This article originally appeared in our June/July 2016 print issue.

Illustration by Jan Šabach

The popularity of ceramics is on the rise. Both established artists and novices “discovering” the medium are popping up all over the place, which doesn’t surprise me in the least. For one, clay is the original open-source media: it is a viscous lump of mud with which anyone can record action, express creativity, and tell their story. For two, ceramics is old, really old: the first known fired clay object—the Venus of Dolní Věstonice, a 4½-inch-tall female figure discovered in Moravia (Czech Republic)—is about 32,000 years old.

In North America, people have been firing clay pots for over 20,000 years, but what we picture when we think about American ceramics, particularly in New England, is probably something European-influenced and less than 300 years old. Maybe you’ve seen a beige stoneware jug donning a swiftly painted cobalt-blue flower, or a statuesque vase covered in a thick, matte, “Gruby-green” glaze, or that collection of commemorative plates hanging on the wall in your grandmother’s house? Each of these examples is part of a historical lineage of skill, knowledge, and cultural signifiers that has been passed along from generation to generation and traded across cultures since Ms. Věstonice was formed.

Roberto Lugo, Ol’ Dirty Bastard (ODB), 2015, porcelian, glaze, china paint, 11.5 x 11.5 x 21.5 in | Photo by Kenek Photography, courtesy of Wexler Gallery

Today, ceramicists use the medium’s rich history and versatility to design both functional wares—everything from piggy banks to pendant lamps—and sculptural works of art, the most intriguing of which challenge our understanding of what “ceramics” is. Thus, they continue to build on a common, ancient language of materials and techniques, writing new chapters in the story of us. By “us” I don’t just mean the contemporary artists you’ll meet in the next few pages and their kin, I mean ALL of us—humankind.

Michael Boroniec

Molly Hatch

Hideaki Miyamura

Robert Lugo

Top photo detail from Illume, 2016 by Molly Hatch | Photo by John Polak

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The J Schatz studio, listed on the national register of historic places, was originally the dye house for the Weybosset Mills in Olneyville, Rhode Island—a neighborhood of Providence mentioned over and over again in conjunction with things that are new, interesting, and just plain cool happening in PVD. Jim Schatz and Peter Souza of the J Schatz design and ceramics studio are major contributing representatives.

The two met in Florida three years ago, and later moved Schatz’s studio from Upstate NY to Los Angeles. But, as Souza remarks, “We felt really isolated in the city, so we took a trek last October and we scoured New England and the Berkshires looking for a community to be a part of. We fell in love with Providence; we found this gorgeous building that we were able to work and live in.” It is an ideal spot for them, with the roots they’ve put down, and are expanding upon, exhibiting their commitment to the area. The 160-foot long tunnel of a brick building houses two live-in suites on one end, their production studio in the middle, and their own apartment in the back. A continuous line of dormer windows along the top stream in natural light.

“We found a really great community here of artists and designers and folks that really welcomed us,” affirms Schatz. “We found a nice place to be.”

J Schatz studio | Photo by J Schatz

All work happens on site. Schatz started his ceramics career with the Star Egg Nightlights that project astral spots of light into a room, and then kept moving that ovoid shape forward through his work. It shows up in the company’s outdoor products of polished, modern, and colorful bird houses and feeders. The lighting line features table lamps, pendants, and uplights, all made of high-quality materials: glossy, brightly colored ceramics and rough, metallic, urban stoneware. The Porcelana Uplights are a standout, translucent porcelain cylinders with a glossy interior that throws the warmest tones of pink or orange.

Form following function is evident in all of the J Schatz products. Everything is beautiful to look at and touch, but these are real usable products, down to the brutalist coffee maker. “That happened because there was a Chemex coffee maker in our studio that kept breaking,” says Schatz of the origin of that design. “This is before I met Peter. His first visit to the studio he’s like, ‘What’s that?’, and I said, ‘It’s this coffee maker that I made because I was so frustrated with the Chemex breaking.’ And he said, ‘This is something we should be making.’ It looks crudely made, but it’s actually very ergonomic and nice to use. It’s now a production piece.” The dark, craggy look of the set is precisely what everyone’s morning cup of coffee should look like.

