Monica Bock

Professor of Sculpture and Ceramic Art

MFA, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago

Prof. Monica Bock is co-head of the Sculpture/Ceramics Area and head of the Ceramic Art Program. Her undergraduate teaching includes Foundation Studio Concepts and Basic Sculpture, as well as Pottery & Vessel, Ceramic Sculpture, and Mold Making and Casting. At both BFA & MFA levels, she offers Special Topics and Independent Studies in Public, Installation and Performance Art. Prof Bock served as MFA Graduate Coordinator for several years, and continues to teach graduate seminars and advise on graduate committees.

Prof. Bock creates mixed media sculptural installations often based on castings of the body and of found objects. For a number of years, Prof. Bock focused thematically on tensions inherent in maternal life. Her recent work employs figurative ceramics as a means of reflecting more widely on the fragility of kinship. Prof. Bock is affiliated with Soho20 Chelsea Gallery in New York City. She has exhibited in venues across the country including Real Art Ways in Hartford, Art in General in New York City, Mobius in Boston, Pittsburgh’s Mattress Factory, Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art, and Phantom Galleries L.A. in Long Beach. She has contributed to numerous publications and received a variety of awards, including an Arts Midwest/NEA Regional Visual Arts Fellowship.

Prof. Bock received her BA in Art and Art History from Oberlin College, and after a semester studying ceramics at Ohio State, taught English and investigated ceramic traditions in Japan on a two-year post-baccalaureate fellowship from the Oberlin Shansi Association. She spent a third year as a pottery student at Saga Art University in Kyoto. Returning to the U.S., she completed her BFA and MFA in Ceramics and Sculpture at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC.) While completing course work for the MA in Modern Art History, Theory and Criticism at SAIC, she served as Adjunct Assistant Professor in the First Year Program there, before accepting her current position at UConn in 1996.