Rate My Professor Valerie Zimany

Valerie Zimany is Chair of the Department of Art and Professor of Art, Ceramics at Clemson University in the College of Architecture, Art and Construction, a position she has held since 2017 after joining the faculty in 2010 as ceramics area coordinator. Previously, she taught ceramics and foundations at Lawrence University from 2003 to 2010, and ceramics at Hope College and the Urban Institute of Contemporary Art in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Her academic background includes an MFA in Crafts/Ceramics from Kanazawa College of Art in Japan (2000-2002) as a Fulbright Fellow and Japanese Government (Monbusho) Scholar, a post-baccalaureate Fulbright Fellowship in Art History/Ceramics at Kanazawa College of Art (1996-1997), and a BFA in Crafts/Ceramics, Magna Cum Laude, with a Post-Baccalaureate Education Diploma in Art Education from The University of the Arts in Philadelphia (1991-1995). Following her MFA, she completed a three-year residency at the Utatsuyama Craft Workshop in Kanazawa, researching contemporary craft and Kutani overglaze enamels, and later returned as a guest researcher at Kanazawa’s Institute of Art & Design on a Fulbright-Hays grant.

Zimany’s creative research investigates contemporary Japanese craft traditions through ceramic vessels and installations, incorporating digital manufacturing to explore historic enamelware patterns. Her work has been exhibited extensively nationally and internationally, including solo shows at the 701 Center for Contemporary Art (2020), Appalachian Center for Craft (2020), Sheffield Wood Gallery (2017), and Bobick Gallery (2014), and group exhibitions at the Taiwan Ceramics Biennale (2020), Cluj International Ceramics Biennale (2019, 2017), American Museum of Ceramic Art, and Northern Clay Center. Pieces are held in permanent collections such as the Taipei Yingge Ceramic Museum, World Ceramic Museum at Icheon (Korea), Slovenia National Museum, SC State Museum, and Schein-Joseph International Museum of Ceramic Art at Alfred University. She has curated projects including 'Porcelain Fever: Contemporary Artists and Kutani Now' (Japan, 2017) and NCECA concurrent exhibitions. Awards encompass election to the International Academy of Ceramics, South Carolina Arts Commission State Fellowship in Craft (2020), Clemson University Research and Artistic Achievement Award (2019), Antinori Distinguished Fellowship at Hambidge Center (2017), Award of Excellence at Cluj International Ceramics Biennale (2015), Creativity Professorship (2016), American Craft Council Searchlight Artist (2007), and Ceramics Monthly Emerging Artist (2008). Zimany has published articles in Ceramics Monthly and The Journal of Australian Ceramics, featured in a 2008 Ceramics Monthly profile 'Valerie Zimany: Recasting the Japanese Tradition,' and delivered lectures and workshops across the United States, Japan, Australia, and Korea.