: Contemporary American Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
*Sculpture Off the Pedestal, Grand Rapids Museum of Art, Grand Rapids, MI
1972 The XXVII Ceramic Art 1962-1972, Everson Museum, Syracuse, NY
A Decade of Ceramic Art 1962-1972, San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco, CA
West Coast Art From the Permanent Collection, Pasadena Art Museum, Pasadena, CA
1971 Contemporary Ceramic Art: The United States, Canada, Mexico and Japan, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo and Kyoto, Japan
1969 Kompas 4, Van Abbemuseum Eindhoven, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
West Coast 1945-1969, Pasadena Art Museum, Pasadena, CA
1968 Late Fifties at the Ferus, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
1967 Ceramic Sculpture, Hansen Fuller Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Acquisitions, Museum of Contemporary Crafts, New York, NY
American Sculpture of the Sixties, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
1966 Ceramic Arts – USA, Skokie, IL and the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
1964 International Ceramic Exhibition, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo and Kyoto, Japan
1964Annual Exhibition of Contemporary Sculpture, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
New York World’s Fair, New York, NY
1963 La Jolla Museum Invitational, La Jolla, CA
Kaiser center Sculpture Exhibition, Oakland, CA
1962 International Ceramic Exhibition, National Museum of Art, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Pacific Coast Invitational, Santa Barbara Art museum, Santa Barbara, CA
Art of Southern California XII: Sculpture, Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, CA
Fifty California Artists, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
The Artist and His Environment, Amon Carter Museum of Western Art, Forth Worth, TX
Adventures in Art, Seattle World’s Fair, Seattle, WA
Third International Exhibition of Contemporary Ceramics, Prague, Czechoslovakia
1960 West Coast Bi-annual Sculpture Exhibition, Santa Barbara Museum, Santa Barabara, CA
1959 Los Angeles Annual, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
Art in Architecture, Pasadena Art Museum, Pasadena, CA
International Ceramic Exhibition, Osten, Belgium
1957 Ferus Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1956 Syracuse National, Everson Museum, Syracuse, NY
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
(* indicates non-periodical book, catalog, or other publication)
2011 *Tompkins Rivas, Pilar, Civic Virtue: The Impact of the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery and the Watts Towers Arts Center, Los Angeles: City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, 2011
*Whittaker, Richard, in conversation with John Mason, “The Necessary Depth – A Conversation with John Mason,” Works & Conversations, Number 23, 2011, pp. 42-55
Stoilas, Helen, “Looking Back on LA’s Early Art Scene,” The Art Newspaper, October, 2011
Smith, Roberta, “A New Pin on the Art Map,” The New York Times, November 13, 2011, pp. AR1
*Perchuk, Andrew, and Catherine Taft, “Floating Structures: Building the Modern in Postwar Los Angeles: Out of Clay,” Pacific Standard Time: Los Angeles Art, 1945-1980, Los Angeles: Getty Publications, 2011, pp. 49-62
*Cook-Anderson, Grace, Best Kept Secret: UCI and the Development of Contemporary Art in Southern California 1964-1971, Laguna: Laguna Art Museum, 2011
*Crafting Modernism: Midcentury American Art and Design, edited by Jeannine Falino, New York: Museum of Arts and Design, 2011
*It Happened at Pomona: Art at the Edge of Los Angeles 1969-1973, Claremont: Pomona College Museum of Art, 2011
2009 *The Ferus Gallery: A Place to Begin, written and edited by Kristine McKenna, Göttingen: Steidl, 2009
Koplos, Janet, “John Mason,” Innovation & Change: Ceramics from the Arizona State University Art Museum, edited by Peter Held, Tempe: Arizona State University Art Museum, 2009, pp. 124-125
2005 *Otis: Nine Decades of Los Angeles Art: An exhibition of work by alumni of Otis College of Art and Design, text by Barbara Isenberg, Los Angeles: Otis College of Art and Design, 2005
2001 Muchnic, Suzanne, “John Mason,” American Craft, April/May 2001, cover, pp. 78-79
1999 *Radical Past: Contemporary Art & Music in Pasadena, 1960-1974, edited by Karen Jacobson, Pasadena: Armory Center for the Arts, 1999
1992 *Peterson, Susan, and Jan Peterson, The Craft and Art of Clay: A Complete Potter’s Handbook, London: Laurence King Publishing, 1992, p. 330
1985 *Pacific Connections, Los Angeles: Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art, 1985
1979 Dickson, Joanne, “Review of Exhibitions: John Mason at the Hudson River Museum and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art,” Art in America, January/February 1979, pp. 145-146
1976 *200 Years of American Sculpture, New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1976
Ballatore, Sandy, “The California Clay Rush,” Art in America, July/August 1976, pp. 84-88
1973 *Sculpture Off the Pedestal, Grand Rapids: Grand Rapids Museum of Art, Grand Rapids, 1973
1970 Nordness, Lee, “John Mason,” Objects: USA, New York: The Viking Press, 1970, pp. 68-69
GRANTS / AWARDS / RESIDENCIES
1985 Elected Fellow to the American Craft Council, Minneapolis, MN
1982 Commission Award for Sculpture, City of Boise, Boise, ID
Commission Award for Sculpture, California Council of Arts, Sacramento, CA
1981 Honorary Member of the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts, Erie, CO
1969 Appointment to the Creative Arts Institute, University of California, Berkeley, CA
1966 Award in Ceramics, International Mineral and Chemical Corporation, Skokie, IL
1964 Ford Foundation Purchase, Chicago Art Institute, Chicago, IL
1961 Award in Sculpture, Fine Arts Gallery, San Diego, CA
Commission Award, Tishman Wilshire/Flower Building Sculpture
Competition, Los Angeles, CA
1960 Award in Sculpture, La Jolla Museum of Art, La Jolla, CA
1959 Award in Sculpture and Ceramics, Museum of Contemporary Crafts, New York, NY
First Prize in Sculpture, Wichita Annual, Wichita, Kansas
1958 First Prize in Ceramics, Lowe Art Museum, Miami, FL
1957 First Prize in Ceramics, Lowe Art Museum, Miami, FL
MUSEUM COLLECTIONS
Aichi Prefectural Ceramic Museum, Nagoya, Japan
The Anderson Collection at Stanford University, Stanford, California
Arizona State University Art Museum, Tempe, Arizona
Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock, Arkansas
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Chicago Art Institute, Chicago, Illinois
City of Boise, Boise, Idaho
Daum Museum of Contemporary Art, Sedalia, Missouri
Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, New York
Gifu Prefectural Museum, Seki City, Japan
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Museum of Arts and Design, New York
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, California
Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, La Jolla, California
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas
National Museum of History, Republic of China, Taipei, Taiwan
The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, Japan
Nelson-Atkins Museum, Kansas City, Missouri
Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art, Utah State University, Logan, Utah
Norton Simon Museum of Art, Pasadena, California
Oakland Museum, Oakland, California
Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, California
Pomona College, Claremont, California
Racine Art Museum, Racine, Wisconsin
Renwick Gallery, National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institute,
Washington D.C.
Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery, Scripps College, Claremont, California
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California
Sheppard Fine Arts Gallery, University of Nevada, Reno, Nevada
Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park, The Museum of Contemporary Ceramic Art, Shiga Prefecture, Japan
State of California, Sacramento, California
Wichita Art Institute, Wichita, Kansas
World Ceramic Center, Ichon, Korea