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Following 1979, due to personal, financial and physical circumstances, I separated myself from the art world, even as I explored other artistic avenues. Graphic designer, photographer, art director, book designer, were some of the paths taken, and as I often returned to drawing and painting, I had come to the end of working in printmaking.

In 1991 I began a dual exploration of furniture making and wheel thrown ceramics. Parallel paths, but connected, as they fed one another. The bentwillow furniture became the public side, through craft shows, web sites, exhibitions, etc. The ceramics was more personal and private. I often referred to my work with ceramics as the “outer manifestation of the inner journey.” True indeed, as the boundary between spiritual and creative paths is blurred at best, if, in fact, they are not one in the same.

During the summer of 2001 I built my first wood-fired kiln, and with it began a different sort of journey. The ten previous years of throwing had given me the forms and shapes I was concerned with, now I moved beyond the simple application of “surface” to those forms. The intense heat and prolonged firings together with flame and ash combining with the stuff of the clay yielded surfaces unplanned and unimagined--unique.

My second wood kiln was built in 2006, and since then, clay, and wood, and time, and temperature have been my media. In what I call my “journey of a thousand bowls” I have long since lost count. In the early years I was scrupulous about record keeping for each firing and each piece made. Detailed firing logs were kept, so as to be able to review problems, failures and correct them. Records of clay and glaze recipes were carefully maintained. My clays are mongrels now, raw clays from the earth, with no clear ancestory. My favorite glaze, when I use one, is a mixture of several similar ones--never again to be duplicated. The firing logs are kept in my head or in the heads of others who have partnered with me in firing. Each firing is a journey into the unknown and unexpected. Each time I sit down at the wheel, it is for the first time.

I have no accurate count of how many pieces I have made or how many firings I have done, or participated in. What I do know is that now, after these many years, I have a body of work which I am proud to be identified with.

