Current and Former Resident Artists
Jan 9th - Feb 28th, 2021
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In Future Memories, artists explore the theme of transformation through works that consider the effects of The Clay Studio Residency on their work and retrospective meditations. The work of fifty artists are represented, see the full text at the bottom of this page for the complete list of artists. This exhibition was originally intended for the 2020 NCECA Conference in Richmond, VA, which was cancelled due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.
For the exhibition Future Memories, 50 current and former Clay Studio Resident Artists created work that serves as the new repository for thoughts and feelings that evoke their time in the program. Each will reflect on what the Residency meant to them, what expectations for the future did they have at the time? The Clay Studio Resident Program is intended to be a springboard to the next phase of the artists' careers. It is, by definition, a transformative time. How does each Resident remember their expectations of the future when they joined the program?
Kevin Snipes, Julie York, Peter Barbor, Alex Ferrante, Lauren Mabry, Stephanie Kantor, Yehrim Lee, Pauliina Pollanen, Mimi McPartlan, Jinsoo Song, Matt Wilt, Roberta Massuch, Andrea Marquis, Nate Prouty, Shawn Spangler, Matthew Courtney, Sandi Pierantozzi, Neil Patterson, Lisa Naples, Linda Lopez, Kelcy Chase Folsom, Susan Beiner, Joanie Turbek, Robert Raphael, Hiroe Hanazono, Matt Ziemke, Ruth Easterbrook, Andy Shaw, Kari Radasch, Rain Harris, Linda Cordell, Paul Donnelly, Heather Mae Erickson, Jason Lee Starin, Amy Santoferraro, Peter Morgan, Kopal Seth, Nate Willever, Kensuke Yamada, Jacob Raeder, Bryan Czibesz, Candy Coated, and Melissa Mytty. Curated by Jennifer Zwilling.
Bridge
Medium & Materials:
Red earthenware, slip, glaze
Measurements:
11" x 14" x 5"
Date:
2019
Convex
Medium & Materials:
Ceramics
Measurements:
14" x 12" x 12"
Date:
2020
PITFALL (Unite or Die)
Medium & Materials:
Ceramic, custom ceramic decals, luster, epoxy, gold leaf
Measurements:
20 x 19 x 14 inches
Date:
2020
T shirt gown w/ fuzzy pocket
Medium & Materials:
Ceramic, fleece
Date:
2020
Description:
Throughout the 5 years, I spent at The Clay Studio, I worked predominantly on one
project. Tiny Town was comprised of objects that were modeled after train set-sized
forms, then built and titled after functional yet decorative objects, like doorstops. The
pieces operated as components of a large whole, ones that were interchangeable and
could be arranged into a variety of scenes depending on where and how they were
displayed. I have always worked with collections of small-scale objects, but during my
time at TCS, this practice became more conceptually intentional and it continues to
inform my work.
This piece is similar to others in my current project, What’s going on here (a collection of
subtle, small, interdependent objects that rely on each other to create a sort of scene
and mental puzzle). While it comes from a series of objects built to reference shirts and
pants, it speaks more to other interests, like decorative toilet paper covers with dolls on
top. In addition to bathroom décor, casual tops, and bulbous skirts, this small, ceramic
garment brings to mind memories of TCS clothing swaps. Much like what I would take
home at the end of the evening, T-shirt gown with fuzzy pocket is an amalgam of things
that don’t really go together, but somehow work.
(The Lord's) Prayer Wheel
Medium & Materials:
Stoneware, steel, porcelain, insects
Measurements:
16" x 10" x 10"
Date:
2020
Deco Vase
Medium & Materials:
Stoneware, terra sigilata, glaze
Measurements:
13" x 8" x 8"
Date:
2020
Snop
Medium & Materials:
Red earthenware, underglaze, acrylic, mixed media
Measurements:
5" x 6.5" x 6"
Date:
2020
Tank Turtle
Medium & Materials:
Clay Glaze and found wooden drawer
Date:
2020
Description:
My current art practice is heavily influenced by my three artist residencies in Lanzhou
China, where I was invited to explore the material and visual culture of Gansu province.
Like my residency at The Clay Studio, my residencies in China have had a profound
and I expect lasting influence on me and my art practice.
This piece, Tank Turtle, is my spin on an
iconic image of a man, sometimes referred
to as Tank Man, obstructing the path of a
column of tanks during the Tiananmen
Square protests of 1989. The student
pro-democracy movement in China in 1989
was an attempt at transformation that was
violently put down. This photo was taken on
June 5, 1989, by Jeff
Widener (The Associated Press).
