Monica Rudquist

Monica E. Rudquist is a ceramic artist working out of Minneapolis, Minnesota. She is known for her distinctive "spiraling shapes" and works primarily in porcelain. In addition, her work features wheel-thrown functional wares as well as large-scale, abstract wall installations.

Early life and education

Monica Rudquist was born in 1961 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Rudquist's father, Jerry Rudquist, was an artist and art professor at Macalester College. Her mother, Raquel Rudquist (née Ruiz Zorrilla), was an architect for Target Corporation Rudquist has said that her father is her biggest artistic inspiration because of his prowess with color and bravery when it came to risk-taking. Rudquist received her bachelor's degree from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1983, graduating magna cum laude in both Arts and French. In 1985, she received her Master of Fine Arts, Ceramics, from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. While in Michigan, Monica studied with Jun Kaneko. Ceramic artist Kaneko helped Rudquist see that, "the juxtaposition of pieces within a space and in relation to each other is as important as the spaces created within the pieces themselves. Rudquist frequently works in multiples and finds artistic value in examining the spaces between pieces. Rudquist often cuts into the walls of her wheel-thrown vessels disrupting the sense of volume. Rudquist is equally concerned about the space within the vessel as well as the surrounding space. Through this grant, she created and exhibited her work in her exhibition titled InContext. In November 2013-January 2014, this exhibition took place in the Emily Galusha Gallery at Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. "Intersections" is now permanently installed at the headquarters of LifeSource, a non-profit organization that facilitates organ and tissue transplants, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Professional life Rudquist has worked at the Bloomington Art Center in Bloomington, Minnesota, Edina Art Center in Edina, Minnesota, and St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. She has worked at St. Catherine University since 2008 as a ceramics professor. She spent three years working with 700 K-8 students at the Seward Montessori School helping them to create a "Time Line of Life" tile mural, a project that was organized through Northern Clay Center.

Honors and awards 2018 – Carol Easley Denny Award, St. Catherine University 2015 – ART- INSPIRED MUSIC PROJECT 2ND EDITION, McNally Smith College of Music, St. Paul, Minnesota 2015 – Eat Drink and ...Minnesota Women Ceramic Artists Exhibition, Northern Clay Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota 2014 – OBJECTS: MMAA, Minnesota Museum of American Art, St Paul, Minnesota 2014 -Red River Reciprocity, Plains Art Museum, Fargo, North Dakota 2014 – Super Surprise, group exhibition of Minnesota Women Ceramic Artists, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 2013 – INCONTEXT, solo exhibition, Emily Galusha Gallery, Northern Clay Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota 2011 – Teapot Invitational, Grand Hand Gallery, St Paul Minnesota 2011 – Founding Member's 20 Year Celebration, Northern Clay Center Minneapolis Minnesota 2010 – Ceramics Then and Now, Harry M. Drake Gallery, St. Paul Academy, St. Paul, Minnesota 2009 – Monica Rudquist, Collaboration and Variation Harry M. Drake Gallery, St. Paul, Minnesota 2008 – Minnesota Women Ceramics Northfield Arts Guild. Northfield, Minnesota 2007 – Ladies in White, Goodall Gallery, Louisville, Kentucky 2006 – 30/30, Lill Street Gallery, Chicago, Illinois 2004 – A National Invitational of Functional Clay Art, Baltimore Clayworks, Baltimore, Maryland 2003 – Hundreds of Cups, an invitational, Santa Fe Clay, Santa Fe, New Mexico 2002 – Clay City, Fahrenheit Gallery, Kansas City, Missouri 2001 – Strictly Functional, The Artworks Gallery, Ephrata, Pennsylvania 2000 – New Work; Monica Rudquist and Michael Bailey, Lower town Gallery, St. Paul, Minnesota 1999 – Monica Rudquist- Teapot, The Phipps Center for the Arts, Hudson, Wisconsin 1997 – Minnesota/Wisconsin Invitational Lill Street Gallery, Chicago, Illinois 1996 – Women in Clay, Rochester Art Center, Rochester, Minnesota 1995 – Regional Ceramic Artists, Edina Art Center, Edina, Minnesota 1992 – Cup Show, Laura Russo Gallery, San Diego, California 1991 – New Clay Works – Monica Rudquist, Anderson & Anderson Gallery, Minneapolis, Minnesota 1990 – WARM A.I.R., A.I.R. Gallery, New York City, New York 1989 – WARM at the Lawton Gallery University of Wisconsin, Green Bay, Wisconsin 1988 – It's going to be a W.A.R.M. Summer, Katherine Nash Gallery, U of M, Minneapolis, Minnesota. 1987 – Women Working in Porcelain, College of St. Benedict, St. Joseph, Minnesota 1986 – Ceramic Constructions- Monica Rudquist, Anderson & Anderson Gallery, Minneapolis, Minnesota