Today we’d like to introduce you to Wesley Harvey.
Hi Wesley, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
In my undergraduate degree at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, I started out as a math major. I took an introductory course on Three-Dimensional Design and immediately fell in love with the ceramics project. I ended up taking a couple more ceramics courses and decided to change my major from math to ceramics. I was encouraged by my professors to apply for the BFA Ceramics degree, and I did and was accepted. This really changed my path drastically! The mentorship I received from the faculty about my studio practice as an undergraduate student was phenomenal. At that time, I was not really sure what I would do with this type of degree, but I knew I made the right decision switching from math the art.
I then applied to graduate programs across the country and ended up going to Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas where I got my MFA Ceramics degree in 2007. Having three years of dedicated focus on ceramics as a graduate student, I was able to find the path of what my voice in ceramics and art was supposed to be. Coming out as a cisgender gay man in graduate school heavily influenced my artwork and studio practice and I knew exactly what my content should be within my artwork.
Between 2007-2017, I lived and worked in different locations across Texas, Montana, Arizona, and finally settling in Atlanta, GA. After graduate school, I worked as an Assistant Gallery Director for a university gallery, Gallery Director for a national ceramics gallery/residency program, and full-time instructor teaching beginning foundations courses. I was offered a teaching position in ceramics at Georgia State University in late summer 2017 and packed up my home and studio in Arizona and somehow made it to Atlanta, all within a two weeks period. I arrived two days before classes started.
Currently, I am a Lecturer of Ceramics and the Graduate Director for the Ernest G. Welch School of Art & Design at Georgia State University. Atlanta and GSU have become my permanent home base and it feels great to finally have a destination/location where I am totally happy with work and personal life. My colleagues and the students at GSU, both undergraduate and graduate, make me want to call Atlanta my forever home.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It has definitely not always been a smooth road. I am interested in different facets of gay male sexuality and homoeroticism within Queer Theory and how I fit into the lineage. The content is not always for every viewer. I have had my fair share of awkward moments with galleries, curators, and museums. I go through periods of overt and deviant imagery on the artwork to more covert and visually safe content. At times, the imagery can be very sexually explicit with genitalia and penetration and some people have not been fans.
In 2014, my artwork was accepted into a national ceramics competition by the juror and the museum board was not happy with my content and imagery. They displayed the artwork in a corner with the explicit imagery turned away from the viewer’s gaze. The juror had them display the artwork correctly for the night of the opening reception, which was nice to have someone on my side. I am sure that next day, the museum turned my artwork back around so that the viewers could not see the imagery.
I was applying for teaching positions at the university level and I know that my content definitely affected my chances. I got my MFA Ceramics degree in 2007 and my first full-time art-related job did not happen until 2014. I worked as the Gallery Director for the Red Lodge Clay Center, a national artist residency and gallery for two years. My first full-time teaching position was in 2016 at Flagstaff, AZ before coming to GSU here in Atlanta 5 years ago. I just kept feeling like the constant bridesmaid always coming in second. You have to keep trying and applying to various institutions and not lose the faith. I have known many people who let the pressure of rejection totally take over their life. Those struggles and years of determination finally paid off when I accepted the position at GSU in 2017 and have been here since.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
My current body of artwork examines different facets of gay male sexuality and homoeroticism through the lens of queer theory using appropriation of imagery and objects. I want to address and question what it means to be gay, queer, and cisgender not only for my own sexuality but for those around me too, both stranger and acquaintance. I want to examine not only the normative behavior but also the deviant lifestyle, past and present, that often gets neglected and chastised. With previous artwork, I was examining my surroundings and personal encounters as the influence for the start of the collage process. Recently, I have put myself aside as the starting point and have begun looking at other encounters and relationships in a voyeuristic way, using personal ads posted on dating/sex websites and mobile dating/sex applications. In this online and instant realm, I can find both the normative and the deviant behaviors that interest me to create the narratives that often begin as works on paper and transition to ceramics, ranging from functional artwork to vessels and sculpture.
I mainly work in ceramics, both functional and vessel/sculpture, but also do some works on paper and collage that are rarely ever shown. Depending on the deadline, I could be working on a batch of 30-50 functional pieces ranging from mugs to dinner plates or working on larger vessels and sculpture for an exhibition. I am represented at the Red Lodge Clay Center in Red Lodge, Montana and Sherrie Gallerie in Columbus, Ohio. Recently I started working with Signature Contemporary Craft here in Atlanta, GA and have my first solo exhibition with them in October this year. I am very excited for this solo exhibition because I have a couple of surprises in store for the viewer and all I can say is that you will see some real bare ass at this reception!
Whether it be a mug or a large vessel, there is always lots of color, kitsch imagery, and of course, lots of half-naked men! Once the ceramics has gone through all the glaze firings, then the collage process starts and is my favorite part in the timeline of my artwork. I start to build out the collage from the previous decorating/drawing and glaze firings, and now things start to overlap and I can decide how to finish the collage. I look at everything from the Baroque and Rococo periods to kitsch and popular culture to fashion and drag queens for inspiration during the collage process. Photographs from 1960’s male physique magazines allow me to appropriate a fantasy male subject who is handsome and extremely physically fit.
I think I am most proud that I am able to make the artwork that I do without fear of censorship or attitude/judgment from certain viewers. I look past any negative remarks about the artwork and know I am a voice for my community. If it makes you uncomfortable, then look away. Or take a peak, you may like what you see!
The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
I think the most important thing I learned from the pandemic was that it’s okay to stop and slow down a bit. Everyone was in this go go go mentality and the need to have everything and anything at any given moment was getting out of control. I look at my surroundings and environments with a closer eye now and take more time off from the studio than I did before the pandemic. It is fine to take a break sometimes from the studio and have a day off to turn everything off.
Pricing:
- Mug-$80
- Dinner Plate-$110
- Platter-$150-250
- Larger Vessel-$3,000-5,000
Contact Info:
- Email: wes_harvey1@yahoo.com
- Website: www.wesleyharvey.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wes_harvey1
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wesley.harvey
Image Credits
Jill Frank, Wesley Harvey
