Jon Bashioum is an active studio artist and holds an M.F.A. from Montana State University. Throughout his professional development as a ceramicist, Bashioum has advanced his knowledge on operations for woodfired kilns and other technical processes in the ceramic arts.
2022
Michaela Bromberek
Michaela Bromberek is passionate about the ceramic arts and is proud to work at the Bray. She holds a psychology degree but has always had a deep love of the arts. Michaela strives to bring her woodfired utilitarian forms into the simplest of moments and spaces.
Maura Wright
Maura Wright weds high art to low until we can’t tell the difference, until we feel ourselves acknowledging the staginess of all art, of all life. The pastiche considers the current conversation between craft and high art–the former all about repetition/perfection, the latter about the medium of clay as expressive material. The decorative is primarily dissected. Glazed vases and vessels feel pried from still life. The pleasure of the work comes from deft and shifting angles between the tradition of the past and the impropriety and insouciance of the present moment, from questioning the real and the imitation.
Maura Wright, received a Master of Fine Arts from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University in 2018 and a BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute in 2013. Residencies include: the International Ceramic Research Center in Skaelskor, Denmark; the International Ceramic Studio in Kecskemet, Hungary; Red Star Studios in Kansas City, MO; The Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, MT; and Red Lodge Clay Center in Red Lodge, MT.
Soojin Choi
The ambivalence of human emotion occurs through unresolved and confusing situations in external and internal matters. An ambivalent moment reveals itself to Soojin Choi, and her work depicts that gray area of humanity. Soojin recreates unsettled situations so viewers can empathetically encounter the emotions of her human forms. Soojin’s work expresses ambiguity of emotion through flat and spatial surfaces; subtle facial expression, gaze and body gesture; as well as color and brush expressions. Building the surfaces with clay allows seamless weaving between dimensions and textures to articulate feelings of ambivalence.
Soojin Choi was born and raised in South Korea, and has worked as an artist in the United States since 2010. Soojin earned her BFA at Virginia Commonwealth University in 2015 with a double major in craft/ material studies and painting/printmaking. She continued her studies at Alfred University to pursue a MFA degree in ceramics in 2018. After graduate school, she accepted a residency at the Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis, MN with funding by Anonymous Artist Studio Fellowship and a long-term resident artist at Red Lodge Clay Center in Red Lodge, MT. Soojin joins The Bray as the 2021 Speyer Fellow.
Uriel Caspi
Uriel Caspi’s artworks propose an interplay between the revival of ancient crafts and contemporary art studio practice. Hailing from Haifa, Israel, Uriel is visually inspired by archeological remnants from the Middle East and the aesthetics of future design. Installations of large-scale ceramic sculptures operate as platforms for artistic interaction between the artist and the viewer. Antiquarian connotations from the artist’s local surroundings as well as objects from the domicile are transformed into clay, in a process of experimental study that occasionally combines both ancient techniques and digital fabrication.
Uriel H Caspi was born in Haifa, Israel. He received his MFA in ceramic art from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, USA. In 2018, graduated magna cum laude from the ceramics department, Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem. Uriel studied at the Rhode Island School of Design and Cranbrook Ceramics, MI. His works and installations have been showcased nationally and abroad. In 2019, Uriel was awarded an emerging artist prize of the Hecht Museum Foundation. Uriel joins The Bray as the 2021 Matsutani Fellow.
stoneware, engobe, Arabian Luster glaze, copper, cable, 31″ x 14″ x 10″
stoneware, engobe, high temp, wood,
24″ x 24″ x 2″ each
