Irv Tepper was born in 1947, in St. Louis, Missouri. He received his BFA at the Kansas City Art Institute in 1969. In 1971, he earned a MFA at the University of Washington in Seattle. Working as a sculptor, draftsman, and photographer, he has had more than 20 solo exhibitions in museums and galleries across the United States.
education
- 1971 – M.F.A. University of Washington, Seattle
- 1969 – B.F.A. Kansas City Art Institute, Missouri
selected solo exhibitions
- 2005 – “Recent Sculpture”, Franklin Parrasch Gallery, NY
- 2004 – “Eat, Drink”, Franklin Parrasch Gallery, NY
- 2002 – “When Cups Speak: Life With the Cup, a 25-Year Survey,” Natalie and James Thompson Art Gallery, School of Art and Design, San Jose State University, San Jose, CA
- 2000 – “Two Masters of Modern Ceramics–Irv Tepper and Jun Kaneko,” Judy Ann Goldman Fine Art, Boston, MA
- 1999 – “Tears for the 20th Century,” Museum of Contemporary Art, Washington, D.C
- 1998 – “Vehicles of Havana,” Art Car Museum, Houston, TX (Traveled to Bowling Green university, Bowling Green, OH)
- 1997 – Sybarus Gallery, Royal Oak, MI
- 1993 – Morgan Gallery, Kansas City, MO
- 1992 – California State University, Hayward, CA
- 1991 – Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, CA
- 1990 – Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, CA
- 1989 – Morgan Gallery, Kansas City, MO
- 1988 – Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, CA “Recent Ceramics, Sculpture and Drawing,” San Francisco International Airport, San Francisco, CA
- 1987 – Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, CA Southwest Craft Center, San Antonio, TX
- 1985 – Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, CA
- 1984 – Vanderwoude/Tananbaum, New York, NY
- 1983 – Morgan Gallery, Kansas City, MO Turnbull Lutjeans Kogan Gallery, Costa Mesa, CA “Irvin Tepper: Cups, Drawings, Stories,” Newport Harbor Art Museum, Newport Beach, CA; traveled: University Art Museum, Berkeley, CA, California State University, San Diego, CA (catalog)
- 1982 – “Ursula Schneider–Irv Tepper,” Kunstmuseum, Bern, Switzerland (two- person exhibition)
- 1979-80 – St. Louis Museum of Art, St. Louis, MO
- 1979 – SITE, San Francisco, CA
- 1975 – And/Or, Seattle, WA
- 1974 – And/Or, Seattle, WA
- 1973 – de Saisset Museum, University of California at Santa Clara
- 1972 – James Manolides Gallery, Seattle, WA
- 1971 – James Manolides Gallery, Seattle, WA
selected group exhibitions
- 2004 – “From Rosanjin to Voulkos,” Franklin Parrasch Gallery, NY “Eat, Drink…,” Franklin Parrasch Gallery, NY
- 2002 – “Legacy of Innovation–A Tribute to Ken Ferguson,” Dolphin Gallery, Kansas City, MO “9/11–Pratt Artists Respond,” Schafler Gallery, Pratt Intitute, Brooklyn, NY
- 2001 – “I Love New York Benefit,” Franklin Parrasch Gallery, New York, NY “Recent Acquisitions,” Renwick Gallery, National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
- 2000 – Franklin Parrasch Gallery, New York, NY “Selections from the Allan Chasanoff Ceramic Collection,” Mint Museum of Craft & Design, Charlotte, NC “Color and Fire–Defining Moments in Studio Ceramics, 1950-2000,” Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; traveled to: Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO; Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ; Memorial Art Gallery, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY “Fotofest2000,” Art Car Museum, Houston, TX
- 1999 – Franklin Parrasch Gallery, New York, NY “The Art of Craft,” Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco
- 1997 – “Forms and Transformations, Current Expressions in Ceramic Art and Industry,” New York, NY
- 1996 – “Cups II,” Sybaris Gallery, Royal Oak, MI “Drawings and Objects,” Nancy Margolis Gallery, New York, NY
- 1995 – “Keepers of the Flame,” Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO
- 1993 – “Legacy: Five Perspectives,” University of Washington, Seattle, WA
- 1992 – Newport Harbor Art Museum, Newport Beach, CA
- 1988 – Chicago International Art Exposition, Chicago, IL
- 1987-88 – “Clay Revisions: Plate, Cup, Vase,” Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA; traveled: Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR; Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; Gibson Gallery, Potsdam, New York; Scottsdale Center for the Arts, Scottsdale, AZ; Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA
- 1986 – “Material and Metaphore: Contemporary American Ceramic Sculpture,” Chicago Public Library Cultural Center, Chicago, IL
- 1985 – “New Art,” Modernism, San Francisco, CA “Kansas City Art Institute Centennial Exhibition,” Nelson/Rockwell Museum, Kansas City, MO “Art in the San Francisco Bay Area: 945-80,” The Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA “Contemporary American Ceramics: 10 Artists,” Newport Harbor Art Museum, Newport Beach, CA
- 1984 – “Review/Preview,” Vanderwoude/Tanabaum, New York, NY “California Drawing,” Modernism, San Francisco, CA
- 1983 – “Funny/Strange,” Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA (video installation)
- 1982 – “New, New York,” Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL; traveled: Metropolitan Museum of Art Center, Coral Gables, FL, Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ (catalog)
