Adam Silverman

Born in New York in 1963, Silverman
majored in Ceramic Arts for a year at the University of Colorado
before transferring to the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD).
While at RISD, Silverman studied architecture, art and design, but
continued to practice pottery in his own time. In 1988, following
graduation, he moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in
architecture. After only a few years, Silverman began to focus his
attention on clothing design. Together with two friends, he launched
a punk skater clothing line called X-Large in 1991. Silverman,
however, never lost interest in the ceramic arts. While working as
both an architect and clothing designer, the artist maintained an
independent studio where he could continue to work with clay. In
1998, Silverman ceased working in all mediums except ceramics. Five
years later he started Atwater Pottery, named after his neighborhood
in Los Angeles.

For Silverman, the seemingly varied
practices of architecture, clothing design, and pottery are unified
through formal and theoretical interests – structure and
engineering or how each material relates to the human body. Over the
years, his ceramic works have evolved from strictly functional to
more process-oriented pieces. As he notes, in his work “formal
issues of shape, scale, proportion, balance, weight, and surface
treatment dovetail with issues of materials and methods of making.
The intended results are abstract objects that contain, suggest,
project, equally fundamental issues of meaning.”

Silverman currently serves as Studio
Director of Heath Ceramics. His work has been shown internationally
in museums and galleries including the Pasadena Museum of California
Art; Pulliam Deffenbaugh Gallery, Portland; the Museum of
Contemporary Craft, Portland; Lightbox in Los Angeles; and Starnet
Zone in Mashiko, Japan. Silverman’s work will be on exhibition at
the San Jose Museum of Art and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los
Angeles. Atwater Pottery has been featured in The New York
Times, the Los Angeles Times, and GQ Magazine among
others. Silverman is represented by Tomio Koyama in Tokyo.