On view September 20 – November 2, 2025
Emily Galusha Gallery
Thirty-five years ago, Northern Clay Center opened to the public. Since then, countless artists, students, and community members have crossed through its doors, communing amongst clay. NCC has steadily grown its archival collection since its early days, and its story of binary gender in collections is a familiar one, but not an unchanging one. Still Forming: 35 Years of Clay, Collection, and Change tells the story of the collection’s past, present, and future through ceramic objects and the artists who composed them. It’s a story of history’s collective patriarchy, the turn toward feminist collecting, and an achievable, equitable future.
About the Artists
Judith Meyers Altobell
Judy Altobell is a sculptor whose work explores the expressive potential of ceramics through a deep engagement with form, surface, and historical reference. Over the past decade, she has developed and sustained around six ongoing series, each rooted in a distinct conceptual framework while unified by a commitment to ceramics as both a material and metaphorical language.
Altobell’s sculptures often reflect social and political ideas, using the physicality of clay to explore broader human narratives through form and metaphor. In one series, she draws on the lyrics of Bob Dylan, translating poetic lines into sculptural expressions—such as her interpretation of a line from Brownsville Girl to explore the complexities of marriage: “I always say, hang onto me baby, and let’s hope the roof stays on.” In another body of work, she pays homage to the ancient haniwa tomb figures of Japan, embracing their understated simplicity and historical resonance to create a dialogue between past and present. Her interest in cultural memory continues in a series influenced by 18th- and 19th-century American folk portraiture, where she channels the directness and symbolic weight of early paintings that, as Holland Cotter of The New York Times noted, served as “a combination of genetic trophy, protective talisman and personal memento.” Through these varied sources, Judy crafts sculptural works that are both grounded in tradition and richly evocative of timeless human experience.
Her travels have also deeply informed her practice. Experiences in Tanzania and Kenya in 1995 and in Norway inspired several series, bringing cross-cultural and environmental dimensions into her evolving ceramic language. She exhibited in a retrospective of past Jerome grant recipients at Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis in 2008. She was a recipient of the 1998 McKnight Ceramic Artists Fellowship in Minnesota and a Jerome Foundation project grant in 1991. Her work was included in “The Figure in Contemporary Sculpture” at the Tweed Museum of Art in Duluth in 2000. Her sculpture is represented by Edgewood Orchard Galleries in Fish Creek WI.
Jonas Arčkauskas (Arčius)
For over 59 years, Arčkauskas has been active in the field of ceramics, creating works ranging from miniature pieces to large-scale compositions in both interior and exterior public spaces. His work has been featured in exhibitions and symposiums across Lithuania, Finland, Italy, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Poland, and the United States.
In addition to his ceramic practice, Arčkauskas has worked in theater for more than 45 years, contributing to stage productions as a set and costume designer, makeup artist, video installation creator, poster designer, director, and librettist. He also illustrates books and has staged performances in theaters throughout Lithuania, Austria, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Russia, Japan, and Ukraine.
Over the course of his career, he has created more than 100 performances, state commemorations, cultural campaigns, and other major events.
Margaret Bohls
Margaret Bohls makes hand-built pottery and vessel forms that she shows and sells both locally and nationally. Her work explores the relationship between function and form through the creation of visual and sculptural ceramic objects. Each series is developed with specific formal goals, focusing on volume, contour, surface, and texture. Volume is treated as both a functional element and a visual one, whether expansive or weighted. Edges and outlines are considered as drawn lines, shaped with attention to weight and movement. Her pieces are made to be used—held, carried, poured from—with careful attention to detail that guides the user’s interaction. The work engages with the cultural language of utilitarian forms, drawing from and questioning traditional ideas of function. Decisions around form, scale, and components like handles or spouts reflect a thoughtful response to this shared visual vocabulary, using utility as a means of communication.
