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TARIKI STUDIO HISTORY
Founded in 1972, Tariki Studio is a ceramic art studio creating sculpture and integrative design installations for public, private, and corporate environments. Principal artist/designer Eric O'Leary's installations integrate clay with steel, water, light, mixed media, and the surrounding landscape. Sculptures range in scale from small to monumental, and are represented in collections nationally and abroad.
Tariki Studio is a rare modern example of an artisan's craft being passed down from father to son, master to apprentice. Eric's father, Jack O'Leary, began working in clay in the 1940s, at a seminal moment in contemporary ceramics. At the School of American Craftsmen he found mentors and peers in such artists as Bob Turner, Dan Rhodes, and others who were revolutionizing the craft of the traditional studio ceramist. Jack's exquisite thrown pieces and unique glazing techniques expanded the boundaries of ceramics into the realm of art and brought Asian influences to the American tradition.
Eric grew up absorbing his father's methods and technical expertise in ceramics. Eric inherited the studio from his father in 1982, and at that point his brother Kevin joined him in developing the studio. Over time they have expanded Tariki's scope from a ceramics studio to a studio producing an enormously diverse range of large-scale sculptures and architectural installations. The family tradition of artistic exploration grounded in ceramics is central to its foundation. The extended O'Leary family has remained connected to and a part of studio life for more than forty years.
In recent years, Eric and Kevin O'Leary have expanded Tariki Studio to encompass seven employees and a design collective for architectural commissions made up of architects, builders, engineers, and technology. As installations continue to grow in size the nature of the artwork is changing-from being an element within the landscape to creating the landscape itself. Current commissions have included designing the architecture surrounding and enclosing the sculpture as well as the sculptures themselves.
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