Rick Dillingham (1952-1994) was known for his work in contemporary ceramics and for his scholarship of the pottery traditions of the North American Indian.
His famed forms, the shard vessels, are reflective of his restoration work at the Laboratory of Anthropology in Santa Fe. His works are broken in countless shards and decorated with glazes, gilded, or painted before reassembling.
Rick received his BA at University of New Mexico in 1974, and his MFA was completed in 1979 at California’s Claremont College of Arts and Crafts. He was the recipient of several National Endowment for the Arts Visual Artist Fellowships and published classic texts such as Acoma and Laguna Pottery and Fourteen Families in Pueblo Pottery. His work can be found in the collections of the Los Angeles Museum of Art, Mint Museum of Craft and Design, and Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