She received a BFA from Rhode Island School of Design in 1989, and an MFA from Louisiana State University in 1995. She has been teaching ceramics at the college level for over twenty-five years. She is currently an Associate Professor of Art at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln. She previously taught at the University of Minnesota from 1998 to 2011 and has taught as visiting faculty at Ohio University, Penn State University, and NSCAD University in Halifax. She has given lectures at universities across the U.S. and has taught hands-on workshops at art centers such as Arrowmont School of Art and Crafts, in Gatlinburg, Greenwich House Pottery in New York, Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Aspen, Colorado, and Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina. Bohls’ work has been shown in over 100 group and solo exhibitions since 1995 and is included in the permanent collections of the Everson Museum in Syracuse, The Weisman Museum and the Minnesota Museum of American Art in the Twin Cities, the American Museum of Ceramic Art (AMOCA), and in the Sonny and Gloria Kamm Teapot Foundation Collection. She has written articles for the Journal of the National Council for Education on Ceramic Arts, Ceramics Monthly, Pottery Making Illustrated, and Studio Potter Journal.
David East
Currently serving as Chair of Ceramics at the Maryland Institute College of Art, David S. East has taught and been a visiting artist at numerous locations including University of Missouri-Columbia (Assistant Professor 2001-2007), Alfred University, Kansas City Art Institute, Massachusetts College of Art, Washington University, and Tainan National College of Art, Tainan, Taiwan.
David’s recent work focuses on ceramics, sculpture, installation, and digital fabrication technologies. Recently his research has focused on architectural and design references revolving around issues of urban planning, architectural ornament and design as signifiers of our cultural history. He has been exhibited nationally and internationally in juried and curated exhibitions, including the GICBiennale 2011, 2015 and 2017 Icheon, Korea, solo exhibitions at the Jane Hartsook Gallery, Greenwich House Pottery, NY, NY and Schulman Project, Baltimore, MD. He has received numerous awards including, Individual Artist Awards from the Maryland State Arts Council, the Lighton Foundation, and the McKnight Foundation. David received his B.F.A in Ceramics from the University of Wisconsin – River Falls (1997) and his M.F.A from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (2000).
Ken Ferguson
Ken Ferguson began his career as a traditional potter, focused on functional forms. His approach shifted after attending a summer workshop at the Archie Bray Foundation with Toshiko Takaezu, where he expanded his glaze techniques and began incorporating drawing and surface decoration into his platters. This movement toward a more expressive style continued under the influence of Peter Voulkos, though Ferguson’s work consistently retained its functional roots.
Ferguson taught at the Kansas City Art Institute for 32 years, serving as the head of the ceramics department until his retirement in 1996. As an educator, he played a significant role in shaping the direction of contemporary American ceramics, mentoring generations of students who would go on to influence the field.
His work has been exhibited widely in the United States and internationally, and is held in major collections including the Smithsonian Institution, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.
Ferguson’s practice combined traditional pottery with sculptural innovation, often incorporating playful and whimsical elements that reflected his distinct artistic voice. His legacy is recognized for its technical excellence, creative range, and lasting impact on American studio ceramics, both through his own work and through the community of artists he helped foster.
Nina Hole
Nina Hole is known for her monumental clay “fire sculptures,” which are equal parts sculpture and performance art. These resemble rudimentary churches and houses built by teams of people, then fired in place. Although solid looking, the structures were hollow inside and built in a modular system which connected rows of slabs bent into a u-shape, making a strong, double wall system. These were sometimes minimal with a rough, rudimentary exterior decorated with terra sigillata or glaze.
Instead of being fired in a kiln, the fire brick bases are the kiln fire box. Wood is fed into the brick kiln base throughout the firing process. Once wrapped in insulating k-wool material the sculpture with its fire box is the kiln. When the insulating blankets are removed the monumental sculpture is revealed, a glowing fire belching sculpture. Sculptures would be built on fire bricks, and sometimes cement so they could be moved to another location. Hole’s performance art were Happenings[1] these reveals were events, a key part of her art. Hole has permanent installations of these sculptures around the world, including Mexico, the United States, Australia, Portugal, Taiwan, Hungary, Wales, Korea, Germany, Japan, and her native Denmark.
Nina Hole is also known for her smaller sculptures including her “small houses” and “inspirational churches” series. Like her fire sculptures, these are inspired by houses, churches, with a rough finish and a muted palette of whites and browns. Hole’s last fire sculpture was built on the Purdue University campus in West Lafayette, Indiana and completed in 2016 after her death.
