Collection: Guillermo Cuellar

Shafer, MN

Guillermo Cuellar, born in Venezuela, studied ceramics at Cornell College in Mt. Vernon, Iowa. He has been making utilitarian, wheel-thrown stoneware pots since 1980. For 25 years he ran a studio and held sales events at his home in Turgua, in the countryside southeast of Caracas. He was a founding member of Grupo Turgua, an association of like-minded Venezuelan artisans working to support quality, local handwork. In 1981, he worked as an assistant to Warren MacKenzie, who taught a workshop in Caracas. Here began a deep friendship and link to the vibrant pottery world in Minnesota. In 2005, he established a pottery studio in Shafer, Minnesota and now participates as one of seven host-studios on the annual St. Croix Valley Pottery Tour.