JANUARY 14 – FEBRUARY 20, 2022
Main Gallery
Artist talks: Friday, January 14, 4 pm (virtual)
Join us in celebrating the achievements of our 2020-21 Emerging Artist Grant Recipients, and recent recipients of the Warren Mackenzie Advancement Award. Northern Clay Center administers several grant programs designed to support artists in the early stages of their careers through residencies, grants, and education. This exhibition features the work of Clarice Allgood, Aaron Caldwell, Ira Elliot Corbett, Katie Coughlin, Wendy Eggerman, Gabrielle Gawreluk, Ashton Keen, and Jacob Meer.
Emerging Artist Residencies
Northern Clay Center’s Emerging Artist Residency programs, the Fogelberg Studio Fellowship and the Anonymous Artist Studio Fellowship, are designed to provide emerging ceramic artists an opportunity to be in residence for one year at NCC. Between September 1, 2020 and July 31, 2021 the residents had the opportunity to develop their work while exchanging ideas and knowledge with a dynamic network of ceramic artists. Among national clay art centers, NCC offers an urban experience within a diverse and supportive community.
Red Wing Collectors Society Foundation Award
The Red Wing Collectors Society Award is presented to one maker in the local ceramics community as selected through a nominative process. Supporting their development and highlighting their achievements, this award aims to elevate the recognition of each recipient within the ceramics community.
This award is made possible by the Red Wing Collectors Society Foundation, and is presented by Northern Clay Center to a deserving individual pursuing a career in pottery, or studying or researching the historical aspects of the pottery industry. The Foundation endeavors to broaden appreciation of pottery, past and present, for the general public and maintains the Red Wing Pottery Museum in Red Wing, Minnesota. This is the twelfth year in which the Clay Center has awarded the grant.
Warren Mackenzie Advancement Award
The Warren MacKenzie Advancement Award (WMAA) provides an opportunity for students and emerging artists to continue their ceramic research and education for a period of up to a year to further expand their professional development. During the grant year, recipients are provided with fiscal support to research a new technique or process, study with a mentor or in an apprenticeship setting, travel to other ceramic art centers or institutions for classes and workshops, collaborate with artists of other media, and travel.
About the Artists
Clarice Allgood, Fogelberg Studio Fellowship
Allgood is a 2019 graduate of NCC’s Minnesota New Institute for Ceramic Education program (MN NICE) and has been a resident at Mark Shapiro’s Stonepool Pottery in Westhampton, MA. Her 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 used her residency to improve forms in her current repertoire including yarn bowls, watering pots, and bookends, while researching new forms for the current COVID era.
Aaron Caldwell, Warren Mackenzie Advancement Award
Caldwell was born and raised in Fresno, CA. He graduated from Southern Illinois University (Carbondale) with a BA in general studio art in 2019, and is completing his MS in art education from Illinois State University (Normal) in December 2021. He has been awarded the Multicultural Fellowship in 2019 from NCECA, Warren MacKenzie Advancement Award in 2019 from Northern Clay Center, Kiln God scholarship in 2020 from Watershed Center for Ceramic Art (Newcastle, ME), and was chosen as a 2021 Ceramics Monthly Emerging Artist. He has exhibited at Lucy Lacoste Gallery (Concord, MA), The Clay Studio (Philadelphia, PA), at the NCECA Student Exhibition in 2020 and 2021, and at Baltimore Clayworks. He is also the lead organizer for Queeramics, a platform dedicated to bringing visibility and opportunities to queer ceramic artists.
Caldwell has always been passionate about education, and has recently gained a growing passion for the arts. He plans on helping create and sustain art making and engaging programs in marginalized communities, in hopes of encouraging these communities to pursue art as a field of interest or a personal hobby.
Ira Elliot Corbett, Warren Mackenzie Advancement Award
Ira Elliot Corbett, a 2019 WMAA award recipient, began studying ceramics in their hometown of Rochester, MN, and earned their AFA from Rochester Community and Technical College in 2016. Corbett continued their studies at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, where they graduated with their BFA in ceramics with a minor in drawing in 2019. They were one of two recipients of the Warren Mackenzie Advancement Award in 2019 from Northern Clay Center. Corbett currently works as a tilemaker and resides in Minneapolis while continuing their artistic pursuits.
Katie Coughlin, Warren Mackenzie Advancement Award
Katie Coughlin, a 2018 WMAA award recipient, received her MFA in 2018 from The Ohio State University (Columbus) and her BFA in 2010 from New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. Katie has been an artist in residence at Red Lodge Clay Center (Red Lodge, MT) and Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts (Newcastle, ME). She has received multiple awards including the Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award from the International Sculpture Center, the Warren Mackenzie Advancement Award from Northern Clay Center, and most recently a 2020 NYSCA/ NYFA Artist Fellowship. A native New Yorker, Coughlin returned to the city in 2018 and lives and works in Brooklyn.
Wendy Eggerman, Red Wing Collectors Society Foundation Award
Wendy Eggerman, of St. Paul, MN, first fell in love with pottery while attending college in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. Since then, her work has been exhibited nationally and she has been an active ceramic artist in a variety of studios. Most notably, she was involved with the American Museum of Ceramic Art in Pomona, CA where she was a teacher, volunteer, and had a solo show, Wrought Clay, in 2016. Eggerman currently has a home studio where she makes functional earthenware pottery. Her work is influenced by her love of antiques and, in particular, hobnail glass.
Gabrielle Gawreluk, Anonymous Artist Studio Fellowship
Gawreluk creates functional and sculptural ceramics aiming to invoke sense memories of favorite foods and meals shared. Earning her BFA in 2017 at the University of Wisconsin-Stout (Menomonie), Gawreluk has been developing her practice steadily with Post-Baccalaureates at Montana State University (Bozeman) in 2019 and Colorado State University (Fort Collins) in 2020; and as a short-term summer resident at the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, MT. She used her time at NCC to create a new body of work based on underappreciated kitchen tools and to instigate collaborations with a local chefs and food stylists.
Ashton Keen, Warren Mackenzie Advancement Award
Keen, the 2020 WMAA award recipient, is a potter currently living in Logan, UT. As a senior in high school, she took a wheel throwing and hand building course which is where she first became interested in clay. She later went on to receive her BFA from the University of Mississippi (Oxford). Her work has been displayed in several national exhibitions and she received various juror awards including the NCECA undergraduate award for excellence 2nd place 2019. Most recently she worked as the ceramic intern for STARworks (Star, NC). Currently she is an MFA candidate at Utah State University (Logan).
Jacob Meer, Anonymous Artist Studio Fellowship
Meer used his residency to transition his work to low-fire soda firing and develop a new body of work. Meer previously completed a residency at the Morean Center for Clay in St. Petersburg, FL. He has also been an apprentice to Simon Levin at Mill Creek Pottery in Gresham, WI, and holds a BFA from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Meer’s work is inspired by objects found in his grandparents’ home and the stories held within them. He works to create utilitarian work that showcases a story and the history of its making.