2020 NCECA Juried Student Exhibition

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This exhibition is presented by NCECA in cooperation with:

2020 NCECA Juried Student Exhibition Award Sponsors Aardvark Clay Purchase Award Elmer Craig Merit Award KBH Merit Award Mudtools Merit Award  Smith-Sharpe Fire Brick Supply Merit Award Studio Potter Merit Awards NCECA Graduate Award for Excellence 1st, 2nd, 3rd NCECA Undergraduate Award for Excellence 1st, 2nd, 3rd Š 2020 NCECA (National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts) All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without prior permission of the publisher.

Cover Image: Andy Romero, Cocos Spathodea campanulata, 2017 Title Page Image: Christopher Williams, An Excerpt From the Garden: A Good Day, 2019 Catalogue Design: Candice Finn Projects Manager: Kate Vorhaus

www.nceca.net

2020 NJSE Participating Artists Collyn Ahren | Parsons Fine Arts

Brian McNamara | Tyler School of Art, Temple University

Isolina Alva

Elinore Noyes | Kansas City Art Institute

| Maryland Institute College of Art

Chris Alveshere Audrey An

| Alfred University

| Pennsylvania State University

Kayla Barta

| Indiana University

Harrison Boden

| Northwest Missouri State University

Danielle O’Malley | University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth Jada Patterson | Kansas City Art Institute Luciano Pimienta | San Diego State University Gina Pisto | Ohio University

Aisha Bryant | University of Arkansas

Jinblossom Plati | Kansas City Art Institute

Aaron Caldwell

Samantha Purze | Indiana University Southeast

Uriel Caspi Hoi Chang

| Illinois State University

| Alfred University | California College of the Arts

Sydney Clark Emily Connell

| Kansas City Art Institute | Ohio University

Torie Dombrowski Lukas Easton

| Alfred University

Danielle Hawk Donte’ Hayes

| Towson University

| University of Iowa

Max Henderson Emily Irvin

| Buffalo State University

| Pennsylvania State University

| University of Colorado, Boulder

Andy Romero | University of Washington Jessica Sanders | University of Texas at Tyler Hunter Saxton | Kansas City Art Institute Joshua Schutz | Alfred University Jamin Shepherd | University of Texas at Tyler Lilah Shepard | University of Texas at Tyler Brittany Sparks | East Tennessee State University Hailey Stammer | Alfred University Kourtney Stone | Georgia State University RJ Sturgess | Georgia State University

Jennifer Kaplan | University of Notre Dame

Megan Thomas | Utah State University

Katie Kearns | Louisiana State University

Jessica Villegas | University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley

Cindy Leung | University of Florida

Christopher Williams | University of Arkansas

Janet Macias | East Los Angeles College

Dallas Wooten | Ohio University

Nicole McLaughlin | Kansas City Art Institute

ChengOu Yu | Alfred University

Heather McLelland | East Carolina University

Matthew Zorn | Louisiana State University

• Graduate • Post-baccalaureate • Undergraduate

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Juror Statement | Salvador Jiménez-Flores First of all, I would like to thank all the students who summited an application to the 2020 NCECA Juried Student Exhibition. I applaud everyone for applying and believing in your work. It is a privilege and a responsibility to be part of the jury committee. This has allowed me to see a survey of the wonderful work that is being created in ceramics. The task of a juror is not easy; one needs to go through hundreds of images and artists’ statements and our goal is to select a few pieces that stand out aesthetically, conceptually, and for being technically well crafted. Additionally, we need to select pieces that reflect the contemporary clay community. For this jury selection I shared the platform with Virginia Scotchie, we are both artists and educators with different backgrounds and experiences. Naturally we didn’t agree on everything but we were open and learned from one another and agreed on the final selection. From my perspective, the role of a juror is not just about selecting what one likes or dislikes but rather is to be open to the wide range of conventional and unconventional ways artists approach ceramics.

If you made it into the show, don’t get comfortable, keep creating and continue to push your work forward. If you did not make it into the show, do not get discouraged. Use this energy to create more work, reflect on your work, and continue to apply for this and other opportunities. Always believe in your work and the message you want to project as an artist and do it. A huge thanks to Ashlyn Pope, Kate Vorhaus, Ellie Weber, Brett Binford, and Joshua Green for their support throughout the process.

Salvador Jiménez-Flores is an interdisciplinary artist born and raised in Jalisco, México. He explores the politics of identity and the state of double consciousness. Jiménez-Flores addresses issues of colonization, migration, “the other”, and futurism by producing a mixture of socially conscious installation, public, and studio-based art.

His work spans from drawing, ceramics, prints, and mixed media sculpture. Jiménez-Flores has presented his work at the National Museum of Mexican Art, Grand Rapids Art Museum, Urban Institute of Contemporary Art, Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, and the Museum of Art and Design amongst others. He served as Artist-In-Residence for the city of Boston, Harvard Ceramics Program, Office of the Arts at Harvard University, and Kohler Arts Industry. Jiménez-Flores is a recipient of Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors Grants and The New England Foundation for the Arts. He is an Assistant Professor in ceramics at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Juror Statement | Virginia Scotchie I very much enjoyed this opportunity to serve as one of the jurors for the 2020 NCECA Juried Student Exhibition. It is always refreshing to see what is happening in the studios of contemporary students in ceramics and to observe how the concepts, technology and processes of ceramics are changing and evolving over time. It was wonderful to view so many works from student ceramic artists who have a vast range of processes and styles, which highlight the immense diversity in the ceramic community.

I asked myself a number of questions as I looked at each work; did the work have visual impact, was the work well composed and well designed? What was the work about, did the artist seem to have a clear sense of what they were communicating and what the work was expressing? It was hard to choose from so many excellent student works submitted.

I would like to thank my fellow Juror and the NCECA Board Members for their hard work in organizing the exhibition and arranging the digital viewing of the images for us to do our part as jurors.

I would like to commend all the artists for entering this exhibition. Making art is hard…. taking the next steps to get your work out in the world and entering exhibitions is hard. I encourage all the artists who entered the exhibition to never stop working, exploring, and getting your work out into the world.

Virginia Scotchie, is Head of Ceramics at the University of South Carolina School of Visual Art and Design in Columbia, South Carolina. She holds a BFA in ceramics from University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and completed her MFA at Alfred University in New York. Exhibited throughout the United States and abroad, Scotchie has received numerous awards including the Sydney Meyer Fund International Ceramics Premiere Award from the Shepparton Museum (Australia) and the Visual Art Award from SouthArts for 2019. She has lectured internationally and been an Artist in Residence in Taiwan, France, Italy, China, Australia, Denmark, and the Netherlands. Her work is in numerous public and private collections including the Yingge Ceramics Museum (Taiwan), the FuLe International Ceramic Art Museum (China), and the Asheville Art Museum in her home town of Asheville, North Carolina. Scotchie’s sculptural ceramics are abstracted from domestic objects and pottery, often considering the relationships between multiple parts to pieces into what she envisions as a middle ground between the concrete reality of things made and their resulting meaning.

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Venue Statement | artspace artspace formed in 1988 as a non-profit gallery and performance space run by artist members and continues to this day to operate on that unique basis. From its start the gallery has drawn its strength and staying power from the commitment of those members to mount exhibitions that bring contemporary visual and performance art to a wide Richmond audience.

With soaring ceilings and five distinct gallery spaces, artspace offers a premier exhibition space in Richmond for visual art in all media, video, film, performance, and site specific installation.

An open application process for exhibition opportunities attracts artists nationally to its five gallery spaces – the Main Gallery, the Frable Gallery, the Helena Davis Gallery, smallspace, and the Suzanne Foley Gallery. artspace is open and free to the public Tuesday through Sunday, noon to 4pm. A gallery talk on the Sunday afternoon that closes every exhibition is free and open to the public as are Fourth Friday openings (every month except December).

