My work explores transformation, focusing on both structure and material. It uses the kiln as a vehicle for deconstruction. The porcelain grid systems I create begin as digital renderings and are meticulously fabricated by hand. These structures become the architecture over which to stretch a fluid skin that is allowed to warp or collapse the structure under the strain of the firing. They expose the relationship between soft and hard, the fluidity of a membrane, and the moment of intersection between these contrasting elements. They strive to pair labored construction with unpredictability, and capture the entropy embodied in the process. Peter Christian Johnson is currently Associate Professor of Art at Kent State University after serving more than decade as the head of the ceramics department at Eastern Oregon University. He earned his MFA from Penn State University and a BS in Environmental Science at Wheaton College. Peter has been a Visiting Artist at Alberta College of Art and Design, Australian National University, the University of Florida, Harvard and numerous other institutions. He has received the Oregon Arts Commission’s Individual Artist Fellowship, the Ohio Arts Council’s Individual Artist Fellowship, and was a Matsutani Fellow at the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts. He was awarded first place in the 2018 Zanesville Prize for Contemporary Ceramics and an Honorable mention at the 9th Gyeonggi International Ceramic Biennale. His work has been exhibited in Canada, China, Australia, Korea, and throughout the United States.