EILEEN BRAUN
Eileen Braun works in various materials, including clay, rattan reed, encaustic wax, cotton string, and upcycled tissue paper from dressmaker patterns. She spends time studying and experimenting with her materials until she achieves mastery over them. The forms she creates are biomorphic but beautifully strange, resembling deep-sea coral, gourds from another planet, and the work of Lee Bontecou and Yayoi Kusama. There's a sense that if you left one of Braun's objects alone for long enough, it would regenerate in some way. Hatch an alien chrysalis, perhaps, or sprout a strange and wonderful flower from a compound not found on Earth.
Every one of her sculptures begins as a sketch. Braun creates the form she wants to bring to life on the page, much like an architect draws a building. The process of executing that form in the third dimension is often imperfect, allowing for mistakes that give the impression that her pieces are birthed rather than built.
Currently based in Atlanta, Georgia, Braun received her undergraduate degree in sculpture and art education at Indiana University. She worked as a public school educator, a buyer for a museum gift shop in Chicago, and an executive director of a gallery in suburban New York before devoting herself full-time to her practice.
AVAILABLE WORK
CV
Awards:
2016: Niche Professional Awards Finalist, Teapots, Washington DC
2015: Niche Professional Awards Winner, Ceramic Sculpture and Finalist Teapots
2014: Niche Professional Award Prize Winner, Teapots, Philadelphia PA
2013: Honorable Mention, Contained, Longmont Council for the Arts, Boulder CO 2013
2012: Niche Professional Award, Finalist Ceramics, Philadelphia, PA
2009: Functional & Sculptural Teapot Exhibition, Purchase Award, JRB Art, Oklahoma OK
2009: State of Clay, Sheffield Pottery Award & People’s Choice Award, Lexington MA
2007: Niche Student Awards Finalist Ceramics. Philadelphia PA
2007: State of Clay, Juror’s Award, Lexington MA
2007: Works in Clay, Juror’s Award Best in Show, Roswell GA
2007: 16th Annual National Juried Exhibition, Honorable Mention, Salisbury MD
2006: Southworks, First Merit 3D and Purchase Award, Watkinsville GA
Exhibitions:
American Craft Council, Pop – Up Cobb Galleria, Atlanta GA 2015
Art of the Cup, Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans LA 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017
Baltimore Clayworks 35th Anniversary Exhibition, Baltimore MD 2015
Celebrate Clay! Hambidge Center for Creative Arts& Sciences, Rabun Gap, GA.2007-14
Ceramix: Terminal E, Hartsfield-Jackson Airport Atlanta GA 2015-2016
Clay, Cloth Connection, Vessels Gallery, Boston MA.2009
Clayfest, Indianapolis Indiana, 2006
ClayHouston, Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, Houston TX.2010
Claymakers First Annual Juried Completion and Exhibition, Durham NC
Delineate, Graver’s Lane Gallery, Philadelphia PA 2019
E-Merge: Contemporary ALT Artists, Hartsfield Jackson Airport, Atlanta GA, T Gate 2013-14
Figure and Illusion, Gallery 360, Northeastern University, Boston MA 2014
Form, The Spruill Gallery, Atlanta GA.2007
Georgia Artists Selecting Georgia Artists, MOCA GA, Atlanta GA 2013
Georgia Clay, Gallery Walk at Terminus 200, Atlanta GA.2010
MESA Contemporary Arts Museum 38th Annual Crafts exhibition, Mesa AZ. 2017
National Ceramic Competition, San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts TX. 2008 & 2016
Natural Connections, Armstrong Gallery, Pomona CA.2009
New Elements Gallery, Featured Artist, Wilmington NC 2014 & 2016
NHIA Clay Biennial, NHIA, Manchester NH 2014
NICHE Awards, Buyers’ Market of American Craft .2007, 2014, 2014, 2015
Scratching the Surface, Swan Coach House Gallery, Atlanta GA.2009
Second Nature, The James Gallery, Pittsburg PA 2015
Silent Conversations, Craft Alliance, St Louis MO.2007
Southworks, Oconee Cultural Arts Center Watkinsville, GA.2006, 2008
State of Clay, Lexington Arts & Crafts Society, Lexington MA.2007.2008, 2009.2014
Texture, Gallery Walk at Terminus, Atlanta GA 2016
Works included in Collections, Lectures, Books & Catalogs
MESA Contemporary Arts Museum 38th Annual Crafts exhibition, Mesa AZ., 2017
21th San Angelo National Ceramic Competition & Catalog, 2016
Boston Home Magazine, Spring, cover and page 93, 2016
CERAMIX: Creative Claymakers, Cover image, Hartsfield-Jackson Airport, Terminal -E, 2015-16
NICHE Magazine, 2015 Prize Winner, 2015
NICHE Magazine, 2014 Prize Winner, 2014
The State Of Clay, Lexington Arts And Crafts Society, Lexington MA. Catalog, 2014, 2009, 2007
Atlanta Home and Lifestyles Magazine, January, 2014
Arthur Goldberg, Teapot Collection, MA, 2014
E-Merge: Contemporary ALT Artists, Hartsfield Jackson Airport, Atlanta GA, Terminal T, 2013-14
500 Teapots 2, Lark Books, 2013
Reflections Georgia Women Artists, Nat’l League of American PEN Women, GA. 2012
Ron Isaacs, Cup Collection, Berea KY., 2011
Meditech Art Collection, Atlanta GA, 2011
Sara and Bill Morgan Art Collection, Houston, Texas, 2010
Sonny & Gloria Kamm Teapot Collection, 2009
17th San Angelo National Ceramic Competition, Catalog, 2008
Professor Anne-Bridget Gary, Department of Art & Design, University of Wisconsin Stevens Point, “Visual Arts/Vulnerability: Tactile Senses, Fragile Words: Clay, Fibers and Language, Symposium for the Arts in Society, New York University & the American University, Paris, France.2007
Silent Conversations, Craft Alliance St. Louis MO, Catalog, 2007
Form, Spruill Center for the Arts, Atlanta GA. Catalog, 2007
Clay Times Magazine, Vol. 13 No.4 July/August, the Gallery Page, 2007