Eric O'Leary is an internationally acclaimed ceramic artist and designer. Trained in the tradition by his father, master craftsman Jack O'Leary, he has worked in ceramics for more than 45 years. Drawing upon many sources of inspiration, especially traditional Japanese and Mexican forms, Eric's vision of innovative integrative design features ceramic elements in relation to other materials.

Eric and his family have a long and deep connection to Mexican pottery and culture. He has been traveling to Mexico for more than twenty years and his relationship to this region of the world is an important source of inspiration for his current sculptural work. Eric is involved in two projects based in Mexico that focus on sustaining traditional culture and pottery.

For the past eight years Eric has served as the board president of a non-governmental organization called the Sierra Madre Alliance (www.sierramadrealliance.org). Working in Northern Mexico's Sierra Madre Occidental, SMA is dedicated to protecting and promoting the rights of the indigenous people of the region, who are confronted with the loss of land rights, deforestation, drug trafficking, and poverty.

For the last seven years Eric has also served as the senior technical ceramics consultant for the nonprofit organization Aid to Artisans (www.aidtoartisans.org). Aid to Artisans works internationally to develop economic opportunities for craftspeople in developing nations. As their technical consultant Eric has actively participated in their Lead Free Alliance in Mexico. The Alliance has three interrelated goals: To reduce the presence of lead in thousands of workshops, to link local potters to an international market, and thereby to spark a revival of traditional Mexican pottery.

Eric O'Leary's work is nationally and internationally recognized. His sculptures, designs, and architectural installations are continually expanding in scale and integrating new elements. His work is represented in many museums, including the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Fuller Art Museum, the DeCordova Museum, and Centre des Arts Visuals, as well as in numerous public, private, and corporate collections around the world. He has been profiled in numerous newspapers and magazines, including the Boston Globe, the New York Times, The Studio Potter, and Garden Seating. New work will be shown in summer 2004 at the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester, New Hampshire.

Eric is married and has three children. He lives with his family in Meriden, New Hampshire, where he and his siblings grew up absorbing their father's artistry.

Interview with Eric on NPR

Museums, Permanent Collection
2002 DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA.
1998 American Decorative Arts & Sculpture Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA.
1993 White House Christmas Ornament Collection, Washington, DC, and then to Smithsonian White House Collection.
1982 St. Gaudens National Park, Cornish, NH.
1976 DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA.
1975 Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, NH.

One-Man Shows
1998 The Taylor Gallery, Kimball Union Academy, Meriden, NH.
1995 Elaine Benson Gallery, Bridgehampton, NY.
1989-1992 Franz Bader Gallery, Washington, DC.

Group Shows
2004 Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, NH. "Creations in Clay: Contemporary New England Ceramics."
2002 Fuller Art Museum, Brockton, MA. "Crafts from the Collection of Fleet Boston Financial."
1996 Elaine Benson Gallery, Bridgehampton, NY. "Pure Not Simple."
1994 Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, NH. "New Hampshire Master Craftsmen."

University Exhibitions
1994 Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA. "Form and Function."

Current Projects
2004 Guachochi Commission, New Hampshire.

Media
Christine Temin, "Stretching and Reforming the Boundaries of Clay," Boston Globe, Living Arts section, April 3, 2002.

Please Be Seated: Recipes for Entertaining from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Boston: MFA Publications, 2002), 53.

Christine Temin, "Molded by Family Tradition," Boston Globe, At Home section, July 20, 2000.

"Land and Waterscapes," The Studio Potter 30:1 (December 2001): 44-47.

Workshops
2003 Harvard University Guest Lecturer, Ceramics program, Office for the Arts at Harvard, November 2003