Andrew Kellner received a Diploma from Sheridan College (2003) BFA (2005) from Alberta College of Art and Design, and an MFA (2017) from West Virginia University. Since moving to Hamilton, Andrew keeps a home studio practice, and continues to contribute to the ceramics community by teaching ceramic classes at Mohawk College and other private studios. In 2018, Kellner and business partner Heather Smit, have started annual invitational Ceramic show Ash + Barrel.
Tony Clennell is a second-generation potter that has taught workshops in Canada, the US, Japan, China, Korea, Wales, Italy and Portugal. He has a Master of Fine Arts from Utah State University and is a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. Tony has written articles for an assortment of ceramic journals including Fusion, Contact, Ceramics Monthly, Pottery Making Illustrated, Clay Times, and Studio Potter, He has exhibited in museums and collections in North America, Europe, and Asia. He is the author of Stuck in the Mud and a celebrated blogger.
With his sculpture, Porelli wants to provide access to an archetypal dimension of reality, condensing surrealist contaminations, Pop proliferations and archaic symbolism in his visual language. The anthropomorphic inventions that he elaborates produce an estrangement effect of the figuration, creating iconographic absurdities and a new mythology of the present. With his human repertory, Porelli emphasizes the critical issues of contemporary mankind and all the phenomena that underlie society, including the unsustainability of civilization as a development model and its incompatibility with nature.
His sculpture becomes an example of cultural eclecticism and historical nomadism, representing stylistically the expressive globalization of creation. In addition to painting, Porelli’s work finds its preferred expressive technique in ceramics, both for the connection of this material with the ancestral roots of man, and due to its versatility, which offers him the opportunity to express current, modern and contemporary concepts.
Sculptures produced primarily with slip-cast or press molds, taken from historical figurines or 3-D scans of contemporary individuals, serve as a pretext to realize a transformation and arrive at a “sculptural subject” that is both individual and original. A constant of the variations that propel the sculptures towards continuous regeneration is the attempt to establish the stroboscopic range of human essence. A prolific group of complementary figures is formed that fills the void between two opposed poles of existence.
Porelli’s figures are an example of pure creativity that expresses an incessant impetus for discovery of the infinite nuances of which the mysterious world of reality is composed. They are a grand exercise in metamorphoses, transience and relativity of the creative process, that through an inverse process, converts the stereotype into the archetype.
Porelli has participated in artist residencies and conferences in America, China and Europe, including The Clay Studio and The Archie Bray Foundation in the United States, Jingdezhen International Studio and Blanc de Chine ICAA in China, EKCW in the Netherlands and the Woodman Family Foundation in Italy. He has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in Italy and abroad (China, South Korea, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and the USA). Together with Lori-Ann Touchette, he founded CRETA Rome, an international center of ceramics and the arts in 2012. In 2021, he was elected a member of the International Academy of Ceramics.
As a multi-medium artist Tara McCoy started making crafts at 12 years old. In high school, Tara took arts and crafts classes with Alyne Stamper where she has since perfected her skills and techniques. She is known for saying, “everyone’s an artist.”
Tara has been the recipient of numerous awards at the Cherokee Fall Festival, as well as Oklahoma Art Shows, and at SWAIA in Santa Fe. Tara teaches other artists how to work with different mediums as well as generating new creations at her home in the Birdtown community.
Anita Fields is interested in how we adorn ourselves for certain purposes and the transformative experiences we are allowed by this process. These ideas are realized by the making of clay and textile articles of clothing such as dresses, moccasins and even purses. They are metaphors for how we see our place in the world and the influences of culture.
As an Osage artist, the work she wants to express comes from a multitude of places. It can be based on childhood memories, experiences, dreams, social issues, and everyday encounters. Anita may be compelled to create work after reading a great story or witnessing a powerful event. She is inspired by family stories and the narratives found in the culture and history of Osage people.
Jared Tso started his journey with clay. Possessing a natural curiosity sparked by vessels made by his late grandmother Faye Tso. It was not until later, while pursuing an electrical engineering degree, that those childhood memories started to play a larger role in a growing practice of ceramics.
After a few years of working as an Engineer, and juggling the occasional art exhibition, Jared made the decision to pursue a Master of Fine Arts at the University of New Mexico. Since its completion in Fall 2021, Jared has pursued art full-time and has since continued a trend of awards at SWAIA’s Santa Fe Indian Market.
More recently Jared has received encouragement and recognition of the innovation that accompanies his vessels. There is a rooted intention with each vessel to not only provide clear context in traditional Navajo Pottery but to also include further examples that contribute to the definition of Navajo pottery.
Traditional in technique and process, there is an ever-growing desire to encourage further exploration of the timelessness of Navajo pots. Both with form and the strong and present function of classic Navajo pottery, Jared hopes to make vessels that have a clear visual path of continuity within this ever-growing multigenerational portfolio of work.
