Noted Sculptor Joe Bova to Lecture on Tuesday at SUNY Potsdam Arts Festival

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Joe Bova’s sculpture, called “Fionualla's Rebirth” depicts a swan carrying a crying infant.

• Joe Bova works on one of his sculptures at the International Ceramics Studio in Hungary.

POTSDAM, NY (04/20/2012)(readMedia)-- As part of the inaugural Lougheed-Kofoed Festival of the Arts, SUNY Potsdam will welcome a talented guest artist to campus. The College's art department has invited sculptor Joe Bova to give a lecture about his artwork. The lecture will be offered at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, April 24 in Kellas Hall Room 103.

Bova's lecture will detail his visually engaging artwork and the roots and history of his remarkable 40-year career as a leading ceramic sculptor. Bova is a colorful and entertaining speaker, a raconteur in the New Orleans tradition.

Initially, hunting and fishing trips inspired his artwork. Later, realizing the power of animal forms, Bova used these forms as symbols, surrogates and totems. His later, more political, work reflects an underlying eroticism inspired by Moche pottery. Bova's artwork can be found in the collections of the Arizona State University Art Museum, the International Ceramics Studio in Kecskemet, Hungary, the Los Angeles County Museum and the San Angelo Museum of Art in Texas.

This lecture will be free, and the public is invited to attend.

About the artist:

Joe Bova was born in 1941 in Houston, Texas and now lives in Santa Fe, N.M. Bova served in the Air Force from 1960 to 1964 and afterwards studied at the University of Houston, earning his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1967. He went on to complete his master's degree at the University of New Mexico in 1969. Bova has led a distinguished academic career. After teaching art for many years, he directed the Louisiana State University School of Art, and then the Ohio University School of Art. Bova presided over the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts, an organization with more than 5,000 members worldwide. He also chaired the Penland School of Crafts Board of Trustees in North Carolina. Bova has received many awards, including a Fulbright Fellowship to Ireland, a fellowship from the Southern Arts Federation of the National Endowment for the Arts, and a fellowship from the International Ceramics Studio in Hungary. He was elected to join the International Academy of Ceramics in 2005.

For more information about the Lougheed-Kofoed Festival of the Arts and other events on the schedule, visit www.potsdam.edu/artsfestival.

Founded in 1816, The State University of New York at Potsdam is one of only three arts campuses in the entire SUNY system. SUNY Potsdam's arts curriculum offers the full palette: music, theatre, dance, fine arts and creative writing. No matter the discipline, people from all backgrounds can find their creative compass at Potsdam, with myriad arts immersion experiences available for both campus and community.

-www.potsdam.edu-