Timothy Persons (b. 1954, Narvik, Norway) is a US-American artist, ceramic sculptor, curator, and writer raised in Southern California. He studied ceramics at Claremont Graduate School under Paul Soldner and Betty Woodman, working as Soldner’s teaching assistant and emerging from the post-Voulkos generation of West Coast artists who challenged the boundaries between ceramics and contemporary art.
From the late 1970s onward, Persons developed an experimental approach that brought ceramics into dialogue with painting, drawing, sculpture, and assemblage. After completing his MFA in 1982, he moved to Finland at the invitation of Tapio Wirkkala to work with Arabia and later taught at the University of Art and Design Helsinki.
Today, Persons is internationally recognized as the founder of The Helsinki School and for his work as a curator and educator. His works are held in collections including the Fred Marer Ceramic Collection, the Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery, the Väinö Aaltonen Museum, the Museum of African American Art, the Clarke Humanities Museum, and numerous private collections.