Brutal Coffeemaker | Photo by J Schatz

The two have recently purchased yet more property in the neighborhood for their Airbnb stock: a cottage with a terrific view and outside space. It will get the full J Schatz makeover, everything from tableware to room dividers, to vases and bird baths. “We’re putting the finishing touches on two more rooms and we’ve outfitted it completely in J Schatz custom work and new pieces,” explains Schatz. “And we’re going to have a yard and a garden, too.” Expect more outdoor work and housewares from them in the coming season. “Peter and I have a vision that complements each other,” Schatz says. Souza agrees. “We’ve integrated our products into environments that other people can share.” It’s a real treat to be able to live among a design team’s work, and the environments that J Schatz creates are a treat indeed.

Porcelana Uplights | Photo by J Schatz

J Schatz – James Schatz and Peter Souza, principals
Providence, Rhode Island
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Top photo J Schatz exterior | Photo by J Schatz

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Matthew Towers did not imagine clay would be his muse. Originally from Poughkeepsie, New York, he studied theater at New York University, where he received his BFA. An ardent lover of the stage and deep history of classical performance, he originally pursued the flooded industry of acting in NYC in the 1990s. Finding more frustration than inspiration in that scene, Towers began taking classes to pique his interest in other creative fields; that’s when he discovered the visceral, malleable, and erotic motions of clay. “For me, when clay and porcelain are very wet, it has this ability to fall, to crumple in unexpected ways like hair or clothing on the floor,” he says. “I was taking these classes and fell in love with how it moved and felt. And later on, when I began to learn more about the science of it, glazing, firing, etcetera, I felt inspired and fascinated.”

Towers did not compromise his love for classical theater for pottery and sculpture—he fused them. His current body of work, Catastasis, is named after the third act of a Greek play, in which the climax of the play surrenders itself into a series of complications that set up the fourth act, the catastrophe. “I like that pottery and sculpture have this sort of long, mediated history like the theater,” he says. “During the Sung Dynasty, considered the golden era of ceramics, the Chinese were the only ones who knew how to fire and glaze porcelain. It took Europeans hundreds of years to figure it out.”

Catastasis Vase, Porcelain, 24 inches, 2015 | Photo by Nathan Carnes

The Catastasis series consists of sculptures that fold and bend in lines that are visually textural, but unexpectedly smooth to the touch. Towers sees them as the expressions of carefully manicured wigs, discarded clothing, and the body in motion. His sculptures reflect his interest in male sexuality, especially the ways that hair has historically represented changes in culture. In early European culture, for example, long hair represented male virility; later, men began wearing flamboyant wigs as an expression of wealth and fashion. For Towers, these shifts in hairstyle mark a subversive and historically relevant change in cultural perspectives about gender and sexuality. His use of soft pastel glazes, countering bold red, and rusty oranges, coalesce into something beautifully erotic, bold yet somehow fragile.

Outside of his sculptures, Towers also creates beautifully ornate and functional pottery such as bowls, cups, and plates that reflect his stylization that is both contemporary and classical. “I view making functional pottery as an extension of my need to decorate and ornament my surroundings—as a testimonial about who I am, who I want to be, and how I view the world,” he explains. His work stretches away from pottery as a traditional craft and highlights its capacity as functional fine art, believing that pottery has the capacity to be subversive, to reflect culture, and to challenge it via humor and hyperbolic expression. “I employ decadence, sensuality, humor, and flamboyance to toy with identity as well as the meaning of function.”

Catastasis Vase Form, Porcelain, 2016 | Photo by Matthew Towers

Matthew Towers is currently an Associate Professor of Ceramics at the Hartford Art School at the University of Hartford, where he teaches a range of classes including traditional pottery, abstract sculpture, and clay and glaze chemistry. His upcoming show, Reaction Bubble, opens at Real Art Ways in Hartford beginning March 4th, and is a collaborative project between Towers, interdisciplinary duo LoVid (Tali Hinkis and Kyle Lapidus), and choreographer Deborah Goffe.

