Mike Helke
BIOGRAPHY
Mike Helke is an Assistant Professor of Art-Ceramics Program Director. Helke grew up in Minnesota's St. Croix Valley where he still resides with his wife and two sons in Stillwater, MN. Since receiving an MFA from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University-Alfred, NY in 2011 he has taught at various institutions including Carleton College-Northfield MN, the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, and the University of Wisconsin—River Falls, WI where he has been an Associate Professor—Ceramics Program Director since 2018. In addition to family and teaching, Helke maintains a full-time studio practice in his home studio. This practice/research has been exhibited, presented, and published all over the country at organizations including but not limited to Harvard University-Boston, MA, the Anderson Ranch Art Center-Snowmass Village, CO, the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft—Houston, TX, the Museum of Contemporary Craft-Portland, OR, and The Weismen Art Museum-Minneapolis, MN. Helke is a two-time Carleton College Dayton Hudson Distinguished Teacher/Artist recipient and has received grant awards from the Minnesota State Arts Board as well as the Jerome Foundation. In 2020 Helke was a United States Artist Fellowship nominee and in 2021 he was awarded a McKnight Artist Fellowship for Ceramic Arts.
artist statement
Pots are profound objects that function in many ways—practically, ritualistically, and aesthetically among other ways. Throughout history and cross-culturally pots have helped facilitate and share culture. I am particularly interested in this and the way that interacting with a pot is a way to communicate with all of humanity, past or present. This communicative function can transport the user to another time, culture, and/or cultural context. In essence, this function helps us learn about our identity, who we are, what we evolved out of and perhaps what to evolve into, or what not to.
When I make a pot, I am collaborating with a personal experience, a vessel, and a broad range of potential subject matter. The physical and/or conceptual sensibility of these objects is a reflection of the source or experience. As for the vessel and the accompanying subject matter, they adapt and play off of one another to become the pot. These works reflect an animate physical and conceptual sensibility that is catalyst for a call and response relationship between me the maker, the object, and its user.
I want my pots to live among their users, revealing their identity—their story over time through use and contemplation. Ideally, my pots help the user think, feel, question, and wonder how things could be rather than how they should be. I hope the user’s understanding of the pot evolves along with their personal perception of things while it might also help them imagine or re-imagine their own hopeful future.
