April 2 – April 28, 2024
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Milo Berezin, Eric Jensen, Colleen Riley, Sandra Torres
Jewelry Spotlight: Kristen Cliffel
April Featured Artists: Milo Berezin, Eric Jensen, Colleen Riley, Sandra Torres
Jewelry Spotlight: Kristen Cliffel
Our April Featured Artists were buzzing with motifs from nature. Berezin’s anthropomorphized animal narratives are often windows into their thoughts at a given moment and serve as a reminder that it’s okay to feel our feelings and embrace the full range of human experience. Jensen says, “My goal is simplicity. If I were to name a source of inspiration, it might be water-smoothed stones and wood.” Riley’s pots celebrate the historic ceramic tradition of decorative botanical imagery by employing the patterns and textures of the Minnesota landscape. Torres’ work explores the effect of small but significant variations within repetition of shape, size, and patterns. She chose a process that allows her to create contrast while maintaining the translucency of the porcelain–delicate to the sight, yet strong to the touch. Cliffel’s birds are a consistent form throughout her body of work that explores “domestic mythologies” and are both wearable and sculptural.
About the Artists
Milo Berezin
Pittsburgh, PA
Raised in the woods of rural Alaska, Milo Berezin moved to Pittsburgh in 2004 to study sculpture and printmaking at Carnegie Mellon University, followed by a Masters of Teaching at Chatham University. The son of a production potter, he rediscovered the joy of clay while working as an arts administrator and teaching artist at a community ceramics nonprofit. Today, Berezin blends his interests in 2D and 3D design on playfully-illustrated ceramic forms inspired by wildlife and his love of nature.
Eric Jensen
Chicago, IL
Eric Jensen received his MFA in ceramics from Cranbrook Academy of Art (Bloomfield Hills, MI) and has over 45 years of experience in producing functional ware. In 1975, Jensen, along with several other artists, set up Lillstreet Studios in Chicago. “I come from a family of hand workers, so I feel I’m obeying my genetic code,” he says. “My goal is simplicity. If I were to name a source of inspiration, it might be water-smoothed stones and wood, Shaker furniture, or the writings of Wallace Stegner.”
Colleen Riley
Eureka Township, MN
Colleen Riley’s work is a reflection of her connection to the ever-changing rural environment surrounding her home studio in Eureka Township, Minnesota, 30 miles south of Minneapolis. Her pots celebrate the historic ceramic tradition of decorative botanical imagery by employing the patterns and textures of the Minnesota landscape—spring wildflowers, a carpet of decaying leaves in the woods, or the contours of a freshly plowed field. Early 20th century European objects and the strong lines of mid-century furnishings, prints, and textiles inspire her forms. Atmospheric firing gives a complex, aged quality to the clay’s surface, adding an element of surprise, which ensures that each piece is lively, unique, and inviting to the touch.
Sandra Torres
Ojai, CA
Originally trained as an architect, Sandra Torres eventually transferred her creative outlet into clay work. Her ceramic education started under the wing of a master ceramist at an experimental studio in Mexico City. In southern California, she continued her learning in three different studios. Torres spent time in China and Mexico to research traditional clay techniques. An apprenticeship at Studio Pieter Stockmans (Genk, Belgium) had a great impact on her work and later directed her to be an artist-in-residence at the International Ceramics Studio (Kecskemét, Hungary.) Torres’ work explores the effect of small, but significant, variations within repetition of shape, size and patterns. She has chosen a process that allows her to create contrast of color, while maintaining the soft bare feeling and translucency of the porcelain–delicate to the sight, yet strong to the touch.
Jewelry Spotlight: Kristen Cliffel
Cleveland, OH
Kristen Cliffel received her BFA from the Cleveland Institute of Art (OH). In 2015, she was awarded the Individual Excellence Award from the Ohio Arts Council. There was no shortage of artistic imprint during Cliffel’s childhood: art lined the walls of the family home, and there was a castle in the basement where live mice ran around in tunnels. Now identifying as both a wife and a mother, Cliffel engages themes of domestic mythology through her ceramic practice. Central to her exploration is the unfolding of intimate relationships and the fear, hope, belonging, security, and connection associated with them. Cliffel uses visual metaphors and unexpected combinations of sculpted objects to dissect these domestic fairytales and expose their prescribed notions of happiness, fulfillment, and success. The bird is a form returned to throughout her body of work, both wearable and sculptural.