The gallery’s mission to promote the understanding and awareness of contemporary visual and performance art is made possible by its dedicated artist members, community volunteers, and through contributions from the community. artspace welcomes the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) 2020 to Richmond, Virginia. The ceramic work selected for the NCECA Juried Student Exhibition truly exemplifies our mission to bring the very best contemporary works embracing new techniques, materials, and visual explorations into our galleries. We extend congratulations to the artists and welcome to the ceramic arts community.

NCECA Student Directors At Large | Ashlyn Pope & Eliza Webber The NCECA Juried Student Exhibition each year provides an opportunity for students across North America to show some of their best work. It is a chance for each student’s work to be seen by the largest, most diverse and concentrated group of ceramic makers, thinkers, and exhibitors. It is an opportunity unlike any other.

The call for entries for the 2020 exhibition resulted in a record number of applicants in which 314 students from all levels submitted. Of all the pieces presented, 50 were selected for the exhibition from 48 artists. This exhibition is a sample of the type of work being produced by students at this very moment in time. We feel it is important to acknowledge that the students that are eligible to apply for this opportunity all attend colleges and universities in North America, however, these works represent individuals from many different cultural backgrounds, all with a variety of paths that have led them to and from this occasion. This is our moment to applaud all of the students with work selected. Congratulations on a job well done!

Overall, the quality of work submitted this year provided a challenge, as jurors Salvador JimĂŠnez-Flores and Virginia Scotchie narrowed down over 900 images to pieces they both believe best represented the way students are thinking and making across the continent. All the applicants, whether in the exhibition this year or not, deserve recognition. Thank you all for your research and time put into developing your pieces, as it is your work that will carry our field into the future. We encourage you to continue showing exactly the kind of makers, thinkers, and innovators you all are.

Welcome to Richmond!

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Collyn Ahren, Speedbag Series, 2019 Wood-fired porcelain 20” x 66” x 7”

Isolina Alva, Cheese!, 2019 Stoneware 11” x 17” x 15”

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Chris Alveshere, Gridded Set, 2019 Earthenware 9.5” x 7” x 22”

Audrey An, Extruded & Multiplied, 2019 Ceramics and laser-cut Plexiglass 35” x 35” x 8”

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Kayla Barta, Old Stomping Grounds, 2019 Porcelain and underglaze 7” x 4.5” x 13”

Harrison Boden, Watering My Femininity, 2019 Ceramic, faux fur, astroturf, plaster, concrete, and pc-11 9” x 13” x 8”

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Aisha Bryant, dezentegre ii (disintegrate ii), 2019 Earthenware and glazes 5” x 18” x 20”

Aaron Caldwell, Twin Ballerinas, 2019 Ceramics 17” x 6” x 7”

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Uriel Caspi, Triptych in Blue, 2019 White stoneware and engobe 35” x 27.5” x 1.5” each panel

Hoi Chang, bubble 27, 2019 Ceramics 13” x 18” x 15”

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Sydney Clark, Erosion Plates, 2018 Ceramic 13” x 13” x 6” Photo credit: Max Wagner

Sydney Clark, Hungarian Wildflower Cup, 2019 Porcelain clay and slip 4.5” x 4.5” x 4” Photo credit: Max Wagner

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Emily Connell, The New Columbia Encyclopedia; (white), 2018 Porcelain, ashes of a book, and gypsum 12” x 19” x 7.5” Photo credit: E.G. Schempf

Torie Dombrowski, Anthozoa, 2018 Textured stoneware 32” x 36” x 13”

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Lukas Easton, Urban Strata, 2017 Ceramic 62” x 33” x 33” Photo credit: Elizabeth Lamark

Danielle Hawk, Disassembled Lidded Jar Set, Majority Purple and Majority Blue, 2019 Colored porcelain 13” x 8” x 8” and 13” x 7.5” x 7.5”

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Donte’ Hayes, Feed, 2019 Black stoneware 9” x 8” x 8”

Max Henderson, Wine Cup, 2019 Porcelain 4” x 3” x 3”