The Lucky Hand (triptych)
Medium & Materials:
Parian clay
Measurements:
2cm x 30cm x 48cmm
Date:
2020
Sherbert Dust Furry with Green Cut Outs
Medium & Materials:
Porcelain
Measurements:
13" x 5.5" x 5.25"
Date:
2019
Axes (2 of ∞)
Medium & Materials:
Cast newspaper, enamel paint, quilt pin, framed digital print
Measurements:
22" x 15" x 5"
Date:
2020
Description:
Axes (2 of ∞) is part of an ongoing series where I find a single point in space, capturing an x,y, and z axis with seemingly random objects. In this particular work, I cast a pipe wrench out of newspaper, framed a photograph of two intertwined candle sticks held by my hands, and a quilt pin. I am interested in how useless these objects would be on the moon or elsewhere in the universe- the candles dependent on oxygen for fire, the pipe wrench dependent on the flow of water to complete its function, and a quilt pin used to temporarily hold something which requires gravity. The experience of finding a single point in space can be irrelevant and/or profound. What does it mean to find yourself? Is that search about place or mind? Are we ever on a single point in a universe that we know is constantly expanding?
In regards to the exhibition, I started making with paper mâché objects and then casting them in other materials in graduate school right before my time at The Clay Studio. It was not until my residency at The Clay Studio did I leave the paper mâché just paper mâché. My original use of newspaper pulp was a purely financial choice- I did not have any money and it was free. However, I began to think about how pottery and other clay/ceramic objects tell the stories and migrations of civilizations that came before, telling a single story or perhaps a few peoples stories who actually used the objects. Newspapers are collective stories and understood by communities they exist in and around. I realized newspaper, as a material, was far more potent and paralleled our own mortality. Ceramics is forever. As news and media become privatized information, newspapers are imperative for access and dissemination to tell the stories of our lives.
Scholar's Rock
Medium & Materials:
Porcelein, glass, red stoneware
Measurements:
10" x 8" x 12"
Date:
2020
Description:
The porcelain flower formation is elevated to almost a spiritual object, allowing the viewer to contemplate its beauty. The residency offered unrestricted time to focus solely on my work during a difficult period in my life.
We Are Flexing
Medium & Materials:
Porcelain, brass wire, epoxy
Measurements:
15" x 15" x 15"
Date:
2020
Flora and Fauna
Medium & Materials:
Porcelain, glaze
Measurements:
15" x 15.5" x 3.5"
Date:
2020
Description:
Decoration is often perceived to be superficial, but I believe its strength lies in its seductive nature. My work draws on the complex history of decorative art, a tradition that intersects with and runs parallel to the history of art. I extract moments from this history including Classicism, Post Modern architecture, pattern and decoration, and the Weiner Werkstätte. I conflate these disparate histories to create my language of objects.
I build architectural forms in which ornament can become structure, and structure can become an ornament. Flattened porcelain versions of Ancient Greek vessels, specifically Amphorae, Lekythoi, and Kraters, allude to historical records of homosexuality.
I am also making contemporary versions of Herma sculptures, a Greek sculptural tradition of statuary dedicated to the god Hermes, a phallic god associated with protection and magic, which tie gender and sexuality into my work. These statues were believed to have apotropaic powers which were contained in the phallus.
Clay and the process of ceramics are equally my subject matter as any ideas I bring to the material. I intentionally and often masochistically choose to push the physical limits of the process. I coat my sculptures with thickly glazed surfaces while allowing the material to contribute to the making process through warping, cracking, and other chemical changes that occur during the firing process. I work with porcelain because it is the clay most likely to exhibit these phenomena, fight back, or have the potential to completely fail. On some of my sculptures, heavy flowers act as a beautiful burden that buckles and transmutes my deliberate constructions. These relationships can be seen throughout my work where my craft and ideas are inseparable from a material that has the ability to alter itself. Clay, structure, physical weight, process, and ornament can change the original posture of the work to create gestures.
My Residency at the clay studio, 2004-2006, provided community, space, and the opportunity to begin my professional career. The conceptual foundations of my work have remained constant but continue to evolve as I move forward in my life. I made “Flora and Fauna” just before lockdown began in New York City, This piece launched a new body of work that has sustained me throughout this pandemic.