Matthew Towers, sculptor
Hartford, CT
Website

Top photo Crush Bowl, porcelain, 15-inch diameter, 2015 | Photo by Roger Castonguay

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At Three Wheel Studio in Providence, Rhode Island, glossy finishes and dreamy colors dance and swirl over exquisite handcrafted ceramics. In addition to works by Chen, Three Wheel features beautiful creations in glass, wood, and metal by both local and out-of-state artisans. The whimsical pieces and thematic collections are delicious to the eyes: from trays and vases to the most perfectly imperfect tea kettles and mugs you’ll ever see, you’d be hard-pressed not to find something to suit your fancy. (Or, you know, your family’s fancy, as these one-of-a-kind items would make a darling holiday gift. Just look at those hand-painted birds with the puffy cheeks for crying out loud!)

Ceramic plate from the Flower, Birds and Berries series by Dwo Wen Chen

A RISD graduate and native of Taiwan, Chen injects his life story into each of his pieces, all of which are created on site. While the Flowers and Pigments collection is an extension of his graduate work, the Chicks and Roosters collection is an homage to his childhood, when his mother would hatch chickens in his sweater drawer. A regular old mug from the store around the corner definitely won’t come with a backstory half as charming as that.

The playful nature of Chen’s work—from the bright, youthful colors to the quirky shapes and sizes—is truly what sets Three Wheel Studio apart. It seems all the more delightful knowing that Chen only recently felt comfortable enough to call himself a studio potter. “It started one day when I opened up my kiln and found an almost perfect little tea bowl with just the right glaze,” he says. “To a potter, that was a perfect day.”

Dwo Wen Chen in his studio

Three Wheel Studio is located in Providence Rhode Island. Follow the studio on Facebook and Instagram.

Top photo stonware dinner plate | Handmade by Jun, $86 | All photos courtesy Three Wheel Studio website

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Past Take Magazine subjects and New England-based artists Lauren Fensterstock, Anna Hepler, and Roberto Lugo are among the 46 recipients of the prestigious United States Artists (USA) 2016 fellows. A panel of experts in music, theater, visual art, dance, and literature have the difficult task of choosing the winners, but they’ve once again risen to the occasion. In addition to being recognized and nominated by their peers in their respective artistic arenas, they are each awarded an ‘unrestricted’ financial reward of $50,000.

Blind Spot, 2015 | Photo by Mike Fleming

“By supporting American artists, USA is supporting creativity, free expression, and a strong diverse culture. Our Fellows cross all ages, ethnicities, and stages in their careers,” said United States Artists Interim President & CEO Sunny Fischer. “Each has a unique artistic voice that expands the creative environment of the United States. It is an honor to support these artists, contribute to their financial security, and to facilitate future works. We are encouraging the best of what American artists can achieve.”

Lauren Fensterstock | Forays and Follies, 2015 | Drexel University | Photo Constance Mensh

The Fellowships allow artists to use the unrestricted funds for whatever they need most, and so to take risks and push their careers forward. Although we’ll assume they’ll use some of it to attend the big party in Chicago celebrating all of the recipients. The 2016 USA Fellows will be celebrated at USA’s annual Artist Assembly in March 2017.

We’re so happy for all the artists on this list. Grants like these make it possible for artists to do their important work that ultimately builds creative communities that benefits all of us.

Steve Paxton and Vivian Beer – we’re looking forward to meeting you! Talk soon!

Top image Kenek Photography | Courtesy of the Wexler Gallery

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We all have our daily rituals with the mug loves of our lives. Whether it is a hodge-podge assortment of found cups from thrift stores or a beloved collection inherited from your grandmother, much of the day passes between a hot cup of coffee or tea. Portland, Maine potter Ayumi Horie wants you to fall in love with your mug all over again through a process she calls “slow activism”, believing that the power of ritual and dialogue can change the world.

Ayumi Horie | Photo courtesy of the artist

Horie stretches the imagination of ceramics beyond just functionality. She notes “growing up gay and half-Japanese in a very white and Catholic town in Maine, has given me a certain perspective that both straddles being an outsider and being privileged. I think I’m on the leading generational edge of how we as a country are becoming much more multi-cultural and hopefully much more accepting of difference. My work addresses vulnerability and embraces what it means to be human, regardless of race, gender, and culture.”

Her current passion is the collaborative project The Democratic Cup; a collection of thirty-two ceramic artists and illustrators coming together to inspire social change through design. Among the collaborators is Ayumi’s partner Nick Moen who also works in ceramics and pottery. The cups created are decorated with political activism imagery that hopes to encourage conversations based on mutual respect and understanding, and works to “inspire and reject the status quo”. All of the proceeds from the fundraiser will be donated to progressive organizations that are actively working to end oppression and bring about gender and social equality.

Ayumi’s own work is a fusion of individual creations such as mugs, plates, jars and other various earthenwares, as well as ongoing collaborative projects such as Portland Brick. Her pottery series White Pots (video above) is focused on slowing us down by creating images of white decals onto white pot surfaces which are “invisible unless you are up close, and even then they are impossible to read unless you handle the pot. Turning the pot lets the light catch the opalescent drawing….touch and holding them is integral to understanding what they are”.

Ayumi Horie is a potter and photographer living in Portland, Maine. To learn more about Ayumi, you can find her art and wisdom in many magical corners of the internet (Twitter and Instagram).

Top image courtesy of the artist

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For Indiana potter Justin Rothshank, working in clay is a form of social justice advocacy. This may not come as surprise to you if you’ve seen his hand-thrown, terra-cotta tableware donning images of pop culture and political celebrities such as Hillary Clinton, Abraham Lincoln, Justice Ginsberg, Beyoncé, Bernie Sanders, and Betty White. If you’ve seen his stoneware pottery, beautifully embellished with vintage-style flora and fauna imagery, you might have picked up on the anti-war tone of his poppy motifs. If his work is completely new to you, it’s my pleasure to make this introduction, and to invite you to meet him and see his work in person this month as he makes appearances throughout Massachusetts.

Stoneware pottery by Justin Rothshank | Photo courtesy Pinch Gallery

Ever since his first experience with ceramics, Justin’s work has reflected his conviction that pottery can be an agent of community building and social change not only through its use, but also through the process of creating it. His high-school teacher introduced him to firing pottery in a wood-fueled kiln. This kind of firing can last from one day to two weeks depending on the size of the kiln, and typically relies on a community of local potters, friends, and neighbors for assistance.

Justin fires his own wood-fueled kiln regularly. Firing this way allows the direct touch of flame on the clay, giving his pots rich, varied surfaces, which become the canvas – or landscape – for his imagery, which is applied as ceramic decals in an additional electric-kiln firing. For Justin, an equally important part of creating these beautiful objects is the rich, varied dialog of the people who gather to fire the kiln.

In the early 2000s, Justin and several other young artists founded The Union Project, a community clay studio, in Pittsburgh. Justin dedicated nine years to running this non-profit, which is still in operation today, and has given thousands of people an opportunity to connect to each other through ceramics and other arts.

Terracotta Presidential-ware by Justin Rothshank | Photo courtesy Pinch Gallery

While at The Union Project in 2007, Rothshank began his line of electric-kiln-fired “presidential ware,” just as the fervor of the 2008 election was on the rise. The vintage look of the soft-toned decals underscored the approachability of the wares despite its loaded (and appropriated) portraiture. Over the last eight years, he’s expanded his imagery to include other historical figures, celebrities, and pop culture iconography. As the next election looms, Justin’s utilitarian wares are ripe catalysts for political discourse.

Join in a dialog with Justin October 13th at The Office for the Arts at Harvard, Ceramics Studio, as Justin gives a one-day workshop and lecture, at Pinch gallery October 14th for Northampton Arts Night Out, or at Ferrin Contemporary gallery on October 15th as a part of Know Justice, a two-person show with his wife, Brooke Rothshank, an equally accomplished artist (and more popular; he has 14K followers on Instagram, she has nearly 77K), which runs through November 13th.

Elenor Wilson is a Northampton, MA-based potter who also works as Editor of the Studio Potter journal.

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Approaching Molly Hatch’s ceramic studio on the third floor of Florence, Massachusetts’ Arts and Industry building, every single footstep resounds through the hallways. That’s the way of former mill buildings. This one, solid and comfortable with its little bit of dustiness and roughness, leaves plenty of space for artists to remake its purpose.