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Emily Irvin, Valley, 2018 Unfired porcelain, women’s hair, and bees wax 46” x 20” x 34.5”

Jennifer Kaplan, Temporal Instability, 2019 Stoneware 10” x 12.5” x 3.5”

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Katie Kearns, White House, 2019 Stoneware, slip, and underglaze 5” x 5” x 2”

Cindy Leung, People Talk, 2019 Ceramic, enamel paint, and nail polish 21” x 15” x 5”

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Janet Macias, Eres Muxer, 2017 Porcelain, colored slips, and glazes 12” x 14.5” x 4.5”

Nicole McLaughlin, La Reflejo, 2019 Ceramic, majolica glaze, and thread 84” x 36” x 12” Photo credit: Max Wagner

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Heather McLelland, Egg Mixing Bowl for One, 2019 Wood- and soda-fired, white stoneware mixed in with Hurricane Florence sand from Kinston, North Carolina 3” x 6.5” x 2.75”

Brian McNamara, Legendary Luchador Montaña Desierto Commemorative Figurine, 2018 Terra cotta and underglaze 8.5” x 4” x 2” Photo credit: Andrew Castenada

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Elinore Noyes, Blue Bust, 2017 Ceramics and enamel 16” x 17” x 9” Photo credit: Max Wagner and Megan Pobywajlo

Danielle O’Malley, In the Forest, 2019 Porcelain, upcycled plastic, and eco-print 30” x 24” x 5”

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Jada Patterson, Considerations of the Black Body, 2017 Slip cast porcelain, luster, and kanekalon hair 5” x 11” x 6” each Photo credit: Archive Collective

Luciano Pimienta, Fallen Fruit, 2019 Terra cotta, wire, drywall screws, glass containers, and liquid 68” x 63” x 60”

Gina Pisto, zhostovo tray XIII, 2019 Stoneware 17” x 12” x 4”

Jinblossom Plati, Sky, 2019 Clay and glaze 30” x 17” x 5.5”

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Samantha Purze, Roof Addendum, 2019 Terra cotta, MDF, and interior paint 23” x 20” x 10”

Andy Romero, Cocos Spathodea campanulata, 2017 Stoneware, porcelain, paint, and hardware 28” x 31” x 31”

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Jessica Sanders, Stack, Layer, Cover, 2019 Porcelain, stoneware, and wire 33” x 27” x 4”

Hunter Saxton, Step Stool, 2019 Clay, underglaze, and glaze 9” x 10” x 9” Photo credit: Max Wagner and Megan Pobywajlo

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Joshua Schutz, The Birth of Me, 2019 Ceramics 11” x 5” x 4”

Jamin Shepherd, Imaginary Landscapes 027, 2019 Stoneware, underglaze, glaze, and copper luster 4” x 6.5” x 4”

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Lilah Shepherd, Bend, Flip, Pivot, 2019 Stoneware and underglaze 8� x 13.12� x 10.75

Brittany Sparks, Chromostereopsis, 2019 Ceramic, steel, iron, MDF, paint, and resin 38” x 40” x 4” (18” x 12” x 4” each) Photo credit: Meg Roussos

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Hailey Stammer, Umbral Twistings, 2019 Ceramic, glaze, and paint 23” x 18” x 18”

Kourtney Stone, Great-Grandpa Darrell the Magnanimous, 2019 Earthenware, glass, found object, underglaze, wax, and resin 35” x 14” x 13”

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Kourtney Stone, Bodily Memories From My Mom’s Side, 2019 Earthenware, glass, found objects, textiles, underglaze, and wax 52” x 16” x 22”

RJ Sturgess, That time my mom told me if it weren’t for me she would have, 2019 Stoneware, glaze, fur, lumber, and hardware 22” x 35” x 28”

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Megan Thomas, Let me tell you a secret / I’ll put it in your mind, 2019 Wood-fired stoneware 7” x 20” x 6”

