Yeroham Ashagre is an Ethiopian visual artist, currently working in the US. He got his BFA in Fine Arts from Addis Ababa University in 2022. In 2023, he moved to East Lansing, Michigan, to pursue his MFA from Michigan State University in Studio Art, and is graduating in 2026. He is a figurative artist whose practice spans the mediums of drawing, sculpture, and ceramics, exploring themes such as religion, myths, sexuality, and violence.

Yeroham has participated in solo and group shows in Ethiopia and the US. He is a recipient of numerous grants and awards, including: MSU AAHD Professional Development Fund 2023, MSU Summer Fellowship 2024, AAHD Professional Development Fund 2024, MSU Summer Fellowship 2025, Dissertation Completion Fund 2025, MSU AAHD Professional Development Fund 2025, Juror’s award at Mud Michigan 2025 Student Exhibition, Michigan Fine Arts Competition 2025, and an honorable mention in International Sculpture Competition 2025. He was also awarded the Juror’s prize at the 2026 annual MFA show at Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, awarded by Donna Honarpisheh (PhD), associate curator at ICA Miami.

Ariana Stein (She/They) is a Hungarian-American ceramic artist formerly based in North Carolina. They apprentices in Seagrove, NC, and learned traditional methods of woodfiring and vessel-making under Kate Waltman. Ari enjoys the physical challenge of large pots paired with elaborate folkloric decoration. In 2025, Ariana received the First Annual Creative Research Fellowship through NCECA to attend a residency in Hungary. She was most recently a six-month resident at Sonoma Community Center, and completed her first solo exhibition there. Ariana has exhibited and taught workshops across the US and internationally.

Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Kaitlin Smrcina makes ceramic sculptures referencing film, video games, and emerging digital realities, using gardens as a setting for the manicured suburban uncanny.

Smrcina received her BFA in 2015 from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago with focuses in Ceramics and Fiber Arts and Material Studies, and an MA and MFA with honors distinction from The University of Iowa in 2026. Smrcina has been awarded various grants, scholarships, and fellowships during her time at Iowa including the Digital Scholarship and Publishing Summer Fellowship, and is a 2026-2027 Fulbright U.S. Student Program Social Sciences, Arts & Humanities Award Semi-finalist. Since 2012, Smrcina has exhibited across America, in Canada, and with Lefebvre et Fils in Paris, France.

Caroline Roberts is an artist-potter, born in Wisconsin and raised across the upper Midwest. She completed her B.S. in Fine Art at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2020 and is currently an MFA candidate at Utah State University. Roberts has completed residencies at Cub Creek Foundation in Virginia and at Pleasant Hill Pottery in Oregon. She has taught atmospheric firing workshops as well as participated in numerous exhibitions nationwide.

SunYoung Park is an interdisciplinary artist whose work explores hybridity, memory, and cultural identity through ceramics and mixed media. Combining clay with fabric, wood, and botanical elements, she creates sculptures that evoke hybrid bodies and environments, blurring boundaries between the organic and the constructed, the personal, and the cultural. Park was selected as a 2026 NCECA Emerging Artist and received the 2026 Studio MASS MoCA Fellowship and 2023 Wassaic Project Fellowship. She has held residencies at the Interdisciplinary Ceramic Research Center, Charlotte Street Foundation, and Clayarch Gimhae Museum. Her work has been exhibited internationally, including in Belgium, China, and Korea.