David Gilhooly

United States of America  born 1943

David Gilhooly was born in Auburn, California, on 15 April 1943. He studied at the University of California, Davis, enrolling first in biology, then anthropology, and finally as an art major in ceramics. He studied with Robert Arneson, graduating in 1965 and gaining a Master of Arts in 1967.  He held his first solo exhibition at the Richmond Art Centre, California, in 1965 and became known in the 1970s for his humorous, satirical and witty references to human civilisation through his Frogworld ceramic works. Gilhooly was one of the leading artists of the Funk ceramic movement, a style that developed in the mid-1960s in the San Francisco Bay area, and was a primary figure in establishing ceramics as a significant medium in contemporary art.

After graduating he began teaching ceramics at several universities in California, Oregon and Canada, and continued to do so intermittently until 1991. Gilhooly produced annual solo exhibitions at the Hansen-Fuller Gallery, San Francisco, from 1968 until 1979. He was also included in several important group exhibitions, including the Whitney Sculpture Annual 1969 and Clay 1973, both at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; West Coast Ceramics, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 1978, and Crafts Council Gallery, London, 1982; Ceramic Sculpture: Six Artists, Whitney Museum of American Art and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art 1981, and The Lighter Side of Bay Area Figuration, San Jose Museum of Art, 2000. Gilhooly no longer works in ceramics but in plastics. He lives and works in Oregon.

See more works by this artist in the NGA collection

David Gilhooly Victoria's royal snack 1978 Purchased 1978 Learn more

David Gilhooly Mao Tse Toad II 1976 Purchased 1978 Learn more

David Gilhooly Turned on by confiscated erotic moose pottery 1976 Purchased 1978 Learn more