The Human Condition: The Stephen and Pamela Hootkin Collection Sept. 2014 | Page 152

ARTISTS' BIOGRAPHIES

Novak, Justin
(American; b. 1962, Kansas City, MO; lives in Vancouver, BC)
1996 MFA (ceramics) State University of New York, New Paltz, NY
1983 BFA (communications design) Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY

Before Justin Novak completed his ceramic-focused MFA at the State University of

SELECTED REFERENCES:

New York in New Paltz, he spent the previous decade as a freelance illustrator and

Brown, Glen R. “Justin

received a Designer Award from the Society of Publications (1987) and a DESI Award
for Excellence in Illustration (1989). As a teenager, Novak lived in Rome for five years
when his musician father was employed by the RAI National Symphony Orchestra.

Novak’s Rhetoric of Beauty.”
Ceramics: Art and Perception
no. 62 (2005): 99–102.
“Justin Novak, CV.” Emily Carr

This formative experience, which provided daily access to Italian masterworks, later took

(blog). Accessed September 17,

shape in the artist’s Baroque-inspired Disfigurines series begun in 1996. Rather than

2013. http://blogs.eciad.ca/

pristine sculptural beauties, Novak’s figurines are bruised, lacerated, or shown biting
away at their own flesh. Physical toil becomes a metaphor for psychological harm and
many critics have considered Novak’s Disfigurines a challenge to consumerism and a

justinnovak/about/
Novak, Justin. “Disfigurines.”
Justin Novak. Accessed March
27, 2014. http://justinnovak.com/

depiction of the effects of power structures on individual psyches. Novak has received
numerous grants and awards among which include: First Prize Shaw/Guido Gallery
exhibition New Generation (1996); Emerging Talent Selection, NCECA 2000, Denver,
Colorado (2000); Juried Solo Exhibition Award, The Clay Studio, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
(2000); and Purchase Award, NCECA Clay National, Charlotte, North Carolina (2001).

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF JUSTIN NOVAK WORKS IN THE EXHIBITION

Disfigurine (Competition)

ALSO INCLUDED IN EXHIBITION

Hubbard, Patricia. “The Function

Thomas

of Beauty.“ Ceramics: Art and
Perception no. 45 (2001): 41–43.

Provider

Tourtillott, Suzanne J., ed. The

Disfigurine #6

Figure in Clay: Contemporary

Disfigurine #19

Sculpting Techniques by
Master Artists. New York:
Lark Books, 2005.

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