Jan Axel
Arts/Industry: Pottery, 1979, 1981
Jan Axel completed two Arts/Industry residencies in the Pottery at Kohler Co., in 1979 and 1981. There she created a sink carved with undulating lines, and the company later produced it commercially. Axel went on to create a program that brought artists to Kohler Co. to embellish plumbing fixtures for sale. Such collaboration was radical at the time.
“It was sort of ‘not done’ because people wanted to be considered artists. They didn’t want to be designers,” said Axel, of South Salem, New York, who went on to do product and landscape design.
