David Regan
If you have notes on accuracy, content, site links, or any other requests regarding this page, please get ahold of us at contact@hamiltonandsonsauctions.com.
David Regan is an American ceramic artist known for intricately carved porcelain vessels and sculptural forms decorated with the sgraffito technique. David Regan was born in Buffalo, New York, in 1964, and subsequently attended the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design before graduating from the Rochester Institute... Upon graduation, Regan completed a residency at the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, MT from 1986 to 1988, and later received his MFA in ceramics from Alfred University in 1990. He has long been based in Montana, where he continues to live and work.
Regan's signature technique involves coating a white porcelain form in a layer of black slip, then selectively scratching it away with small gouges, chisels, and needles before adding a final clear glaze and firing. This laborious process produces densely patterned, almost engraving-like surfaces. His porcelain animal forms, covered in lively, highly detailed sgraffito drawings, address themes of human and animal consumption and the natural cycles of life and death. Although they appear to be decorative and sculptural, many of them are actually entirely functional, and this is part of their complexity, with tureens, teapots, and platters doubling as elaborate narrative sculptures.
His work has entered significant public and private collections, and pieces by him have appeared in exhibitions at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, CA. This combination of museum-level recognition, technical virtuosity, and the sheer labor-intensiveness of his sgraffito surfaces makes his ceramics especially prized by collectors of contemporary American studio pottery.
Sources: