The Clay Studio National is a biannual exhibition that showcases the wide range of ceramic art being made in the United States today.
Exhibition Dates: June 20th – August 2, 2020 – Reception, June 20th
IMPORTANT UPDATE: Due to the current situation we have made some changes to this year’s exhibition in order to best benefit artists.
Guest Juror
Lauren Sandler is the Assistant Professor and Program Head of Ceramics at Tyler School of Art, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA.
Sandler is an artist and educator whose work deconstructs mythologies and investigates narratives of power and perspective. With fragmented forms, allegorical vessels and mundane assemblages, Sandler amplifies interdependence, highlights stories obfuscated or erased and implicates our assumptions of normal and worth. With a background in anthropology, she examines the myriad chronicles told by objects and develops work where the visceral and structural meet a shared intersection of body, culture and history.
We are deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Dick Hay, who served as president of NCECA (1978-80). Dick has an extraordinary impact on contemporary ceramics as a maker and mentor. He retired from teaching after 40 years at Indiana State University, Terre Haute in 2006. In a 2014 update to his website, Hay wrote, “I can only add… I have been very fortunate in this journey. I don’t think that I have ever had a life’s plan. And I don’t think that I have asked for much. But I have received more than I could have ever envisioned. It has not been a one-hundred percent positive life. But it has been real close. And now. As a retired person. My life is truly different. I was cursed/blessed to express myself through making objects. And I feel obligated/driven/doomed/guilty if I don’t do this daily. I now work in my studio every day. Maybe for an hour. Maybe for twelve hours.”
This video is a step-by-step guide to using underglazes to add an illustrative design to your ceramics. I’ll show you how to create solid, opaque images as well as how to create watercolor techniques using underglazes. In this video I draw and paint flowers and whales onto a wheel thrown vase. Underglaze is my favorite way of decorating my pots! I love getting lost in the intricacies of the design and the repetition of the layering. It is not uncommon for a single pot to take me several days and even weeks to underglaze. The watercolor technique not only makes a beautiful design, it also significantly cuts down the span of time it takes to finish the underglaze because it does not require as many precise layers. This is my first video tutorial for clay and so I truly hope you enjoy it and will give me feedback! Happy Day!
Dhaka Art Summit 2020
Existence-emitting Movements
is an action in which a group
of women walk directly on an installation comprised
of hundreds of raw clay vessels in different shapes and sizes inspired by traditional cerâmica traditions of Bangladesh. Most cultures, including those of the artist’s native Mexico as well as Bangladesh, perpetuate the iconic image of a woman bearing a vessel on her head to transport water or food; a symbol of the hard domestic labour weighing down women in society. Héctor Zamora disrupts the order of things by placing the vessel not upon the women’s heads, but rather beneath their feet.
By inverting the equation, what occurs is a shared space of liberation where women can turn the tide of patriarchy and recover pleasure in their lives.
Text by Diana Campbell Betancourt
Dhaka Art Summit and Samdani Art Foundation
