Marian Draper is a ceramic artist whose work is deeply inspired by verdant botanicals and historical patterns. Born and raised in Rome, New York, Draper earned her Bachelor’s in Studio Arts, with a concentration in ceramics, from Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in Rochester, NY, in 2022. During her time at RIT, she focused primarily on creating large-scale vessels, with an emphasis on form and process.
After graduation, Draper relocated to Asheville, NC, to complete a long term  residency at Odyssey ClayWorks. At Odyssey, she expanded her practice by exploring surface applications and design, incorporating mono-printing techniques alongside her form explorations. She also gained valuable experience as a studio intern at Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis, MN.
Marian is a recipient of the 2024 Ceramics Monthly Emerging Artist Award. Her work reflects her passion for both form and process, infused with a love for rich flora and vibrant surfaces. When not working in clay, Draper enjoys spending time outdoors, drawing inspiration from the landscape for her next creation.

The ceramic works of Samuel Sarmiento are, first of all, objects. Depicting myths and literary stories from across the Caribbean and South America, they do so as sculpted surfaces that create their own boundaries. They are self-contained worlds still connected to everything around them. History is palpable, bodies emerge from bodies emerging from bodies – or do they sink back into time, towards an origin we shall never know? There are forests, seas, cities, animals, trees, goddesses, humans, and meaningful scenes. Humans tell each other about the universe, how it came to be; they pass on secrets of death and procreation together with truths of conflict and suffering, and a hope of redemption. As Sarmiento’s works capture a vibrant oral tradition, they also encapsulate the act of storytelling itself.
Samuel Sarmiento (Venezuela, 1987) is a self-taught artist. He has participated in various exhibitions, individually and collectively, in Venezuela, Colombia, Aruba, Spain, the Netherlands, Portugal, France, Mexico, Panama, Argentina, and China,

Tommy Lomeli is an emerging ceramic artist born in Stockton, California. Lomeli holds a BA from CSU Sacramento and an MFA from the University of Kansas. He is the recipient of numerous awards including the International Sculpture Center’s 2024 Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture award, and first place at NCECA’s 2023 National Juried Student Exhibition.

Eliza Weber
2024 Taunt Fellow
Great Falls, Montana

Eliza Weber’s work explores interconnectedness and materiality in a variety of mediums including ceramic, paper, found objects, and textiles. Through considerations of duality and context, with explorations in emotion and play, individual pieces and installations become abstracted reflections of the world around us. Influenced by the curation of domestic places and the management of environments, interior and exterior overlap, acknowledging the ways in which objects, the self, and others occupy space.

Eliza Weber completed her MFA at Arizona State University and BFA at The University of Montana. She has completed short residencies at Medalta in Alberta, Canada and The Pottery Workshop in Jingdezhen, China. Eliza was also an Artist in Residence at Pottery Northwest in Seattle, Washington. Returning home, she was Director of Education at the Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art in Great Falls, Montana. She served on the boards of NCECA and the Ceramics Research Center, presently serving on the NCECA Green Task Force. Eliza is currently a Long-Term Resident at the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, Montana.

Carey Nathanson
2024 Bray Fellow
Wilmington, North Carolina

Carey Nathanson’s work is primarily hand-built cups, platters, bottles and other vessels made with the intention of being fired in the wood kiln. The goal is to fire 5 to 7 days to saturate the work with fly ash, encourage local reduction effects by building large ember beds and create dramatic surfaces with big color palettes. With each wood firing, the surfaces of the pieces record a snapshot in time of unique conditions and are affected by the place, materials and individual collaborators within that universe.

Bio: Nathanson started working with clay during his high school years in his home town of Wilmington, North Carolina. In 2018 and 2019 he studied wood firing as a studio assistant under John Dix in Kobe, Japan and Nick Schwartz in Comptche, California. Since his time as an assistant, he has completed residencies at the American Museum of Ceramic Art, the Mendocino Art Center, STARworks, Red Lodge Clay Center, Cider Creek Collective and Sawtooth School for Visual Art. He is currently a long-term resident artist at the Archie Bray Foundation.

Lexus Giles
2024 Lilian Fellow
Jackson, Mississippi

Lexus Giles’ work reflects her identity as a Black woman raised in the South, engaging deeply with the Black Diaspora. As a multimedia artist specializing in ceramics, she explores how history manifests in our present lives. Lexus addresses themes of structure, erasure, and the systems affecting her community while celebrating Blackness. She sees herself as a record-keeper, using materials like clay, wood, and found objects in connection to the land and its people that occupy the land. Her artistic process involves hand-building and mold-pressing techniques, emphasizing the human touch and the multi-functionality of objects. Through carving and mark-making, she evokes the complexities of Black identity, the legacies of Atlantic trans/slavery, and African origins, creating a dialogue between past, present, and future.

Giles received her BFA from Mississippi State University in 2019. This spring she earned her MFA in ceramics from the University of Florida. Giles’ work has been exhibited in Mississippi, Florida, Iowa, Chicago, and New York. She received the 2021-2022 University of Florida Grinter Fellowship and the Sam B. Hamilton Noxubee Refuge Fellowship in 2019.