Otonasama set (Adult Luncheon Set)
Medium & Materials:
Thrown and hand built stoneware, maple
Date:
2020
Converging Planes
Medium & Materials:
Glazed Ceramic
Measurements:
18" x 24" x 24"
Date:
2020
Garden Oval
Medium & Materials:
Cone 6 stoneware, glazes, tape, latex, and wax
Measurements:
4.5" x 10" x 19"
Date:
2020
Description:
When I build my forms I am often visualizing the surface, setting up blooms that extend beyond the oval edge, or echoing a petal with scallops. When it is time to glaze I usually do not remember what I originally dreamed of but respond to the lines and planes of the vessel. This is when I set up the layers and glaze combinations that I will not see until it has been fired. Stems tangle with neighboring flowers. Leaves, petals, and pollen dots give visual clues to the different plants I am representing. This oval, with its large scale, asks, what should I hold? Its volume speaks of generosity and abundance, such as a fruit bowl on the counter piled high after a trip to the farmers market.
As a current resident artist, I am part of the history of this place, The Clay Studio, and the artists who have held this position before me. This is a time of growth, sharing, and establishing myself in the ceramics community.
Teapot
Medium & Materials:
Slab built porcelain with underglaze inlay
Measurements:
9" x 7" x 8"
Date:
2019
Description:
For me this teapot represents a transition in my work, which has been happening for several years now, much like the transition to the next phase of The Clay Studio with their exciting new studio and location.
I could fill many pages with how I feel about The Clay Studio and my long history there. I took my first class in clay there in 1984. Within a year I became an associate for five years, and then a resident for another five years, a total of eleven years. The Clay Studio was the first place I ever showed my work, and I volunteered in the small gallery there for years, helping to set up shows and designing the postcards. That, alone, was such an education.
I can say with all certainty, that I would not be a potter if not for The Clay Studio, specifically Kathryn Narrow, who opened my mind to the possibility that I could make pots full time and make my living. My whole time at TCS was a rich learning experience, full of interesting and supportive people. The Clay Studio was my nest, and as hard as it was to leave in 1995 to set up my own studio, I felt grounded by having been there for so long, seeing how a studio functions. I felt ready to take the leap from the nest to the next branch.
The Clay Studio has enriched my life, and it continues to do so with their dedicated staff, programs, and exhibitions. I am extremely excited for the next incarnation of The Clay Studio, and the amazing community they will continue to nurture.
Stupa Form
Medium & Materials:
Wheel thrown stoneware
Measurements:
14" x 7" x 7"
Date:
2020
Flower Vase
Medium & Materials:
Earthenware
Measurements:
12" x 12" x 12"
Date:
2020
Flow (Blue)
Medium & Materials:
Handbuilt Mid Temperature Clay and Glaze
Measurements:
25.5" x 22" x 7"
Date:
2021
sacred/profane #2
Medium & Materials:
Porcelain
Measurements:
19" x 16" x 6"
Date:
2019
Nesting Set
Medium & Materials:
Porcelain
Measurements:
3" x 10" x 10"
Date:
2019
Philadelphia Freedom: Remembering 2006
Medium & Materials:
Porcelain, AMACO underglaze, transfer
Date:
2020
Description:
Philadelphia Freedom was created in remembrance of my time as a Resident Artist at The Clay Studio in Philadelphia, PA from 2006-2009. The body of the piece is reminiscent of the Century (Centennial) Vase which was created for the U.S. Centennial Expo which was held in Philly in 1976. Philadelphia Freedom honors one of our Founding Fathers, known as the nation’s first gay friendly ambassador, maker, inventor and entrepreneur. 2006 marked Franklin’s 300th birthday known as the tercentenary. He aided with escapes from prosecution and also printed the first homoerotic publication. His quote “Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn” hits home for me personally as well as professionally.
Study of a Man's Head
Medium & Materials:
Egyptian Paste, Chicken Wire, Wood, Wood Ash
Measurements:
9.5" x 5" x 7"
Date:
2019
Description:
In my time at The Clay Studio, I explored the properties of Egyptian Paste and other low-fire “clay-like” mixtures. I was curious to arrive at a fired material that was self-glazing, and in a way, self-resolving. To my surprise, my first tests produced a paste that scummed and changed well after firing. As an artist who is enamored more with clay than kilns, I was happy to discover a fired material that was still volatile and active post-firing. Small Study of a Man’s Head is one of many initial works where I explored building with unpigmented Egyptian Paste on a wire armature. The man’s worried expression, coupled with expressive cracks, humorously points to the piece’s inherent experimental nature. While I made the difficult decision to leave The Clay Studio in light of the pandemic, the knowledge I accrued through myriad tests and exploration has continued to fuel my studio practice.
