Jon Pettyjohn

Co-Owner, Pettyjohn Pottery

 

The Father of Contemporary Philippine Ceramics, he pioneered the revival of pottery in the history of Philippine art

There’s a 3,500-year gap between 800 B.C. – when the iconic Manunggul Jar is presumed to originate – and the early ‘80s, when the first generation of modern potters emerged in the Philippine art scene. The bridge may just be Jon Pettyjohn.


In 1976, Pettyjohn returned from Barcelona, where he had extended a vacation to a two-year study of ceramics. The Filipino-American artist debuted in 1978 with his first solo exhibit of original high-fired stoneware in Manila. Previously, a tradition of roadside terracotta pots and imported Chinaware prevailed in the country.


Together with his wife Tessy, Pettyjohn pioneered a movement for a craft that many now use as a therapeutic hobby through the pandemic. At the time, however, they were just fanning the flame for a guild of gifted artists that wanted to work with clay. Over 40 years, the Pettyjohn Pottery School taught thousands of students, of which only a little over a dozen have bodies of work that withstood the master ceramicists’ tests of fire. Nowadays, the University of the Philippines has a fine arts course dedicated to ceramics. Most recently, pottery headlined the digital series of Art in the Park, making this traditional art accessible to an audience of collectors stranded at home. It has been an orbital pilgrimage of disciplines taken from Japan, Korea, and China to return to this ancient Filipino artform.


Pettyjohn himself has exhibited over 60 shows, both locally and abroad. Even as the foremost source of knowledge on the matter, he still underwent two residencies – in China and Japan – in the last decade. “You cannot master pottery in one lifetime,” he said.

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Awards


1997

First Prize Winner & Representative of the Philippines, Third Asian Ceramic Festival, Japan

Did You Know?


Pettyjohn has named his wood-fire kiln, “Musang Gama.” It’s a play on the civet cats, or “musang,” that prowl around his studio at the foot of the mountain and “gama,” which means “wood-fire” in Japanese. Other traditional wood-fire kilns are “anagama” (a cave-like kiln) and “naborigama” (a multi-chamber, train-like kiln).

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