NOVEMBER 17 – DECEMBER 29, 2019
Emily Galusha Gallery
Minnesota New Institute for Ceramic Education (MN NICE) is a certificate program with a curriculum that provides participants with an overview of ceramic history and advanced technical and materials training, while encouraging awareness and debate around larger questions in the field of ceramics. Focusing on critical dialogue helps students build a body of work that reflects their own ideas. Ursula Hargens, co-collaborator and program head for MN NICE, leads weekly seminars and coordinates field trips for the class.
MN NICE Graduates will feature the work of emerging artists from the May 2019 graduating class of MN NICE. Their collective works represent exploration, investigation, and expression through clay—from functional vessels, to graceful and impetuous sculpture. These bodies of work evolved through one-on-one dialogue with mentoring artists, lively group critiques, and individual research.
Clarice Allgood is a functional potter and artist, currently residing in Minneapolis, Minnesota, whose practice is informed by many disciplines. A pragmatic childhood and a formal education in philosophy underwrite her focus on the practical and ethical tools of everyday life. Allgood has traveled around the country studying ceramics through numerous workshops and informal residencies.
Chris Bond is a potter from St. Paul, Minnesota. Making primarily functional work, he focuses on large-volume, decorative vessels, which are fired in wood and soda kilns. Bond’s ceramic education straddles a 20-year career in the consumer-show business with his most recent training at Northern Clay Center as a student, and now a participant in MN NICE. He has exhibited his work at Northern Clay Center and Artistry in Bloomington, Minnesota.
Shelli Burns is a ceramic artist living and working in St. Louis Park, Minnesota. Utilizing handbuilding techniques to create both functional and decorative pottery, she often incorporates her ceramic work into mixed-media art. Intuition, spontaneity, and discovery are important drivers in her creative process. Burns has continued to develop her work through community education courses and her enrollment in MN NICE.
Nicholas Kosack is a ceramic artist living in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Kosack discovered his passion for clay while attending St. Olaf College, where he first experimented with the atmospheric firing techniques that continue to guide his work. In 2015, Kosack transitioned to ceramics full-time and became the studio manager at Fired-Up Studios in Golden Valley, Minnesota. He exhibits his work regionally, and was recently selected for the American Craft Council’s Emerging Artists Program.
Jamie Parrish is a functional ceramic artist based in the Twin Cities. Having fallen in love with wheel-throwing in a high school pottery class, she returned to clay in 2016 after life pulled her in other directions. Returning to her role as a ceramic maker, Parrish enrolled in a series of community education classes at Fired-Up Studios in Golden Valley, Minnesota, before joining the 2019 class of the MN NICE program.
Joan Vande Kamp is a ceramic artist and educator in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She makes wheel-thrown stoneware forms with a current emphasis on teapots. Her ceramic experience and education span over a decade and include workshops and classes at regional art centers, the Twin Cities campus at the University of Minnesota, and Bethel University. Pottery provides an avenue for Vande Kamp to give to others, and through it, she has supported Empty Bowls, Union Gospel Mission, and Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure.
Related Events
Opening Reception: Sunday, November 17, 12 – 4 pm
In conjunction with the Holiday Open House