Clay Art Center Poses For New 'The Family Portrait' Exhibit

PORT CHESTER, NY — Pottery is a delicate treasure sometimes handed down for generations —it is perhaps fitting that it is this medium that will be used to explore the impact of families on artists creating future heirlooms today.

The Clay Art Center will be presenting "The Family Portrait," a juried exhibition that explores the family unit in contemporary culture and society. The opening reception will take place on Thursday, September 15, from 6 p.m. - 8 p.m. The exhibition will be in the gallery and online from September 1 - October 15.

According to the Clay Art Center, "The Family Portrait" will explore the meaning and definition of the family unit in contemporary culture and society. Participating artists responded to the theme by creating ceramic works that define what family means to them. The works presented will explore the family unit in the broadest context that address and challenge traditional conceptions of what a family is, or could be.

By using historical and cultural references in works that range from figurative to functional, and conceptual to playful, the artists will invite us into a deeper conversation about the shifting landscape of the family unit.

This exhibit will present work from artists from across the United States, and includes emerging and established ceramic artists: Jocelyn Armstrong, Teela Banker, Yoko Sekino-Bové, Jamie Charles, Mya Cluff, Jane Neuss Cohen, Jill Cohen-Nuñez, Emily Downes, Sean Lutz, Marga McBride, Mac McCusker, Richard Nickel, Teddy Osei, Kristyn Rohrer, Shirah Rubin, Elisa Soliven, Kourtney Stone, Sara Torgison and Blake Williams.

The exhibit will be guest juried by Kukuli Velarde, an internationally renowned Peruvian born artist, whose works focus on issues of gender, social and cultural identity and hierarchies, tradition and inheritance, investigated and interpreted through the reference of historical and religious imagery. She is the recipient of several prestigious awards and grants, including the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship and the Grand Prize Gyeonggi International Ceramic Biennale. A BFA graduate of Hunter College, Velarde's paintings and ceramics have been shown all over the world.

Kukuli Velarde Artist Statement

“It is haunting to think about those who were here in the world before us. Who were those people who passed their DNA to us, and with it, gave us imprinted memories of their times, and the times in which their own ancestors lived?

There were a number of impossible-to-imagine acts of love, and also acts of violence, for us to become. What is a family portrait, if not a snapshot we choose to grab from a history of hundreds of years of survival, overcoming, and living; living with all our might and against all odds? A family portrait might not include blood related individuals, or even those with whom we share physical likeness. It could mean perhaps the physical rendering of a trait, which appears in the family tree as a legacy from our ancestors. It could be the sum of cultural elements of the place where we came from, or parents came from, or grandparents came from. It could be an object that symbolizes the combination of cultural roots. It could be a self-portrait depicting the cultural elements that we recognize in ourselves and that belong to our heritage. Who are we but the sum of many lives, many experiences, and many paths. Let’s think of the offspring that will come in a hundred years from your family tree; as her/his ancestor, what could you communicate about you, and the ones that preceded you?”

The Clay Art Center is a nationally recognized non-profit center for the advancement and practice of ceramic arts offering exhibitions, clay classes for adults and children, studio spaces for clay artists and outreach programs in the community. It is located at 40 Beech Street in Port Chester. For more information about virtual & in-person classes, exhibitions and the shop can be found here.