Andrew B. Gardner
Thompson, PA
October 2009

ONE, TWO, AND THREE ARTISTS EXHIBITIONS
1980 “American Airtourist”--Suite of 17 screen prints
      La Guardia Community College, Queens, NY
1973 “Andrew Gardner/Screen Prints”
Terrain Graphics Gallery, New York, NY
1971 “Gardner & Gardner-Recent works”
Grinnell College, Grinnell, Iowa
1967 “YES, YES”--recent painting
Janus Gallery, Rochester, NY
1964 “Tres Norteamericanos”--Painting, drawing, sculpture
Galeria Atril, Madrid, Spain
MUSEUM AND INSTITUTIONAL INVITATIONAL EXHIBITIONS
1974 Faculty Exhibition--drawings
Voorhees Gallery, Rutgers University, Newark, NJ
1972 “18th National Print Exhibition”
Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
1970 “Fourth American Print Biennial”
Santiago, Chile
  “World's Fair/United States Pavillon”
Osaka, Japan
  “2nd Biennale International de l'Éstampe”
Musée de l'Art Modern, Paris, France
  “The Door”
North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC
  “American Prints Today”
Munson, Williams, Proctor Institute, Utica, NY
  “The Contemporary Print”
Georgetown College, Georgetown, NY
(group exhibition)
  Jackson Community College, Jackson, Michigan
(group exhibition)
  Orange County Community College, Middletown, NY
1969 “Selections from the 16th National Print Exhibition”
American Federation of Arts, traveling exhibition
  “Graphics--1969”
New York State Fair, Albany, NY
  Faculty Exhibition--screen prints
Lowe Gallery, Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY
1968 “16th National Print Exhibition”
Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
  “The Door”
The Museum of Contemporary Crafts, New York, NY
  “New Jersey Artists--1968”
Newark Museum, Newark, NJ
1967 (group exhibition)
Rundel Memorial Library, Rochester, NY
  Faculty Exhibition
Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY
1961 “3rd Annual Chicago Area Artists Invitational”
Daily News Bldg, Chicago, Illinois
GALLERY GROUP EXHIBITIONS
1976 “Shadows”
Norman Cramer Gallery, New York, NY
1975 “Art As Criticism”
Terrain Graphics, New York, NY
1974 “Object and Universe”
Terrain Graphics, New York, NY
1972 “Selected Prints”
One Hundred Acres Gallery, New York, NY
  “Artists of the Sixties”
Associated American Artists Gallery, New York, NY
1971 (group exhibition)
Van Straaten Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
  (group exhibition)
One Man Dog Gallery, New Hope, PA
1969 “New Talent in Printmaking--1969”
Associated American Artists Gallery, New York, NY
1961 (group exhibition)
Adele Rosenberg Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
  (group exhibition)
SPAR Gallery, Yellow Springs, Ohio
JURIED EXHIBITIONS
1976 “Silvermine Annual Print Exhibition”
Silvermine Artists Guild, Storm King, NY
1973 “Boston Printmakers' 25th Annual Exhibition”
De Cordova Museum, Lincoln, MA
1972 “Potsdam Prints--12th Annual Print Exhibition”
State University of New York at Potsdam, NY
  “Boston Printmakers' 24th Annual Exhibition”
Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University
  “14th Annual National Print & Drawing Exhibition”
Oklahoma Art Center, Oklahoma City, OK
1971 “Boston Printmakers' 23rd Annual Exhibition”
De Cordova Museum, Lincoln, MA
  “7th National Print and Drawing Exhibition”
Dulin Museum, Knoxville, TN
1970 “Multiples--USA”
Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI
  “10th Annual Print Exhibition”
The State University of New York at Potsdam, NY
  “3rd Annual National Print & Drawing Exhibition”
Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, Illinois
1969 “Boston Printmakers' 21st Annual Exhibition”
Musuem of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
1968 “10th Annual National Print & Drawing Exhibition”
Oklahoma Art Center, Oklahoma City, OK
  “Boston Printmakers' 20th Annual Exhibition”
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
  “1st National Print & Drawing Exhibition”
Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, Illinois
DOCUMENTATION-MEDIA
  The New York Times, May 27, 1973 -- Interview
  Art News, April 1973 -- Review
  Long Island Entertainer, February 23, 1973 -- Photo of artist
  Home Reporter & Sunset News, Brooklyn, NY, February 23, 1973 -- Quote about work
  The Sunday Star Ledger, Newark, NJ, February 18, 1973 -- Quote about work
  Home Reporter & Sunset News, Brooklyn, NY, February 9, 1973 -- Quote about work
  Christian Science Monitor, November 4, 1968 -- Photo of work
  The New York Times, November 3, 1968 -- Photo of work
  East Hamton Star, October 17, 1968 -- Photo of work
  Riverhead News, October 13, 1968 -- Photo of work
  Look Magazine, October 1, 1968 -- Photo of artist with work
  The New York Times, September 28, 1968 -- Interview and photo of work
  Newsday, September 27, 1967 -- Photo of work
  The New York Times, July 6, 1968 -- Interview and photo of work
  The Times Union, Rochester, NY, January 19, 1967-- Review
  El Alcazar, Madrid, Spain, May 1964 -- Review
  Guidepost, Spain, May 8, 1964 -- Photo of artist
DOCUMENTATION—CATALOGS (WORK ILLUSTRATED)
  “18th National Print Exhibition”, Brooklyn Museum
  “2nd Biennale International de l'Éstampe,” Musée de l'Arte Modern, Paris
  “The Door,” North Carolina Museum of Art
  “Selections from the 16th National Print Exhibition,” American Federation of Art
  “16th National Print Exhibition,” Brooklyn Museum
  “The Door,” Museum of Contemporary Crafts
  “New Talent in Printmaking 1969,” Associated American Artists Gallery
COLLECTIONS (selected)
  Metropolitan Museum of Art
  United States Information Agency Embassy Program
  Mansfield State College
  Charles Penney Foundation
  Atlantic Richfield Corporation
  Social Research Inc.
  Essex Oil Co.
  First National Bank, Chicago
  First National Bank, Boston
  Colgate University
  Amalgamated Breadworkers, NY
  Johnson Wax Collection
  Rutgers University
AUTHORED PUBLICATIONS
  The Artist's Silkscreen Manual, Grosset & Dunlap, NY, 1975

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