Ohio native Kimberly Chapman grew up with an artist father and a career-minded
mother. She obtained undergraduate and graduate degrees in marketing and
spent three decades in the corporate arena. In 2012 she returned to college and
four years later received a fine arts degree in ceramics from the Cleveland
Institute of Art (CIA).

Balancing beauty with the macabre, her non-functional, narrative objects are
sculptural in nature. She tackles subjects including childhood and ancestral
nostalgia and issues relating to personal plight and uncertainty. She is fascinated
with “what’s left behind” as she ages. Her affinity for pure white, translucent
porcelain clay is absolute due to its soft, sculptural and ethereal nature. Known
for its fragility and preciousness, it allows her to “mine” what she knows.
Her goal in creating is to satisfy her yearning to create and to give viewers a
visual jumping pad for personal contemplation. For example, in one series she
tackles the subject of American school shootings. A dozen white busts of children
are uniquely attired to reflect their inner struggle to feel safe. Sacrificial Lamb,
Sitting Duck, First Mask and No One Can See Me – I’m Wearing My Skelton
Costume, are but a few.

Upon graduation she received one of CIA’s highest awards, the Second Agnes
Gund Traveling Award. While in school she received half a dozen additional
accolades including the Guy Cowan Pottery Association Scholarship for Ceramic
Excellence, the Viktor Schreckengost Award for Excellence in Ceramics and the
Robert Jergens Scholarship for Excellence in Design and Craft.

Since graduation (2017), she has shown in over a dozen invitational and curated
shows in the Greater Cleveland area including: Artist Achieves of the Western
Reserve, RECAST; Valley Art Center, 47th Annual Juried Art Exhibition; and the
Florence O’Donnell Wasmer Gallery, The New Masters, to name a few