For Hatch, the spot’s pitch-perfect, a leisurely walk from her house and design studio with her black dog, Hank. “When you’re a young person dreaming of the studio you’d one day work in, this is what you envision,” she explains. In Sunday mode, which is not unlike artist-at-work mode — jeans, a striped blue and white tee, and sneaks, auburn hair pulled into a high ponytail — Hatch is ready to lift plates from one of her kilns. The plates belong to an installation titled Illume for Todd Merrill Studio Contemporary in Manhattan. This “plate painting” depicts a blue and white vase, surrounded by a shiny, solid gold “frame.” Each plate that helps comprise the vase is painterly, simultaneously a swath of the overall pattern and a complete work of art in itself.

Hatch is known for her plate paintings, installations that rely upon individual painted plates organized to create a larger image. The first series, Covet, showed at Sculpture Objects Functional Art and Design (SOFA) in New York in 2012. For that, she drew upon the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Probably the best known—and the largest to date—of the plate paintings is Physic Garden, a permanent installation at Atlanta’s High Museum that measures 22 feet high and 17 feet wide, and required 456 plates to complete. Two 1750s Chelsea Factory plates that depict realistic flora and fauna in the “Hans Sloane” style served as source material for the project. Hatch finds the setting of Physic Garden in the museum’s Margaretta Taylor Lobby inspired. “There’s a window, and beyond the window, a reflecting pool,” she explains. “At night the wall, window, and reflecting pool move you, your eyes, in and out of the space. The architect put in an exhibition wall at exactly the right spot so that the work and the space are phenomenal fits for one another.”

Physic Garden 2013/14| Photo courtesy of High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia

Her latest big project, Passage, a solo show at the Dianich Gallery in Brattleboro, Vermont, co-presented with Todd Merrill Studio Contemporary, is a departure from the plate paintings. “The plate paintings rely upon the boundaries of the wall,” says Hatch. “I want to question the wall. I’m interested in making three-dimensional paintings that reveal different images from various angles.”

One way to sum up Hatch’s voraciousness as artist and designer is this — she’s a consummate conversationalist. Rather than rely on words, her conversations take place between past and present, commercial design and fine art, boundaries and space.

While she was creating Passage, which runs through July, her studio space was relatively empty. The sole full wall—no doors or windows or shelving—was blank. The floor was mostly bare, save for kilns sitting like urns and a number of large ceramic blocks—clean, white, and ready—in neat piles. The blocks were impressive, not exactly massive, and yet notably larger than most ceramic objects. Imagine ceramic versions of wooden blocks found in a preschool classroom—but large and somewhat wondrous, like an Alice in Wonderland teacup.

Detail from Passage | Photo by John Polak courtesy of Molly Hatch Studios

Hatch painted the blocks in different patterns, from a Middle Eastern tile to a weaving. These patterns generally do not “go together.” In the gallery, the blocks are set upon wooden and ceramic plinths painted in patterns and faux wood grain. Passage evolves from a series of cube vases Hatch recently created, objects that aren’t functional vases, but cubes with cutouts in the shape of vases to play upon both the idea of functionality and, simultaneously, negative space. For Passage, she posed a related question: “Do I need that cutout?”

As for the big blocks: “I wanted a chance to pull my work into space. I wanted it to come off the walls,” Hatch explains. “The idea is the pieces could be played with and restacked. I want to explore pattern and form, but in a three-dimensional space.”

Patterns often seen on functional objects, from vases to wallpaper, cover these non-functional forms. As if that idea isn’t sufficiently intriguing, Hatch plays with other juxtapositions. Some patterns are from history and others are more contemporary ones that tend to show up in a design context rather than art. She wants to lure them from functionality to see how they fare.

