Meg Hartwig is a German-American visual artist who currently lives and works in Berlin. She is an artist who always raises a question about constructs of power, anthropocentric ecologies, and the cultural heritage of materials, based on finely crafted ceramic objects and sculptural installations.
Her latest practice is an exploration of intricately crafted porcelain sculptures and functional wares carefully composed on a ceremonial table. From her recent installation, “Adaptation,” debuting at BBA Gallery—which continues the conceptual lineage of her previous 2024 installations “Burying the Acorn I & II” in Berlin and Detroit—the artist tries to bring hand-sculpted mortars, pestles, bowls, and botanical elements made of German porcelain back to our reality. The rich local and global heritage of the medium is continuously confronted with a somatic, of-the-body making process where weight, force, and physical ritual alter the material. She describes her work as a space for moving public fulcrums and initiating communal conversations, addressing the destructive, dissonant effects of human imbalance on the biosphere. Her work is rooted in the physical act of doing and making, merging disciplined technical craft within the form of deeply collaborative, socio-cultural conceptual processing.

Hartwig’s career is marked by a rigorous academic foundation and extensive exhibition history. She has been invited to exhibitions and collaborations at major venues, including Zentrum für Keramik, Backhaus Projects, and Mahalla in Berlin, as well as the Henry Art Museum, Mad Art Studio in Seattle, and the Birmingham Bloomfield Art Center in Detroit.

Education & Training

2018–2023

Program Director (Overseeing teen design/build programs and equity strategic planning), Sawhorse Revolution, Seattle, USA

2013–2020

Associate Faculty (Teaching Sculpture, Three-Dimensional Design, and Drawing), Shoreline Community College, Seattle, USA

2013

MFA in 3D4M (Three-Dimensional Media / Ceramics), University of Washington, Seattle, USA

2011

Carpentry Certificate, Seattle Central Wood Construction Program, Seattle, USA

2011–2013

Instructor of Record (Teaching Introductory Ceramics and 3D Design), University of Washington, Seattle, USA

2008–2010

Studio Coordinator (Large-scale sculpture infrastructure and logistics), Martin Blank Studio, Seattle, USA

2007

Post-Baccalaureate in Ceramics, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, USA

Exhibition & Projects (Selection)

2026

The White Room, Berlin, Germany
Adaptation, BBA Gallery, Berlin, Germany

2025

Underworld Abyss with Tiresias and Alexander, Mahalla, Berlin, Germany (Collaboration)
Sunflowers-on-Sticks, Zentrum für Keramik, Berlin, Germany
Interstices, Backhaus Projects, Berlin, Germany
The Unbearable Lightness of 300 Tons a Day, NSC Art Gallery, Seattle, USA

2024

Burying the Acorn, Zentrum für Keramik, Berlin, Germany (Solo exhibition)
Burying the Acorn, Michigan Ceramics Biennial @ BBAC, Detroit, USA
Emerald City, Mad Art Studio, Seattle, USA

2019

Piled, Equinox Studios, Seattle, USA
Everyone’s Floored, The Alice, Seattle, USA

2017

Refuse, 849 Gallery, Kentucky College of Art and Design, Louisville, USA (Solo exhibition)
Use-Value, 165 S. Jackson, Seattle, USA (Solo exhibition)
Out of Sight, Seattle, USA

2016

Doing and Undergoing, The Alice, Seattle, USA (Solo exhibition)
Preserve, Project Diana at The Alice, Seattle, USA (Solo exhibition)

2015

Preserve, Shoreline Art Gallery, Shoreline, USA (Solo exhibition)
See What you’re Looking At, Duwamish Revealed, Seattle, USA

2013

Counting to Ten, A Gallery, Seattle, USA (Solo exhibition)
Capture The Flag, CMA, Seattle, USA (Solo exhibition)
MFA + MDes Thesis Exhibition, Henry Art Museum, Seattle, USA

2009

Sensibilia Invisibilia, Fulcrum Gallery, Tacoma, USA (Solo exhibition)