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California Institute of the Arts

Laurita Cortese

Pronouns: School of Art

Director, Ceramics Lab

Technical Faculty, Art

Laurita Cortese Headshot
Email address: jlaurita@calarts.edu
Phone number: (661) 554-0872 x2031
Office address:
C109/Ceramics Lab
California Institute of the Arts
24700 McBean Parkway
Valencia, California 91355
Degrees:
  • MFA
    Cranbrook Academy of Art
  • BFA
    Adelphi University

Laurita Cortese is an artist, fabricator, and designer currently residing in Los Angeles. In 2012 they earned an MFA in Ceramics from Cranbrook Academy of Art and received a BFA in Sculpture from Adelphi University in New York. 

Their primary medium is clay; working with the material to create sculpture, wheel-thrown functional objects, and, most recently, experimenting with historical methods for natural building and vernacular architecture with unfired and site-specific clay. They have exhibited their sculpture, paintings, performance, and design objects internationally including exhibitions with Steve Turner Gallery in Los Angeles, Louise Alexander Gallery in Porto Cervo, Italy, Arizona State University, New Mexico State University, Brittany Vallejo at OPaf, The Clay Studio in Philadelphia, BBQLA, Embassy, Half Gallery in Los Angeles, and The Bedfellows Club in Little Rock, Arkansas. 

They are the 2021 recipient of the California Institute of the Arts Faculty Development Grant to study permaculture landscape design with Quail Springs in the Cuyama Valley in California. It is from that research they are currently working on a habitat restoration earthwork and regenerative agriculture garden located in Los Angeles. Laurita is the Director of the Ceramics Lab and Technical Faculty in the School of Art at CalArts where they teach courses in clay and ceramic sculpture, wheelthrowing, and glaze chemistry.