The Dianich Gallery is much more intimate than other places Hatch has exhibited. “I was drawn to that—and the chance to reach a different audience,” Hatch says. “In this setting, I’m able to focus upon a small, pointed project—and to take some risks within the constraints of this venue—a small gallery in a small town close to home.“

Hatch’s childhood and family background have a great deal to do with her sense that perpetual conversations arise from juxtaposing things people don’t often put together. Her parents eschewed a world of refined society and instead moved to southern Vermont, where they farmed. Décor at the farmhouse was unusual: Art and antiques in her family’s home and extended family’s residences were, like pieces she plays off of in her own art and design work, beautiful and significant and fine and enduring.

Covet Project: 2012 | Photo by John Polak courtesy of Molly Hatch Studios

As an adult, Hatch contemplates the role of beauty and delicacy, but she does so in the milieu of simple, hard work. She is a powerhouse. She credits her work ethic to her upbringing on the farm and her aesthetics in large part to family influences and exposure. “To have grown up with old-money objects and the farm’s demands, lessons I drew upon were complex—about taste and lifestyle,” she says. “I love that I interact with these questions on a daily basis.”

Interior design is another of Hatch’s influences. “I read interior design magazines to see what interests designers,” she says. “For example, I love the idea of putting an old object on a mantel and a contemporary cutout vase and pretty much encouraging the objects to talk to one another.”

That sets the stage for a paradigm that makes sense to Hatch. “When I first began to do design work for Anthropologie, some ceramic artists thought I was selling out. I disagreed and I still disagree,” she says. “I need to focus on creation of both the consumable and the unique object, and, rather than see those as oppositional choices, I find them complementary.”

She constantly extends ideas developed in one realm into another—she might create a one-of-a-kind vase and then make a series of commercial vases that are decorated with her paintings of vases. “I love to operate in consort, and to see where designs land best.” She maintains enthusiasm for the large plate paintings or the new work in “Passage,” and she also enjoys her ongoing work with Anthropologie. The way Hatch works—process and breadth—represents her unique heritage.

Image at top: Molly Hatch | Photo by John Polak, illustration by Jan Šabach

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The Steel Yard is located in Providence Rhode Island. Better still, name-check their neighborhood, Olneyville; the area has done such a thorough job of creating and defining its own identity seems like an insult not to. The aptly-named non-profit arts center was founded in 2001 by Nick Bauta and Clay Rockefeller with the purpose of creating a local workshop for area artisans to have a place to work and share their knowledge with like-minded art machinists. Nailed it.

Photo by Russ Jennings

This is where artists, students, teachers, neighbors, movers and shakers come to heat things up, bend bars and sit down at them. It’s a campus for the industrial arts; forging, blacksmithing, metalwork, and ceramics. ‘Yardie’ Mandara MacKinnon, the communications and volunteer coordinator, explains the interior space is “broken into three sections” for each discipline, but it’s essentially one continuous workshop. Those who rent here enjoy “working in a community shop, there’s an artists residency program, and anyone who’s taken classes can rent studio time” in addition to thrice weekly open studio time. It’s a place where people work together; they’re making their own art, they’re working collaboratively on public projects, they’re hired to make various architectural details, they make the coolest bike hitches, and then they teach you how to as well.

Photo by Howie Sneider

All of this would be enough for this award-winning community center to hang it’s hat on, but they go one more. The building itself sits on nearly four acres of what was originally a severely busted up brownfield but is now one of the most popular event spaces around. 2016 was their most booked year yet and they’re already filling up 2017. Designed by the Klopfer Martin Design Group, out of Boston, the space is multi-level, creating unique and natural seating areas, there’s a vertical structure of crossed I-beams and accessible pathways throughout for pedestrians. It is somehow remarkably cozy and intimate for such a large area full of industrial remnants and distressed metal objects.

Photo by Mark Agerholm

The Steel Yard will be utilizing their campus this October for their 11th Annual Halloween Iron Pour on October 22nd. This theatric display of the industrial arts attracts a huge crowd. Per MacKinnon “People come back not only for the sparky performance and the numerous steel and iron props that we build in house, but also for the phenomenal local music and food. For this event, artists harness the power of the Steel Yard’s custom built, iron pouring tilt furnace to pour over 2,500 pounds of molten iron.” We can’t wait for this and look forward to witnessing the next great phase.

Top photo by Christian Philips Photography
All photos courtesy of The Steel Yard

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