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Photos of Tony Marsh courtesy of Cal State Long Beach.

Cal State Long Beach (CSULB) School of Art faculty member, alumnus and celebrated ceramicist Tony Marsh has been named a 2018 United States Artists Fellow, CSULB announced Thursday.

Marsh is one of 45 creatives selected to receive a $50,000 unrestricted award in recognition of their “contributions to the field, honors their creative accomplishments, and supports their ongoing artistic and professional development,” according to United States Artists.

For the last three decades, Marsh’s work has focused on the “non-utilitarian ceramic vessel.” His work is in several private and permanent museum collections around the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Art and Design in New York, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Oakland Museum of Art, the Gardiner Museum of Art in Toronto and the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, according to the release.

tonymarsh2“The ceramic vessel has always been my primary vehicle of artistic expression,” Marsh writes on his website. “I am fascinated by its deep and unparalleled history and position between nature and culture.”

While the vessels Marsh creates are not utilitarian and do not reference a historical style or type of pottery, they do honor “what pottery from around the world has always been required to do – hold, preserve, offer, commemorate and beautify,” Marsh continues.
For the last 25 years, Marsh has served as the chairman of the CSULB ceramics program.

“Tony Marsh is an amazing artist and educator,” said CSULB president Jane Close Conoley in a statement. “His work is exemplary and provides more than just instruction and guidance, it also provides inspiration. We are proud of the impact he has made at Long Beach State University, as well as in his field.”

Marsh earned his bachelor’s degree in ceramic art from CSULB. And before earning a master’s degree of fine arts at New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, the artist spent three years in Mashiko, Japan at the workshop of the late Tatsuzo Shimaoka, a master potter designated by the Japanese government as a “living national treasure”.

The awardees of the fellowship include artists and collectives across nine creative disciplines at all stages of their careers. The rigorous nomination and panel selection process chooses creatives from across the nation and from a wide range of fields including architecture and design, craft, dance, media, music, theater and performance, traditional arts, visual art and writing, according to United States Artists.

“I could not be more thrilled with the 2018 USA Fellows or with the tremendous artistic output, and potential, they represent,” United States Artists President and CEO Deana Haggag said in a statement. “They produce some of the most moving, incisive and powerful artistic work in this country, and it is our privilege to honor them. Collectively, they are a reminder of the beauty produced by hardworking artists on a daily basis, too much of which is often overlooked.”

Past awardees include film director and writer Miranda July, composer David Lang, novelist Annie Proulx, playwright David Henry Hwang, choreographer Bill T. Jones and visual artist Kara Walker, according to the release.

Learn more about Tony Marsh and his work here and this year’s United States Artists Fellows here

Asia Morris is a Long Beach native covering arts and culture for the Long Beach Post. You can reach her @hugelandmass on Twitter and Instagram and at [email protected].