About

Beth Bolgla is a potter and painter living and working in Brooklyn, New York and in Neuilly-en-Sancerre, a small village near La Borne, France.

Upon receiving an MFA in Ceramics from Georgia State University in 1978, Beth set up a pottery studio in Atlanta, taught pottery at Callanwolde Fine Arts Center, and was part of a very active and committed group of potters in and around Atlanta who talked, ate, and slept pottery 24 hours a day. Although never a student in his University of Georgia classroom, Beth has always considered Ron Meyers, through his generosity of spirit and his unrivaled casual yet highly skilled approach to throwing pots, to be her most important influence. And of course at that time and place one could hardly be pursuing a life in clay without knowing Michael Simon and his extraordinary pots and Sandra Simon and her fine porcelain pots. Beth feels fortunate to have been surrounded by such authentic pioneering “artists” in the early days of her studio practice.

Beth worked primarily as a ceramic artist until 1985, when her ideas became filled with narrative and she began to paint. She transitioned from glazed kitchen pots to sculptural oil painted clay vessels, to painting images of pots with oil paint on canvas and oil pastels on paper. She also began painting a multi year series of self-portraits and other figures, and larger than life flowers, single blooms and still life bouquets.

During this very reflective time she moved her studio to Nexus Contemporary Arts Center, in Atlanta. She found herself surrounded by some of the best artists in the southeast and has maintained close contact with many of the artists she worked with at Nexus. She received two Artist Project Grants from the Bureau of Cultural Affairs of the City of Atlanta and three grants from Georgia Council for the Arts, designed and produced a line of terra-cotta kitchenware for Dean and Deluca's in New York, and has completed numerous painting commissions. In 1988, her work was selected for the "Big Art" billboard competition sponsored by the Arts Festival of Atlanta.

Beth moved to New York in 1989, and shortly after that had her first child, a boy who she named Ben. She continued working in the studio on painting commissions and other work. In 1991 she designed over 75 puppets and masks for an original theatre production on the life of Frida Kahlo, entitled "Frida", that was produced by the American Music Theatre Festival in Philadelphia, the Next Wave Festival at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and the Houston Opera Company. During the same year she moved into a studio at 41 Union Square, a building in NYC that has been occupied by artists for over 100 years. In 1993, Beth gave birth to her second child, a baby girl named Isabel.

In March of 2000, Beth was invited by the U.S. State Department in Syria to participate in the "Second International Women's Art", an exhibition in Aleppo, Syria. She was also invited to conduct workshops for women artists in Damascus and Aleppo and for students at the University of Damascus. After a three-week stay in Syria, she traveled to Saudi Arabia, where she was also invited by the U.S. State Department to conduct workshops for women artists.

In 2001, Beth and her family moved from the city to their house in the Catskills and Beth had a pottery and painting studio on that property. She continued making and exhibiting her work, and in 2005 was hired as ceramic studio manager at Garrison Art Center, in Garrison, New York, where she began making functional pots again and teaching. In addition she maintained vegetable and flower gardens over much of their property until 2009 when her house and studios were destroyed by a fire.

Although devastated by such a big loss, she and her family turned this loss into an opportunity and moved back to New York City. Beth has moved her studio several times over the almost fifteen years since she’s been back in New York City. Her current studio is in the Old American Can Factory building in the Gowanus neighborhood of Brooklyn, one block from the apartment she shares with her husband, Jack Hayes.

In 2017 Beth was invited to participate in The International Ceramic Exchange in Aarhus, Denmark. She collaborated with a ceramic artist, Jeannine Vrins, from Belgium for the exhibit. She traveled in Denmark for a month during the summer before the exhibit opened in Aarhus in September. During that time she spent a week with the curator of the exhibit, Helle Bovbjerg , working together designing the exhibition.

The next year, in 2018, Beth, along with Helle Bovbjerg, and Max Seinfeld were invited to exhibit their work at the Huset for Kunst og Design in Holstebro, Denmark. The three person exhibit was called “The Joy of Color”. Beth spent 2 months making work in Denmark for the exhibit which opened in September 2018.

In August 2018 Beth traveled from Denmark to LaBorne, France to attend the Third European Wood Fire Conference, and returned to LaBorne in late October to observe and participate in the Grands Feux 2018. Beth and her husband returned to the La Borne area the following year, rented an apartment and studio in Neuilly-en-Sancerre, and in the summer of 2022 purchased a house and studio in the same village.

Beth now splits her time between Brooklyn and France. When in the US, Beth makes functional pots, bisques them in her Brooklyn studio, and then wood-fires these pots in several upstate kilns. When in France, Beth works with La Borne stoneware and wood-fires in the Feller kiln at the Atellier des Halliers with Claire Linard, Anne Reverdy, and Camille Ferry.