Karen Karnes

Karen Karnes was an American studio potter whose long career helped define a distinctly American approach to functional stoneware. She worked for several years at Black Mountain College in North Carolina, the experimental arts school whose faculty and students included many figures who reshaped postwar American art, before establishing her own studio and eventually settling in Vermont. Karnes became known for wood fired and salt glazed vessels with restrained, sculptural forms, favoring subtle surface texture and quiet, confident shapes over decoration or bright color. Her pots are widely collected and her decades long career is frequently cited as a model of disciplined, unglamorous studio practice within American ceramics.