Clay Art Center is thrilled to present Finding The Center, an exhibition of work from Clay Art Center’s historic pottery collection. This exhibition is presented concurrently with Made in Earnest: Ceramic Work by Jon Townley, a solo exhibition of handmade ceramic sculpture and pottery and the inaugural show in Clay Art Center’s Curator’s Choice series.
Finding The Center captures a snapshot of the earliest days of Clay Art Center: who was here, what they were making, and, perhaps most importantly, the convictions that lay at the heart of their work. In creating a cooperative studio dedicated to the advancement of ceramic art, the founding collective of Clay Art Center reflected wider cultural currents that would come to define the mid-century, and laid the groundwork for a stronghold of ceramics education and access that continues its work nearly seven decades later.
This exhibition features pottery from the Clay Art Center’s historic collection that has been little-shown in the past, in addition to archival documents that illuminate the thoughts and hopes of the intrepid artists who made them. The work in this collection is often still germinal, sometimes even unrecognizable in respect to many of the artists’ later, celebrated output.
Grounded in the objects on display, the exhibition will tell the story of those who came before, their impact on this place and the world of ceramics, and how Clay Art Center students and artists stand on the shoulders of giants.
Featured Artists: Viola Frey, Toshiko Takaezu, Makoto Yabe, F. Carlton Ball, Harding Black, Trude Petri-Raben, Ted Randall, Jeff Schlanger, Rene Murray, Katherine Choy, and Henry Okamoto.
Clay Art Center Gallery Mission
The Clay Art Center Gallery provides a platform for emerging and established artists to explore a wide range of topics that address materials, processes, and techniques, and to engage in critical dialogue through clay. We are committed to exhibiting a variety of work from artists around the country with unique and diverse backgrounds, as well showcasing our Clay Art Center artists and students.
Clay Art Center History
In 1957, Clay Art Center was first opened as an artists cooperative by Katherine Choy and Henry Okamoto, who imagined - and created - a place “to promote the art of clay–ceramics and sculpture–as culture on an advanced level... To encourage clay artists–potters and sculptors–... in advanced research in the art of clay, and to provide promising young clay artists ...a period of time to study independently in order to cultivate themselves into more mature artists.” First located at 49 Beech Street, a few doors down from our present day location at 40 Beech Street, Katherine and Henry provided the opportunity for fertile minds to come together and share their love, resources and passion for clay.
