Skip Ribbon Commands
Skip to main content
Seattle Art Museum (SAM)
menu

Koi Junk Teapot

Photo: Gavin Ashworth, NY

Koi Junk Teapot

2009

Michelle Erickson

American, born 1960

The back of this work has a “Made in China” decal to highlight current and historical relationships in global trade. The teacup’s encrustations make it look like salvage from a shipwreck. Erickson uses agateware ceramic technology invented in 8th-century China, which 18th-century potters in England copied to take advantage of the enormous demand for but short supply of Chinese porcelain.
Porcelain, colored earthenware agate, indigenous clays
12 1/2 x 11 in.
Howard Kottler Endowment for Ceramic Art
2011.23
Provenance: Michelle Erickson Pottery, Inc., Hampton, Virginia; purchased by Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 2011
Photo: Gavin Ashworth, NY
location
Now on view at the Seattle Art Museum

Resources

Exhibition HistoryBentonville, Arkansas, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Crafting America, Feb. 6 - Sept. 12, 2021 (Auburn, Alabama, Jule Collins Smith Museum, Auburn University, June 29 - Sept. 12, 2021).

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Our Blue Planet: Global Visions of Water, Mar. 18 - May 30, 2022.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Chronicles of a Global East, Oct. 20, 2022 - Oct. 22, 2023.

Published References"Michele Erickson trailer" on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g70n-TA_6Yk), 2015, 0:48-0:52

Seattle Art Museum respectfully acknowledges that we are on Indigenous land, the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people. We honor our ongoing connection to these communities past, present, and future.

Learn more about Equity at SAM