Jessica Villegas, La Perseveranica, 2019 Ceramic 29” x 24” x 24” (18” x 12” x 4” each) Photo credit: Raheleh T. Filsoofi

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Christopher Williams, An Excerpt From the Garden: A Good Day, 2019 Stoneware and maiolica glaze 42” x 18” x 18”

Dallas Wooten, Patterned Urn, 2019 Colored porcelain 18” x 8” x 8”

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ChengOu Yu, shadow archetype, 2018 Ceramic 24” x 22” x 18”

Matthew Zorn, Dim Visions, 2019 Clay, glaze, and wood base 6.5” x 5.5” x 3”

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Some of you reading this may recall a sense of chilling atmosphere in the grand hall of the Minneapolis Convention Center when 2019 NCECA keynote speaker and environmental activist Winona LaDuke urged that the time to reconsider our relationship with the natural world had already past. Through images and stories of Water Protectors, she urged us to understand that the time to put our bodies and minds between the paths of pipelines and the sacred place of our planet was now. Just a few days following the conference, at dawn in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, cyclist Rahmin Pavlovic noticed a plume of black smoke on the horizon and pedaled toward it. He soon came upon a charred circle of earth, at its center, the still-burning body of activist and attorney David Buckel who had the consideration in his final protest to leave a note apologizing for the mess and the foresight to message we who inhabit a future he chose not to know. “Here is a hope that giving a life might bring some attention to the need for expanded actions, and help others give a voice to our home, and Earth is heard.” The first week of April 2019 saw the publication of Richard Powers’ The Overstory, a novel of profoundly innovative form and plot revolving around the common ancestry of trees and humans.

Here we are, now, in Richmond, less than one year later. 20/20 is a term we use to describe clarity of vision.

It derives from the sense of acuity of sight at a distance of 20 feet. Contrary to popular belief, the numerical term doesn’t mean that a person has perfect vision, rather it alludes solely to sharpness at a vantage point of some distance. Other capacities of equal importance to vision include peripheral awareness, side vision, eye coordination, depth perception, and color distinction. The 2020 NCECA Juried Student Exhibition is perhaps the most essential experience of the organization’s annual conference that celebrates vision while looking toward the future. The vernacular of ceramic art, is filled with metaphors of the body. We describe vessel forms as having feet, shoulders, lips, bodies, and bellies. We talk about breath when describing volume and skin when considering surface. We rely on this next generation of clay workers to sustain this deep inter-relationship with clay to connect our notions of humanity with a state of beingness belonging to all life forms. With every passing day, the historic tropes of body metaphor become re-configured. As we gaze into the future, striving to do so with clarity, awareness of our carbon footprints exerts pressure on consciousness. While past NCECA supported exhibitions have explored environmental themes (2010’s Earth Matters and 2013’s Uncommon Ground come to mind), the works collected here indicate that young artists are working with clay and ceramic processes in ways that are not only striving to communicate vital concerns about the current precipice, but also negotiating ways of acting in sympathetic and empathetic modalities with materials that ultimately point to evolving notions of our art form, one that is inextricably linked with extraction and consumption of fossil fuels. However flawed

NCECA Acknowledgments | Brett Binford and Joshua Green we are in our vulnerabilities, they hold out hope that through them we can come into closer alignment with the world of which we are a part.

Our jurors for this year’s exhibition, Salvador Jiménez-Flores and Virginia Scotchie fill us with gratitude for bringing their diverse perspectives and richly informed experiences to the selection of works for the exhibition.

While our jurors were not tasked to evaluate the nearly 1,000 images submitted by makers pursuing studies in higher education ceramics programs throughout the United States, Mexico, and Canada through any particular thematic criteria, works throughout the exhibition train a clarity of vision on our tenuous connection to and with the natural world. On behalf of NCECA, we also wish to express gratitude to our friends at artspace for sharing their space and kindness to make a home for this exhibition in the heart of Richmond’s cultural landscape. We also appreciate the ArtWorks program of the National Endowment for the Arts for support of this exhibition and others surrounding the 2020 NCECA Conference.

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