Menhir by Jim Kraft

Artist list

Jim Kraft

Clay is my perfect medium. I can meet it halfway and allow it to have its say. / Jim Kraft

Kraft received his BA in Ceramics from Northern Michigan University in Marquette. Later, he would go on to earn his BFA in Ceramics from the University of Washington. Since the 1970s, the artist has been the recipient of two grants from the Ford Foundation and has exhibited in Portugal, Romania, and across the United States. His work is included in public and private collections throughout the States, including those of the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture in Washington and the Boise Art Museum in Idaho.

In a world that often clamors for attention, artist Jim Kraft carves a different path—one of hushed elegance and quiet reverence. His work does not shout. It listens. It waits. It remembers. His early ceramic vessels bore the echoes of utilitarian form—bowls, jars, and orbs softened by age and time. But over the years, Kraft moved steadily into the abstract, allowing form to speak without the burden of function. His surfaces became layers of patina, his silhouettes organic—like relics from an ancient civilization that never existed but should have. These are not merely ceramic objects; they are meditations.

I would like to think my work, and the act of making the work, connects me with past cultures who used the same materials to make vessels for ceremony or everyday use. I like the idea of being a part of the long history of people making things with their hands. 
/ Jim Kraft


Kraft’s mastery lies in restraint. He is not a maximalist. His sculptures are hushed and elemental, defined by curve, mass, and a near-spiritual understanding of negative space.
He is a craftsman of atmosphere, sculpting not just the clay but the silence around it. A vessel by Jim Kraft seems to hum with memory—its shape worn smooth as if by centuries of wind or water.

Texture is everything in Kraft’s world. He works primarily in earthenware, often handbuilding his pieces through coiling or slab construction rather than throwing them on a wheel. This allows him to leave the subtle imperfections of the hand, evidence of the maker in every surface. His finishes—burnished earth tones, smoky blacks, creamy whites mottled with oxide—evoke the ash-covered remnants of an archaeological dig. These are forms to be touched, their tactility as compelling as their visual balance.

In many of Kraft’s recent works, the object becomes a kind of shrine—stacked forms reminiscent of cairns, stelae, or standing stones. They feel ceremonial, inviting reverence without dictating meaning. There is a spiritual architecture to his sculptures, an intuition that these forms are markers in a landscape both internal and external.

The vessel form appeals to me on a level that I don’t understand. It is sort of a mystery. When I am out in the world and see such a form, I am immediately drawn to it. As much as I am concerned with surface texture, it is ultimately the simple form of a vessel that appeals to my eye.
/ Jim Kraft


Though he lives and works far from the centers of the art world, Kraft’s influence runs deep. He is revered by collectors and curators for the integrity of his vision—work that is free from trend, immune to haste, and anchored in devotion to process. Each piece is a slow reckoning, a conversation with gravity, time, and touch.


Join us on Tuesday, July 11, from 5:00 to 7:00 pm, and meet the artist behind these timeless creations, who unveils a new body of work grounded in quiet power and elemental grace. 

For more information on Menhir, please contact Patina’s  Media Relations: Tricia English at projects@patina-gallery.com.

Opening hours:
Monday to Sunday, 11 am to 5 pm.