'Perspectives': Clay Art Center Celebrates Black History Month In Art

PORT CHESTER, NY — The Clay Art Center's newest installation will celebrate Black History Month in a way that only artists uniquely adept at their medium can.

The Clay Art Center is presenting "Perspectives: An Invitational Exhibition Celebrating Black History Month," by Clay Art Center Artists Earlene Cox and Gloria Nixon-Crouch.

This exhibition delves deep into the realms of human experience, identity, and fragility, offering a profound exploration of these themes through the medium of clay, according to organizers. The exhibition is intended to serve as a testament to the power of clay as a medium in capturing the nuances and complexities of the human condition.

"Through their craft, the artists each invite us to reflect on our own experiences, identities, and vulnerabilities," the Clay Art Center promises.

A meet the artists event is planned on Friday, February 16, from noon until 2 p.m. To meet the artists in person and learn more about their work and their processes (and visit their studios at the Clay Art Center), register here.

Earlene Cox is a Clay Art Center artist who splits her time between New York and North Carolina. She is a lawyer and a former executive with IBM. Cox has advocated using clay art as therapy to combat Alzheimer’s. Through her affiliation with the Westchester County Chapter of the Links, Inc., she created a clay art program for Alzheimer’s and dementia patients at the Wartburg Nursing Home in Mount Vernon. For this advocacy work, she was named an Alzheimer's champion by the Hudson Valley Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association.

"Sculpting the human figure provides me an incredible way to capture the memories of people met during my life and to tell the story of the many experiences I have had as an African American in this country," Cox said. "I hope that when a person views the poses, gestures, and facial expressions of my sculptures they will not just see the story I am communicating but they will evoke some memories of their own life stories."

Gloria Nixon-Crouch is a Clay Art Center artist who is based in New York City. Nixon-Crouch's sculptures have been exhibited in venues throughout the U.S. Her work has been featured in Art News, Ceramics Monthly, Art in America and Westchester Arts. Nixon-Crouch recently exhibited at the lona College Council Of The Arts: She Voices, and placed first in the 15th annual Open Juried small works show from Mamaroneck Artist Guild, Larchmont. She received the Henry S.E. Cooper Memorial Prize for Sculpture from The Cooperstown Art Association 84th National Juried Art Exhibition.

"My sculptures are meant to evoke in the viewers an emotional response that transcends their physical presence," Nixon-Crouch said. "Sculpting the human figure provides me an incredible way to capture the memories of people met during my life and to tell the story of the many experiences I have had as an African American in this country. I hope that when a person views the poses, gestures, and facial expressions of my sculptures they will not just see the story I am communicating but they will evoke some memories of their own life stories."

Nixon-Croach described her work as both very personal and universally relatable.

"The advent of the black slave trade in the Americas laid the foundation for a myriad of ills, physically, psychologically, and socially for all Black and White Americans, before and since Emancipation, use the plastic medium of clay to penetrate the observer's subconscious and to bring to its surface the undefined and sometimes ignored, pain of our human suffering," Nixon-Crouch added. "The lack of bright colors and the fragmented surfaces of my sculptural figures represent the fragility and vulnerability of life we've all inherited just by being human. I hope to convey through my work the subtle beauty and resiliency of our survival as Black people and of all humans suffering the vicissitudes of war, poverty, and discrimination."