- 1981 – “Stay Tuned,” New Museum, New York, NY (Catalog)
- 1980 – “The Annual: San Francisco Art Institute,” H.M. de Young Museum of Art, San Francisco, CA “On Paper,” Institute of Contemporary Art, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA “1 + 1 = 3,” School of the Art Institute of Chicago, IL “San Francisco International Video Festival, 1980,” several museums and art spaces, San Francisco, CA
- 1979 – “Hassan and Speicher Fund Purchase Exhibition,” American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, NY
- 1978 – “American Narrative/Story Art 1967-77,” Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, TX (traveled; catalog) “Arts for Binary Vision,” And/Or, Seattle, WA (catalog by artist)
- 1977 – “Fifth National Invitational Drawing Show,” Central Washington State College, Ellenberg, WA
- 1976 – “A Conceptual Minute,” Cable Television Broadcast Channel Six, San Francisco; subsequently part of “A Tight Thirteen Minutes,” Museum of Conceptual Art, San Francisco, CA “San Francisco Arts Festival,” Civic Center, San Francisco, CA
- 1974 – “South of the Slot,” 63 Bluxome Street, San Francisco, CA (catalog and video)
- 1973 – “Statements,” The Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA
- 1972 – “The Cup Show,” David Stuart Gallery, Los Angeles, CA “A Decade of Ceramic Art 1962-1972,” from the Collection of Professor & Mrs. R.J. Monsen, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA (Traveled, catalog)
- 1971 – “Collector’s Choice: The Robert Plannebecker Collection,” Swarthmore College Art Gallery, Swarthmore, PA “Contact Northwest,” Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA “San Francisco Art Institute Centennial Exhibition,” M.H. de Young Museum, San Francisco, CA (catalog) “27th Ceramic Invitational,” Lang Art Gallery, Scripps College, Clairmont, CA
- 1969 – “Young Americans,” Contemporary Crafts Museum, New York, NY (catalog)
- 1968 – “25th National Ceramic Competition,” Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY
selected books & publications
- 1999 – The Art of Craft: Contemporary Works from the Saxe Collection, Fine Arts Museum, San Francisco
- 1997 – Art Cars: Revolutionary Movement, Ineri Foundation
- 1996 – Raw Vision, various photographs featured
- 1994 – Nicolas Rena, Interview with a Cup: Irvin TepperÕs Decaffeinated Petaluma, MasterÕs thesis, Ceramics and Glass Department, Royal College of Art, London, UK
- 1983 – Irv Tepper: Cups, Drawings, Stories, Newport Harbor Art Museum, Newport Beach, CA (exhibition catalog)
- 1981 – Stay Tuned, New Museum, New York, NY (catalog, essay by Ned Rifkin)
- 1980 – Carl E. Loeffler and Darlene Tong, eds., Performance Anthology, Source Book for a Decade of California Performance Art, Vol. 1, San Francisco Contemporary Arts Press
- 1978 – American Narrative/Story Art, 1967-77, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, TX
- 1977-80 – Langton Street Documentation, The First Year 1975-76, 80 Langton Street, San Francisco, CA
selected articles
- 1996 – Cover photo for Art Life vol. 16, no.4, Issue no. 169
- 1995 – Peter von Ziegesar, “Report from Kansas City,” Art In America, June 1995
- 1994 – Patricia Failing, “Northwest Clay Symposium,” American Craft, February
- 1989 – Gay Morris, “Review of Exhibitions,” Art in America, May 1989
- 1984 – Paul Schimmel, “Conversation Pieces: The Cups of Irvin Tepper,” American Ceramics 3/2, 1984, cover and article
- 1981 – Erica Klien, “Porcelain, Films Speak for Irv Tepper,” The Arts (St. Louis), January 1981
- 1980 – Mary King, “Feeling Fantasy in Currents Show,” St. Louis Post Dispatch, Nov. 23, 1980
- 1979 – Prudence Juris, “Fun and Games at the Institute,” Artweek 3, Aug. 12 G.P. Skratz, “Together Again for the First Time,” Artweek 10, Sept. 22 Christopher Brown, “Looking Through Drawing: Irv Tepper, SITE,” Artweek, Oct. 13, 1979
- 1978 – Roger Green, “Art exhibit is Contemporary Reaction,” New Orleans State Item, Mar. 25, 1978
- 1977 – Carl Loeffer, “Artist as Context,” Data (Milano), July/Sept. 1977 Carter Ratcliff, “Report from San Francisco,” Art in America, May/June
- 1975 – Tom Kent, “Second Generations,” Artweek, Mar. 29, 1975
- 1973 – Kathryn Keller, “Irvin Tepper–Documents and Video Tapes,” Nov. 24
selected public collections
- Los Angeles County Museum, Los Angeles, CA
- Monterey Museum of Art, Monterey, CA
- Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
- Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
- Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, CA
- Renwick Gallery, National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
- San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
- St. Louis Museum of Art, St. Louis, MO
- Art Car Museum, Houston, TX
- Charles A. Wustum Museum of Fine Arts, Racine, WI
- Contemporary Art Museum, Honolulu, HI
- di Rosa Preserve, Napa, CA
- Fine Arts Museum, San Francisco, CA
- Fort Worth Art Museum, Forth Worth, TX
- Kunstmuseum, Bern, Swizlerand
- University Art Museum, Berkeley, CA
- Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England