Andrew Augusta Smith

Andrew ‘Augusta’ Smith is a multi-medium designer and artist based in Phoenix Arizona, primarily focused on ceramic vessels. Native to Edgefield County, South Carolina, Augusta uses his background in production scale ceramics and traditional functional forms along with his engineering research discipline to produce wares ranging from precise, codependent vessels and tablewares, to brutalist expressionist sculpture, and many in-between.

His current personal body of work focuses on soda-fired surfaces on porcelain functional wares. Outside of his personal bodies of work, Augusta is known to collaborate with artists of many different backgrounds on vessels and sculptures of various sizes, fired in neutral, reduction, soda, and wood atmospheres, with clays ranging from low fire porcelains to high fire flame wares. His expertise in materials and experimental processes assists him in bridging the gap between himself and artists of different disciplines, and his process combines elements of craft, art, research, and design.

Augusta started ceramics in 2011, and in 2015 attended Arizona State University, receiving degrees in both Ceramic Studio Art and Biomedical Engineering. Since then, he has worked as a resident artist at the Reitz Ranch Center for Ceramic Arts, and the American Museum of Ceramic Arts. He currently lives and works from his home studio in Phoenix, Arizona as an artist, designer, and bio-medical engineer, as well as the co-founder of HANDSEYESMIND, a small goods company.