Clay Art Center's Artists-In-Residence Exhibitions Ready To Step out

PORT CHESTER, NY — The fruits of a successful artists-in-residency program will soon be on display in a way that captures both the pleasures of a Westchester institution and its impact on the art medium it celebrates. There will be plenty of beach days this summer, but be sure to save a day on your calendar for the cherished annual event at the Clay Art Center.

The Clay Art Center announced that it will be celebrating their current artists-in-residence, Jon Green (Rittenberg Artist-in-Residence), Avery Wells and Jess Levin (Westchester Community Fellow) in concurrent solo exhibitions.

Each year, artist residencies culminate in year-end exhibitions that highlight the recent works from each artist, giving the public a great opportunity to view the work of emerging talents.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the center's nationally recognized artist-in-residence program, started in 1998 by Director Emeritus Reena Kashyap. The Clay Art Center says that the residency program, which starts each year in September, is designed for emerging artists to have the time and space to develop their voices. The artists-in-residence gain experience working in a community environment, teaching classes, sharing their technical knowledge and expertise, and managing several jobs around the studio. After going through a competitive process, these artists come to Port Chester from across the country and are now thriving in their careers around the globe. Learn more about the Artist-In-Residency program here.

This year's exhibit will take place from June 22 until August 4, in the gallery and online. The Opening Reception will feature gallery talks by all three Artists-in-Residence on June 22, from 6 p.m. – 8 p.m.

From the Clay Art Center:

Jon Green, ¡VAMOS!

Jon Green is Clay Art Center’s Rittenberg Artist-in-Residence. Born in a Mexican-American family, Jon is entertained by the absurd nature of the American-Dream. Jon completed his BFA at the University of Montana with a minor in Art History, and worked as a studio assistant for Julia Galloway, Casey Zablocki, and Anton Alvarez. Jon has attended Red Lodge Clay Center’s ASPN program, an Artist in Residency at Medalta, Long-Term Residency at Red Lodge Clay Center, and is currently a Long-term Resident at Clay Art Center in Port Chester, NY. Jon’s work pays homage to the craftspeople and merging customs of the Americas through aggrandizing objects and ornamentation.

Artist Statement: "This work represents a personal narrative as a second-generation Chicano, and is an homage to the elaborate and diverse Latin American Craft-traditions before and after colonization. My studio practice is explained as both a question and a statement; a curiosity of my ethnic identity and a pride in my Mexican-American heritage. Decorative patterning and bright colors are sourced from Mestizo prints of colonial Latin-America to represent the convergence of ethnic and cultural ideas that make up the Americas. This history is paired with personal symbolism that subverts traditional expectations of Latinx communities. I aim to explore the fragile boundaries of my blurred personal identity within the diverse multi-ethnic background of the Americas."

Avery Wells, Making Something Out of Something

Avery Wells is an artist and educator who received her MFA in Ceramics from SUNY New Paltz. She also holds BAs in Art History and Ceramics from UNC Asheville. Avery’s vessels and botanical sculptures explore feminine histories in the decorative arts and seek an alternate route away from traditional standards of beauty and craft. She is currently an Artist-in Residence at the Clay Art Center in Port Chester, NY.

Artist Statement: "Drawing from historic domestic arts practices, I repetitively rework flat patterns into sculptural forms. I imagine these patterns peeling themselves off of wallpaper or puffing up from hand-stitched quilts, and in this act of growth is a sense of agency and empowerment. The women in my family have always been makers, and much of my imagery comes from textiles passed from mother to daughter for many generations. My work is a slow act of reflection, allowing me the time and space to consider what it means for me to carry on these traditions in my own way, and also to muse on larger questions of labor, gender, joy, beauty, and belonging."

Jess Levin

Jess Levin is Clay Art Center’s Westchester Community Foundation’s Young Artist Fellow. They earned a BFA from the State University of New York at Purchase, NY, concentrating in ceramics with hints of fabrics to show the balance between the soft and the fragile. They use a bright, colorful, cartoonish sculpting style to bring to life a narrative of self-exploration and expression.

Artist Statement “The colorful yet quiet animal-human hybrids I create communicate a sense of serenity and relationship between fauna and human. Imagination is an essential part of any child, and playing pretend as a child is a gateway into self-exploration. With this in mind, I have started to take a more mythical approach with my practice by taking these horned animals and imagining them in a more whimsical way.

These friendly creatures act as guardians for the larger and more animated personified animals that they surround. The guardian character I continue to reimagine in my work acts as a protector, or even a worshiped deity, and becomes a connection between the viewer and the piece that they can lean on for comfort. I am currently living through a transitional period between childhood and adulthood, and yearning to keep a childlike wonder alive in myself, and provoke it in others through my work.”

This grant fellowship was made possible in part by the Westchester Community Foundation, a division of The New York Community Trust. Westchester Community Foundation’s mission is to connect generous people to the causes they care about and invest in transformative ideas and organizations to improve lives and strengthen our community. WCF is a division of The New York Community Trust, one of the largest community foundations in the country, with assets of approximately $3 billion.

Find out more about the exhibitions here and the Clay Art Center here.