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2026

Alexandra Barao

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Alexandra Barao is a potter and educator based in Western North Carolina. She was born and raised in Virginia and received her BFA in Sculpture + Extended Media at Virginia Commonwealth University in 2010. She then spent a decade in the San Francisco Bay Area learning, teaching, and building community through clay. Since returning to the Southeast in 2022, she has been exploring new connections to this craft in a region where its history is deep and rich. She has been an artist in residence at Cub Creek Foundation in Virginia and Township 10 in Marshall, North Carolina, and has taught workshops on atmospheric firing at The Oki Doki Studio and the Clay Studio of Missoula.

Lexus Giles

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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.

Chris Pickett

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The human desire for comfort is universal. In moments of uncertainty, it insulates us from anxiety and unease.   My functional ceramic vessels address this need for physical and emotional comfort.  Using nostalgia as a reference point, I utilize form, color, and design to evoke a sense of familiarity and solace.  I choose a visual language that suggests the comforting nature of physical intimacy, community, personal domestic spaces, and childhood experiences.
Using low-relief stencils and compound mold systems allows me to articulate vessels with a specific formal language.  With the appearance of being freshly constructed, the fullness of form allows these vessels to evoke a sense of play and ease.  Generous volumes serve as metaphors for our bodies, alluding to the comforts of physical intimacy.  Exaggerated pillow forms create a desire to interact with the work physically, and voluptuous curves awaken our preconceptions of volume and what it represents: vitality, sensuality, generosity, and abundance. With these vessels, I provide users with a transformative personal experience through use rather than addressing utility, necessity, or convenience.  

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