Tony Ferguson is a wood, gas, and raku ceramic artist/educator who resides in Duluth, Minnesota. He has been creating functional and sculptural works in clay since 1991. He’s also a pottery tool and brush maker. Tony studied under American ceramic artists Mike Weber and Jim Grittner, and his work is influenced by Toshiko Takaezu, Peter Voulkos, Don Reitz, Shiro Tsujimura, Tom & Elaine Coleman, Ernest Miller, Tony & Mindy Winchester, Bob & Cheryl Husby, Richard Gruchalla, Michael Shale, Bob Briscoe, Lisa Hammond, Robert Fornell, Akira Satake, John Britt, and many others. He is also influenced by Okakura Kakuzō’s work “The Book of Tea” and his study of Eastern philosophy, religion, and meditation. Occasionally, Tony teaches at local colleges as well as gives workshops.
His work explores traditional Japanese wabi-sabi aesthetics combined with Chinese and Korean influences from his travels with a focus on tea ware and experimentation. Tony pushes his forms, surfaces, and glaze treatments in a variety of firing environments and techniques exploring shino, tenmoku, oribe, celadon, chun, ash, and other glazes he creates from raw elements.
Tony’s work is currently found on Etsy or his website and is also in private and public collections around the world, including the Ami-Machi City Museum, Ami-Machi, Japan; Nanfeng Kiln Contemporary Museum, Foshan, China; Mesabi Range Technical College Collection, Virginia, MN; Tweed Museum, University of Minnesota, Duluth, MN; University of Wisconsin Superior, Superior, Wisconsin; Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA; and Flint Institute of Arts. Tony holds a BA in English Composition and Literature, and an MA in Studio Arts with training in an MFA in Professional Screenwriting from NU’s Los Angeles-based program. Tony is married with four children.
