ZHOU DINGFANG (B. 1965)

Zhou Dingfang, a female artist, is a native of Yixing, Jiangsu province who was born in 1965. Zhou grew up among the dragon jars and old dragon kilns of Yixing. She and her classmate Lu Wenxia are the most creative among contemporary Yixing potters. She was apprenticed to Xu Xiutang (maker of lots 6 and 50), foremost sculptor of Yixing, in 1984. After two years of advance training in ceramic design in Nanjing, she returned to Yixing Purple Clay Factory no. 2 at Yixing to work with her master. She is a creative potter who based her designs on nature and on the everyday life in Yixing. She loves her birthplace and had created teapots showing the houses of Yixing, and local scenes such as carts loaded with pottery. She is fascinated with the texture of bamboo, wood and leather. At the young age of 30, she was promoted to full Master Status in 1995. A world-class potter, her works have been exhibited by Garth Clark Gallery of New York since 1989, also in London, Amsterdam, Hong Kong, Korea, and Taiwan. Her tall bamboo teapot with an overhead handle was selected to be a Chinese postage stamp design. She had demonstrated at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco and was a guest artist at Louisiana State University. Her teapots are in the collection of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, the British Museum, the Metropolitan Museum, the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art, Canada, Korea and Ziguangge, Beijing, and China National Art Museum.