Collection: Meg Howton - Featured Artist

Artist Statement:

I work with found and constructed objects to build compositions that shift between familiarity and ambiguity. Through altering and transforming materials, objects become separated from their original purpose while still holding traces of something recognizable. The work exists in a liminal space where forms feel both known and difficult to identify.

My practice is guided by intuition and material response. I work quickly, allowing pieces to develop through instinct rather than rigid planning. Forms, textures, and relationships emerge naturally through the process, and I often understand the work more clearly after it has been made. I’m interested in approaching materials with openness, letting unexpected connections and transformations take shape on their own.

Color and surface are central to the work. Soft, blushing tones and tactile textures create an initial sense of warmth and familiarity that is interrupted by unfamiliar forms and moments of tension. Because of their scale and physicality, the pieces ask to be viewed up close, where subtle shifts in texture, material, and form become more apparent.

By pushing objects beyond easy recognition while preserving hints of familiarity, I aim to create work that feels instinctive, uneasy, and intimate at the same time.

Bio: 

Meg Howton began her young career making mud pies in the iron-rich Alabama clay. Howton received an award at the ripe old age of 6 for showing creativity by spinning a q-tip® while painting a plate of the paper variety. Meg attended The University of Alabama, where she received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Ceramics and Photography in 2015. She then relocated to Gainesville, Florida, where she completed her post-baccalaureate at the University of Florida in 2018. Meg attended Southern Illinois University, where she received her Master of Fine Arts. She is currently a full-time instructor of ceramics at The University of Alabama. Meg has received awards such as the Alabama Clay Conference Student Scholarship and a Wingate Grant in 2019. She has been a long-term resident at Hope Center of Art and Technology in Sharon, Pennsylvania, a short-term resident at Red Lodge Clay Center and Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts. Meg is represented by Ground Floor Contemporary in Birmingham, Alabama, and Clay Art Center in Port Chester, NY. Meg’s work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally.

Find Meg’s Artaxis page: https://artaxis.org/artist/meg-howton/

Find Meg’s Instagram: @heg_mowton