Meaning, Memory, and Material Expansion
By DAVID MORRISON @davidmorrison_
"Following the 2024 National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) National Juried Student Exhibition receptions and awards, Justice Catron and I found ourselves discussing the thematic currents surrounding us. Nearby were several works by peers who were integrating non-ceramic materials into ceramic-based practices. We began sharing aspects of our own studio practices, both of which are rooted in clay, while engaging environmental perspectives and personal histories through incorporating materials beyond ceramics to articulate conceptual frameworks within our work. During this conversation, we decided that a group exhibition should grow from the combination of our discussion and the works that surrounded us.
"These shared observations and conceptual intersections led us to propose an exhibition for the 2025 NCECA conference in Salt Lake City that highlighted materially-expansive, ceramic-oriented practices whose works incorporate non-ceramic materials to reveal and center narrative. Through their material choices, the artists speak to personal experiences, cultures, histories, identities, and environmental perspectives, expanding the possibilities of what ceramic practice can hold and communicate."
To read the full article, follow the link in our bio. All articles are free this month in celebration of NCECA and the spirit of community building. Consider becoming a member today to enjoy monthly access to incredible content like this.
Happy Monday with ceramic artist David Morrison aka. @davidmorrison_ , who we interviewed for print issue Nr. 55.
David’s practice engages with the layered narratives and potential embedded in our industrial waste, as he amasses a growing repository of foraged objects. Utilizing a multitude of ceramic processes, he creates a library of handmade objects to construct a visual world that reveals the concealed value in the junk we cohabitate with.
In our conversation with David, he told us about his path towards art and incorporating junk fragments into his practice, his connection to clay and the importance of literature as a source of information and inspiration, cultivating ecological awareness through art and using sites of abandonment as reflective spaces, current projects, the creative process, plans for the future, and more 🍂
We do recommend you find out more about David’s meaningful work - link to grab a printed or digital copy of Suboart Magazine Nr. 55 in the @suboartmagazine bio 🌿
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#junkart #artquotes #ecologicalart #sustainableart #artmag
In This Issue - Homeland and Materiality
By editor-at-large VINCENT “SNIPER” FRIMPONG @sniper_ceramica
"When stories of African and international art are written, often the analysis is shared by someone with little time spent within these artists' homelands, who lacks understanding of lived experiences, and is removed from important cultural and social contexts. As an artist and educator from Africa, I feel it is vital to gather artists who are raised and rooted in African and international places to share our journeys within the ceramic arts. And for our discourse to be written with our stories at the forefront, because we are invested in the portrayal of our art practices, written and visual, to be for and by us. With respect to transparency, the authors Japheth Asiedu-Kwarteng, Teddy Osei, and Ross Junior Owusu are Ghanaian practitioners and scholars who have mobilized the knowledge and experiences of artists from Cameroon, Canada, Ghana, Iran, Nigeria, and South Africa. These authors highlight multiple international contemporary artists who showcase where they come from by adding to the intercontinental ceramic arts history, pedagogy, ceramic methods, and its future."
To read the full "In This Issue - Homeland and Materiality" by editor-at-large VINCENT “SNIPER” FRIMPONG follow the link in our bio.
All articles are free this month.
Beyond the Garden is a NCECA featured exhibition comprising 11 participating artists who examine botanical, geological, or environmental perspectives in relational to personal viewpoints, ecological crises, and ways of being to navigate and foster reciprocity and awareness.
This exhibition is co-organized by @ceramic_beans and myself. It will open Tuesday, March 24th @padzieskiartgallery
Hope to see you at the opening Friday, March 27th 6:00-8:00pm
#beyondthegarden #environment #ceramics #botanical #geological
Honored to be interviewed and included in issue no. 55 of @suboartmagazine ✨ I had a blast responding in the interview and was really generative! You can find the publication linked in my bio! Check out the article to read the interview and see many other wonderful artists highlighted and featured in the publication!
#ceramics #traversingtheanthropocene #collage #junkyardperspective #iceout
Micro-landscape (0046)
Clay Currents curated by @michael_takahata opened yesterday @hatcharthamtramck and will be on view until March 27th! If you’re in Detroit please stop by and see all the incredible glowing works on display!
Clay Currents is an exploration of form, light and energy, an exhibition where ceramics holds physical space, and neon defines it. At its core, this show is about balance: of the delicate equilibrium between tradition and innovation, structure and fluidity, and the forces that shape both our identity and our environment. Ceramics offers weight, form, and a tactile sense of presence, while neon illuminates the intangible, humming with energy.
In bringing together these two materials, the exhibition reflects the ways in which we seek balance within ourselves and the world around us. It highlights the unseen and unpredictable forces, (physical, emotional, and environmental), that influence who we are, how we live, and how we understand our place in the world.
Through the interplay between ceramics and neon, we find space to reflect on how the forces shaping our identities are intricately linked to our environment. This exhibition invites us to explore how opposing energies come together to create something new, something that speaks to both our personal histories and collective futures.
A glimmer in the waste stream
Two dollars collected as you pass through the turnstile. Amidst a sea of parted out cars with dripping automotive fluids forming pools and lakes in the red dirt of the yard. Finding a glimmer reflecting back at you amongst the piles, heaps, and rows of vehicles awaiting their fate with the compactor as they provide homes for birds and other animals. Wild flowers popping up as real life junk yard mirages. Life reclaiming slowly. A glimmer of resilience and hope amongst the ever flowing waste stream.
#traversingtheanthropocene #ceramics #care #deepmaterialism #iceout
A couple new core sample pots out of the kiln. I am slowly working on building some new inventory for an upcoming shop update while making sculptures and some new works that have been percolating in my mind and sketchbook for some time now!
This upcoming update will have some candle holders, mugs, pedestal bowls, and as always some cups! Shop update will be February 10th at 12:00pm eastern! ✨
Almost an object… some recent material testing and near misses. As I continue to make the micro-landscapes, I am continually thinking about how the objects are presented and what they live on. Leading me to think about tables and glaze as a building material as I pursue making glaze table legs for coffee tables.
#craft #traversingtheanthropocene #ceramics #objectmaker #glazetableleg
Illuminated Landscape, 2025
woodfired stoneware, glaze scrapes, colored grog, neon, electricity, silicon, epoxy
This sculptural neon lamp adds a warm glow to any shelf, table, or room it lives in. Informed by the landscapes I inhabit and junkyards I visit this lamp sheds light on a clay and glaze surface that visually embodies the toxicity of these frequented spaces of discard and waste.
This illuminated landscape sculptural lamp is off to its new home today!
#traversingtheanthropocene #ceramics #neonlight #environment #junkperspective
A lil preview of some of the pots that will be in today’s shop update! The update goes live at 1:00pm eastern!
#ceramics #smallbusiness #craft #clayistheway #potsonpotsonpots
