Christopher Gryder

I chanced upon the work of Antoni Gaudi while immersed in my architecture degree program, and was smitten with the sculptural joy revealed. Iconoclastic work that reveled in the visceral and tactile world of pattern and biomorphic form while rooted in a thoroughly tectonic sense of architecture. I was hooked and ultimately embarked on a life long exploration of this aesthetic. Paolo Soleri and his architectural project Arcosanti was to provide a similar vein as I spent five years immersed in this urban laboratory where raw ideas grappled with the realities of built architecture. I became infatuated with material and process; both with concrete, the primary building material of the project, and clay, through the on site ceramic production studio. Here I was introduced to the spontaneous and raw casting techniques Soleri utilized incorporating silt, concrete and clay, producing artifacts and surfaces of rustic beauty. I would later find a nurturing environment while earning an MFA at RISD and achieved breakthroughs working with clay and earthen mixtures, leading to my current body of work. I now reside in Roanoke, Virginia, nestled within the phenomenal beauty of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island. Master of Fine Arts, Ceramics.

Tulane School of Architecture, New Orleans, Louisiana.
Bachelor of Architecture.

Architecture Program in Greece
Sponsored by University of North Carolina & Tulane University.

Architecture: Southern France & Spain
Sponsored by Syracuse University.

Urban Design/Seville: The City and the Expo Internacional del ‘92
Sponsored by Universidad de Seville & Junta de la Andalucia.

Homeward Bound, Juried Triennial
Taubman Museum of Art, Roanoke, Virginia

Virginia Earth: Ceramic Arts
Portsmouth Art & Cultural Center, Portsmouth, Virginia.

The Vase and Beyond: The Sidney Swidler Collection Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, California.

In Between You and the Elements: Works by Chris Gryder
Perspective Gallery, Virginia Tech University, Blacksburg, Virginia.

Architectonic Logic: Silt-Cast Stoneware by Chris Gryder
Eleanor D. Wilson Museum, Hollins University, Roanoke, Virginia.