RJ STURGESS
@Rsturge25
RJ Sturgess is a ceramic sculptor living and working in Atlanta, Georgia. RJ was raised in Mayfield, New York, a small town nestled in the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains. His work has been featured and has received recognition and awards in national and international exhibitions. In 2012 he graduated with his Bachelors of Fine Arts in Ceramics and a Bachelors of Science in Jewelry and Metalsmithing from Buffalo State College. In the spring of 2020 he received his Masters of Fine Arts in Ceramics from the Welch School of Art at Georgia State University, where he is currently an Instructor of Record. RJ’s mixed-media sculptures put at play combinations of biomorphic ceramic forms and elements of household furniture to investigate the unsettling emotions resulting from these pairings.
STUART ASPREY
@stuartasprey
Stuart Asprey was born in England and raised in California. He received his MFA from the University of Oklahoma and his BA from Humboldt State University. Stuart’s award winning, irreverently humored artwork regularly exhibits throughout the United States and occasionally in Europe. He has taught workshops at Anderson Ranch, The Armory in West Palm Beach, The Morean Center for Clay, Red Star Studios and numerous universities throughout the United States. He returned to his alma mater in 2012 and is currently an Associate Professor of Ceramics at the University of Oklahoma.
HANNAH PIERCE
@hannah.ceramics
Hannah Pierce is a ceramic sculptor and mixed media artist residing in Philadelphia, PA. She received her MFA in Ceramics from Edinboro University of PA and her BA in Studio Art at Humboldt State University of CA. Before graduate school, Hannah worked as an educator for people with developmental disabilities at The Studio and Cheri Blackerby Gallery, located in Eureka, California. She has exhibited her work in numerous national and international exhibitions as well as art fairs, such as Aqua Arts Miami and Superfine! Arts Fair in DC. In 2017, she was awarded a Full Kiln God Scholarship as a Resident Artist at Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts and in 2018, was awarded the Abilities Fellowship as a Resident Artist at Baltimore Clayworks. Works from her solo show at Baltimore Clayworks were published in the June/July/August issue of Ceramics Monthly and also promoted by Bmore Art Magazine.
TRAVIS WINTERS
@traviswintersceramics
Travis Winters is a ceramic artist and Programs Manager at Touchstone Center for Crafts. Working primarily with animals and figures, he creates figures based on mundane day-to-day life, past struggles and real people. An MFA graduate from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, Winters exhibits work nationally and has shown at Baltimore Clayworks in Baltimore, MD, The Clay Studio in Philadelphia, PA, The Workhouse Arts Center in Lorton, VA, The Baton Rouge Gallery in Baton Rouge, LA, and the AMOCA Museum in Pomona, CA. Travis was the Lormina Salter Fellowship Artist at Baltimore Clayworks, long term Resident at Odyssey Clayworks in Asheville, NC, a Kiln God Summer Resident at Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts in New Castle ME and a Short-Term Resident Artist at Red Lodge Clay Center in Red Lodge, MT.
ANDY ADAMSON
@MagicalGrandpa
Andrew Adamson is easily one of the most accomplished, revered, and celebrated ceramic artists working today. His meticulously crafted genius is a sobering introspection that implores the viewer to question what it means to be alive. As a triumphant avant-garde pastiche of all of his predecessors’ technique and wisdom, he has aptly described his work as a “…unparalleled continuum of rapturous and transcendent visual experiences”, “…an Indulgent and carnal feast, endlessly penetrating the spirit and impregnating the weary soul.”, and “…like an exorbitant aberration, arrogantly professing truths in the face of a jealous God”. Creating sculptural actualizations of metaphorical utopic perfection infers that the edifice of our three-dimensional reality immensely undermines his ambitions; albeit the production of such scope and magnitude would be incomprehensible to the limits of known vision and temporal comprehension, assuredly resulting in a prophetic apocalyptic erasure of existence, only to be perpetually reanimated and birthed by the nourishing perplexing delights of aesthetic excellence that was formerly its exterminator. Andrew’s masterful insemination of contemporary and classical perceptions is effortlessly exhibited in an orgy of conspicuous pleasure, executing a paramount of mortal achievements that will at no time be surpassed.
RACHEL BALLARD
@rachelballard
Rachel Ballard is a visual artist based in Atlanta, GA. She earned a BFA from Appalachian State University and an MFA from Georgia State University in 2017. She has been an invited artist-in-residence at the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts and the Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts. Her work has been supported by grants and fellowships from the North Carolina Arts Council, NCECA, and The Odyssey Center for Ceramic Arts. She was most recently an emerging writer in BURNAWAY’s Art Writers Mentorship Program, where she developed her writing around craft theory and criticism. She currently teaches as a part-time instructor at Georgia State University’s Welch School of Art & Design.
TJ ERDAHL
@TJerdahl
Thaddeus Erdahl was born and raised in La Porte City, Iowa. He has exhibited his sculpture and presented workshops nationally throughout the United States. After a three-year enlistment in the Army Thaddeus began his career in art and education at the University of Northern Iowa where he received his BA in Art Education and a BFA in Ceramics. Thaddeus received his MFA in Ceramics from the University of Florida where he was a University of Florida Alumni Fellowship recipient during his three years of graduate study, from 2006-2009. In the summer of 2008, he attended Think Tank III, a national art in higher education symposium, as a Graduate Fellowship Recipient. In 2009 he was selected as one of four Artists-in-Residents at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg TN for an 11-month residency program. Most recently Thaddeus was recognized as one of four short listed artist for the inaugural American Craft Council Emerging Voice in Craft Award. Thaddeus recently moved to the Southeast in 2017 and is currently living in St. Petersburg Florida pursuing his studio art career and acting as a visual art instructor at Berkeley Preparatory School in Tampa Florida.
TOMMY FRANK
@TeeeFrank
Originally from Florida, Tommy Frank focused much of his early clay career on making functional pottery. He received his Bachelors of Arts from Asbury University (KY) and continued making pottery during residencies at the Morean Center for Clay (FL), Archie Bray Foundation (MT), and Odyssey ClayWorks (NC). While a post-baccalaureate student at the University of Florida (FL), his work started shifting toward more content laden vessel-based pieces. It was while earning his Master of Fine Arts degree at Bowling Green State University (OH) that he shifted into sculpture. He is currently the founder and CEO of the online virtual workshop platform FrankArts.com.
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ASHLEY BEVINGTON
@AshleyBevington
Ashley Bevington (b. 1990) graduated with her BFA from Columbus College of Art & Design (OH) in 2014 & her MFA from Edinboro University Of Pennsylvania (PA) in 2017. She has participated in various national exhibitions in galleries such as La Luz de Jesus, The Clay Studio of Philadelphia, The Erie Art Museum, The Ohio Craft Museum, & the Leedy-Voulkos Art Center. Bevington has received numerous awards within her field. She was an invited artist and received a scholarship to attend a residency at Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts in the summer of 2015. She was awarded the Mudtools Merit Award in the 2017 NCECA National Student Juried Exhibition, where she had 2 pieces juried into the show. Bevington received the NCECA International Residency Partnership Program award to attend an 8-week residency at Medalta Potteries in Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada in the summer of 2017. She is currently a Long-Term Resident Artist at Access Arts in Columbia, MO.
