Juliane Shibata

Juliane is a ceramic artist from Northfield, Minnesota. She received her MFA from Bowling Green State University and has taught at Carleton and Hope colleges as well as The College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University. Juliane’s work has been included in the 2019 “Blanc de Chine” International Ceramic Art Award exhibition in Beijing, China. She was the recipient of the Tile Heritage Prix Primo award at the 23rd Annual San Angelo National Ceramic Competition and received first place in the 62nd Arrowhead Regional Biennial. 

  Shibata was awarded a 2021 McKnight Artist Fellowship for Ceramic Artists and Artist Initiative grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board in 2014, 2018, and 2020. In 2016, she was a co-curator of Michi – Distinctive Paths, Shared Affinity: An Exhibition of Japanese American Ceramic Artists, which traveled across the U.S. Her work belongs to the permanent collection of Northern Arizona University’s Art Museum and the Brown-Forman Collection.

"Repeating patterns are central to both my functional and sculptural work. I think about patterns in two ways: as ornamental, operating cross-culturally and throughout history, adding decorative beauty to our surroundings; and as time-based – seasons, daily routines, and evanescent moments which are experienced more than seen. Both are part of our everyday landscape.

I am drawn to the accessibility and ubiquity of textile motifs. As an artist of mixed heritage, it’s meaningful to me to work with a range of historical patterns from both Eastern and Western cultures. I explore how ornamental patterns are used, adapted, and evolve over time, and how viewers’ own perceptions and backgrounds influence how they see and interpret the motifs.

My largest installations investigate the contrast between the transience of nature and the relative stability of fired ceramics; I’m interested in beauty that can be both ephemeral and enduring. Working at the intersection of the natural and the constructed, I integrate real flowers with ceramic materials. These pieces, which thus incorporate actual, lived time and elements of decay, allude to memento mori and seek to create an awareness of the fleeting nature of our existence in relation to the persistence of fired clay."