Arch Contemporary Ceramics

David Allyn

MFA Ceramics, Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), 2003

Originally from the Midwest, David Allyn graduated from the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh, before earning an MFA in ceramics from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2003. Over the course of his RISD education, Allyn noticed and became interested in the complex layers of overlap in the creative culture of Providence, starting with the dynamic printmaking scene and its relation to local musicians. This helped crystallize his decision to stay in the city after graduating, which led him to found the ceramics department at the non-profit arts center The Steel Yard during its infancy. From there, Allyn began to cherish the energy of a strong creative community, concurrently co-founding the Providence Initiative for Psychogeographic Studies, and contributing to the developing gravity of The Steel Yard and the greater arts community in the Woonasquatucket River Valley. As the recipient of a RISCA Fellowship and a McKnight Fellowship, Allyn was able to expand his studio practice as an individual artist, combining his interest in ceramics with his performance art alter-ego Unkle Thirsty, while also further developing and strengthening the network of artists that were drawn into the fold.

Still interested in printmaking, Allyn has been continually refining multiple image transfer techniques in his ceramic work. Using photo decal transfers, stencils, and silk-screening, he creates one-of-a-kind porcelain objects that vacillate between an optimistic and futuristic vision of our contemporary culture, and an investigation of the “tired Americana” of our recent past. Adding photography to the mix, Allyn has developed a series of porcelain objects that preserve abandoned, neglected, or repurposed buildings around Providence and highlight our cultural choices when it comes to destroying or recycling resources. With intricately detailed four-color silkscreened images that are printed directly onto the clay, he has transformed digital photographs taken around the city and the state into permanent evidence of these decisions. Alongside his endlessly evolving series of utilitarian, wheel-thrown cups, his work highlights his hopes for our social and environmental future as well as his critique of current affairs, ranging from consumerism and politics to violence and religion.

Allyn currently maintains a full-time studio practice in the Nicholson File Building, a studio art space which he also manages. Located just down the road from The Steel Yard, Nicholson File brings together 25 artists dedicated to multiple disciplines and is part of the thriving network of makers in the recently coined Valley Arts District of Providence. David Allyn has had his work featured at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and has multiple works that have been added to the permanent collections of the Newport Art Museum and the RISD Museum.