Ken Price (1935-2012)

Photo by Paul O'Connor

Biography

For over 50 years, Ken Price produced brightly colored ceramic sculptures with exquisitely worked glazed and painted surfaces in which he achieved a balance between form and surface. In 2012, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art organized a major retrospective exhibition highlighting Price’s sculpture, which traveled to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Price’s works on paper have also achieved wide recognition, with a 2013 survey organized by The Drawing Center in New York.

Price moved to Taos in 1970 with his wife Happy. The folk art traditions of New Mexico had considerable influence on him, inspiring the six-year project “Happy’s Curios”.

Ken Price was born in Los Angeles in 1935. He lived and worked in Venice Beach, CA and Taos, NM.

Sources:
Matthew Marks Gallery

Schools of Study

Alfred University, Alfred, NY 1959
Los Angeles County Art Institute, Los Angeles 1957
University of Southern California, Los Angeles 1956
Chouinard Art Institute

Partial List of Collections

Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Museum of Modern Art, New York
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles

Selected Exhibitions

Ferus Gallery, Los Angeles 1960
The Menil Collection, Houston, TX 1992
Chinati Foundation, Marfa, TX 2004
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles 2012
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 2012
The Drawing Center, New York 2013
Albright-Knox Gallery, New York 2013
Harwood Museum of Art, Taos, NM 2013