Website: https://artaxis.org/artist/ted-adler/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ted.adler.1/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theblackadler/
Biography
Ted Adler (b. 1969, San Juan, Puerto Rico) is a ceramic artist and Professor of Art at Wichita State University. His practice focuses on the materiality and cultural significance of the ceramic vessel, examining its role in both contemporary and historical contexts. Adler studied with Toshiko Takaezu from 1993-94 and received his MFA in Studio Art from Ohio University in 2002. He has exhibited his works in over 125 exhibitions across the United States and abroad. Adler has been invited to share his practice through lectures and workshops at noted venues like Anderson Ranch Arts Center and the Archie Bray Foundation, as well as universities and art centers around the country. He lives and works in Wichita, Kansas.
Artist Statement
My work inhabits the space between the tangible materiality of clay and the abstraction of the vessel as an idea. Forms emerge through a process of adding, stretching, and pinching clay, sometimes on the potter’s wheel, often by hand, allowing each piece to evolve organically rather than conform to a predetermined design. Every gesture invites a response from the material, embedding intention in each touch while guiding the next movement. The vessel, then, is not a fixed destination but the outcome of an open-ended inquiry, a record of reciprocal exchange between maker and material.
Untitled Vessel
Stoneware, slips, wood fired
10.5”h x 8”w x8”d
2026
$1050