After Nightfall
Medium & Materials:
Porcelain, egyptian paste
Measurements:
18" x 18" x 5"
Date:
2020
Sol 01
Medium & Materials:
Stoneware, cone six glaze
Measurements:
10.5”x10.5”x10.5”
Date:
2020
Description:
My time spent during the artist-in-residency program gave me the confidence to experiment, take risks, and expand on the core concepts of my art practice. That duration of concentrated focus helped me find and establish a concrete voice for my work, as well as in the larger ceramic field. The Clay Studio’s support took me to unknown places, in the sculptures I produced, as well as abroad to research my interests in pop-culture, fantasy, myth, and geology during a two month trip in the summer of 2018. My current artwork series is a merger of the experiences I had traversing the vast and ominous lava-flow and glacial landscapes of Iceland and living currently in the overwhelmingly brick-walled architecture and often cacophonously filled downtown Philadelphia.
The Stairs Are Your Mentor of Things to Come
Medium & Materials:
Ceramic, plastic, rubber
Measurements:
10" x 6" x 4"
Date:
2020
Description:
Everything is Waiting for You
Poem By David Whyte
Your great mistake is to act the drama
as if you were alone. As if life
were a progressive and cunning crime
with no witness to the tiny hidden
transgressions. To feel abandoned is to deny
the intimacy of your surroundings. Surely,
even you, at times, have felt the grand array;
the swelling presence, and the chorus, crowding
out your solo voice. You must note
the way the soap dish enables you,
or the window latch grants you freedom.
Alertness is the hidden discipline of familiarity.
The stairs are your mentor of things
to come, the doors have always been there
to frighten you and invite you,
and the tiny speaker in the phone
is your dream-ladder to divinity.
Put down the weight of your aloneness and ease into the
conversation. The kettle is singing
even as it pours you a drink, the cooking pots
have left their arrogant aloofness and
seen the good in you at last. All the birds
and creatures of the world are unutterably
themselves. Everything is waiting for you.
Tennis Wreath 1
Medium & Materials:
Porcelain
Measurements:
8" x 9" x 5"
Description:
Wreath I is representative of my time as a resident at The Clay Studio. The residency program has allowed me to work in two drastically different modes. I've been able to explore in depth and produce a new body of work yet at the same time have been able to experiment and try new things. Wreath I is a great culmination of this process. It represents a past body of work where I cast my father's tennis trophies and explored ideas of family history, sportsmanship, success, and failure. This piece also specifically nods to a moment when some figurines fell over in the kiln and stuck together producing a 'happy accident'. This moment opened my eyes to letting go of control in my process and accepting the unknown.
Red-headed Cheesepecler
Medium & Materials:
Low-fire Ceramic
Measurements:
20" x 21" x 14"
Date:
2020
Slow Air
Medium & Materials:
Laguna 20g clay. Custom slips and glaze
Measurements:
24" x 24" x 24"
Date:
2020
Untitled
Medium & Materials:
Ceramics & nail
Measurements:
variable
Date:
2020
Description:
My time at TCS residency enabled me to continue with my object-making practice all the while allowing me to question the value of hand-made objects and their effectiveness as a means of communication. I consider my work a visual memorandum for something I cannot adequately articulate in written language. Looking at the piece in the future will bring back the memories of the year 2020 along with all the emotions too complex to process yet.
Jar
Medium & Materials:
Stoneware, slip, glaze
Measurements:
29" x 15" x 15"
Date:
2019
Chasing a White Rabbit
Medium & Materials:
Stoneware
Measurements:
12" x 7" x 7"
Date:
2020
Lamp
Medium & Materials:
Porcelain, wire, lamp parts
Measurements:
30" x 9" x 9"
Background Artifact 3 (Adansonia, Manoa)
Medium & Materials:
3D printed and hand built stoneware, glaze
Date:
2019
Green Tara
Medium & Materials:
Blanc de Chine Porcelain, underglaze, glaze, jadeite, tassels
Measurements:
24" x 12" x 12"
Date:
2019
Description:
This work, “Greenest Tara” is made of vibrantly painted (with underglaze) cast Blanc de Chine porcelain produced at Master Lin Studio in Dehua, China during with the assistance of slip casting specialists during my International Contemporary Ceramics Residency. During this residency, it was my honor to learn large scale mold making and porcelain casting techniques from highly skilled factory studio workers. The entire residency of three months in China was completely mind blowing on the daily, thereby creating “future memories” that I will recall and share with others for the rest of my life- that is literally how life altering this ceramic cultural experience was for me.
Upon arrival back in Philly after this magical experience, I headed directly to one of my favorite places in the world, the Clay Studio to meet with curator of exhibitions Jennifer Zwilling to propose ideas for a residency in which I would create a mini factory to produce hundreds of tiny tea cups, an exhibition of an installation of the cups combined with artworks brought back from china made from the beautifully exquisite glowingly luminous white jade-like porcelain, including life like porcelain peony flowers, and an Artist’s Tea Talk with a flower making workshop titled “Flower Power”.
For me, the creative process becomes reality when inspiration takes form; summer of 2019 the residency occurred and in September the rest of the proposal unfolded thankfully with the assistance of innumerable staff and artists.
Greenest Tara, or “Alien Guan Yin” as I lovingly nicknamed her, was the anchor piece of the niche room installation entitled “Tea Housing”. This reminiscently alien looking head is symbolic of the mind and greater thinking, mental creation. What we think, we create. From her dripped hundreds of individual ceramic works that ebbed, flowed, and swirled around the space infinitely reflected in the mirrors covering the walls. At the heart of this is the idea that all creation comes from the mind, flows through the heart and out through the hands creating these forms called art. Some of these forms were tea cups, plates and bowls. All that which sustains life; tea, water, food.
Green Tara is a goddess, known as Mother Earth, representing the eternal life force that fuels all life who overcomes obstacles and saves us from physical and spiritual danger. In Sanskrit the name Tara means Star and she was also called She Who Brings Forth Life, the Great Compassionate Mother, and The Embodiment of Wisdom, and the Great Protectress… one who can take human form and who remains in oneness with every living thing.
The star Green Tara symbolizes enlightenment through transformation if made with pure white porcelain found in the mountains of Fujian Provence, the same place that Buddhism was introduced to China by a monk from India. It has been more than a 25 year dream come true for me to visit China and make spiritual artworks with the most special of porcelains
Outer Space (Flat Tile Paintings)
Medium & Materials:
Porcelain, gold luster, Mother of Pearl Luster
Measurements:
1" x 7" x 9"
Date:
2020
Outer Space (Flat Tile Paintings)
Medium & Materials:
Porcelain, gold luster, Mother of Pearl Luster
Measurements:
1" x 7" x 9"
Date:
2020
Residency programs are ever changing organisms; each Resident has a singular experience during their tenure, each year brings a different array of returning and incoming Residents. In 2021 a major geographical change will forever alter The Clay Studio Resident Artist Program when the organization moves to a newly constructed edifice after 25 years in its current home. The current Resident Studios on the 4th floor of 137-139 N. 2nd Street in Old City Philadelphia will no longer house the artistic hopes and dreams of the 12 people chosen to embody the program each year. The memories and creative energy that have soaked into the structure will no longer be housed in that physical space.
For the exhibition Future Memories, we have asked current and former Clay Studio Resident Artists to create work that will serve as the new repository for thoughts and feelings that evoke their time in the program. Each will reflect on what the Residency meant to them, what expectations for the future did they have at the time? The Clay Studio Resident Program is intended to be a springboard to the next phase of the artists' careers. It is, by definition, a transformative time. How does each Resident remember their expectations of the future when they joined the program?
The work in the exhibition will explore the memories of being in that place of transformation and how the artists saw their path before they took their next journey. Clay is a medium that represents transformation by its very nature, it is inherent in its ability to change to a different state of matter through the application of an external energy source. The Resident Program represents the energy source, and the work made for Future Memories will explore the past and present perceptions of the transformation.
After a period of intentional transformation, what residue remains in the physical space, and is it possible to create a new vessel for that emotional resonance? When you can't go home again, how do you carry the essential seeds of change with you? Art is often used to evoke memories, to make solid the most ephemeral feelings. Future Memories will be a thought -provoking look at the artistic transformations of these 20 artists during their Residency and how their perception of that transformation has changed over time. The feelings they represent will be universally understandable.
The Clay Studio Resident Artist Program is one of the most highly regarded ceramic residencies in the world. The Clay Studio staff is dedicated to providing high quality engagement and exposure for each of the Residents during their tenure and beyond. We believe that these young artists represent some of the best ceramic art being made and that it deserves to be presented to the our community.
Join Candy Coated, Roberta Massuch, Andrea Marquis, and Julie York in conversation as we discuss their life in art and their time at The Clay Studio.
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