Ayumi Horie
Ayumi Horie is a studio potter based in Portland, Maine, known for her functional ceramics featuring hand-drawn animal imagery. Her work blends craft, activism, and community engagement. She has received numerous honors, including the Maine Craft Artist Award (2022), United States Artists Distinguished Fellow in Craft (2015), Ceramics Monthly’s inaugural Ceramic Artist of the Year, and an Honorary Membership from NCECA in 2020 for her outstanding contributions to the field. Horie has taught and lectured at leading craft institutions across the U.S. and abroad, and her work is included in major collections such as the Museum of Art and Design in New York City.
Beyond her studio practice, Horie has led and contributed to several influential projects. She initiated the Craft Archive Fellowship in partnership with the Center for Craft to support underrepresented craft narratives. Her advocacy includes organizing Sexism in Ceramics, a panel examining gender inequities in the field, and founding Pots In Action, a globally curated ceramics Instagram project. She also co-founded The Democratic Cup, a collaborative effort using pottery to spark political conversation, and Portland Brick, a public art installation rooted in community storytelling. In response to major events, she curated Obamaware (2008) and co-founded Handmade For Japan (2011), raising funds for political and disaster relief causes.
Horie holds degrees from Mount Holyoke College (B.A.), Alfred University (B.F.A.), and the University of Washington (M.F.A.). Raised in Lewiston/Auburn, Maine, her early experiences—rooted in nature, family, and a strong sense of material culture—continue to shape her practice.
Lung-Chieh Lin
Lung-Chieh Lin received his MFA from the Graduate Institute of Applied Arts, Tainan National University of the Arts. He has been a resident artist at the Guldagergaard International Ceramic Research Center in Denmark, and the Escuela de Arte de Talavera de la Reina, Talavera, Spain. In addition, he has received numerous awards, receiving the Silver Prize at the 2nd New Taipei City Ceramic Competition, Taiwan. He writes, “I have extracted images of the artificial objects that I have formed emotional connections with and mixed them with organic beings…with the objective of representing the perceptual experience that the body has with the micro-matters in its dwelling place.”
Evelyn Rose Mtika
Evelyn Mtika is a ceramic artist based in West Philadelphia whose work explores themes of cultural identity, portraiture, and narrative. A graduate of the University of Hartford, she earned a BFA in Ceramics with a minor in Painting. Her practice focuses on the complexities of living within and between the Black and African diasporas, using the figure, text, and visual storytelling to explore connection and difference across cultures.
Mtika’s work has been exhibited at venues including the Clay Art Center (Port Chester, NY), Saratoga Clay Arts Center (Schuylerville, NY), the Joseloff Gallery at the University of Hartford, and the Tyler School of Art Gallery at Temple University. In 2022, she presented her capstone exhibition, Hands On, at the Silpe Gallery in West Hartford. Committed to community engagement, she aims to make art more accessible in the neighborhood where she was raised.
Donovan Palmquist
Donovan Palmquist is a ceramic artist and kiln builder based in Minnesota, working primarily in high-fire functional pottery. With over 30 years of experience, his current practice focuses on thrown and altered forms finished in atmospheric firings. Inspired by a personal collection of over 100 primitive metal pouring cans and cast iron plumb bobs, Palmquist draws from their utilitarian origins, tactile qualities, and the natural patina formed through wear and use. These objects inform both the shapes and surfaces of his pots, which he textures and marks to evoke erosion and time. Living in the rural Midwest, he also finds inspiration in the surrounding prairies and woods, incorporating abstract natural imagery into his work. Wood firing enhances these connections, adding surface variation and a sense of exposure to the elements.
Palmquist earned his MFA in Ceramics from the University of Minnesota–Twin Cities in 1988. He has exhibited nationally, taught at Anoka-Ramsey Community College, and has lectured at the Weisman Museum and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. In addition to his studio practice, he is the owner of Master Kiln Builders.
Mark Pharis
Pharis was first introduced to ceramics in the fall of 1967 while studying at the University of Minnesota. After exploring a range of art courses, the clay studio became a central focus. Encouragement from a friend’s parents led to studying with renowned potter Warren MacKenzie—an experience that proved to be transformative. From that point forward, Pharis worked within a close-knit cohort of talented and committed undergraduate students, remaining at the University until 1971.
In the summer of 1973, his pottery studio was established in a rural area outside of Houston, Minnesota, where he continued to work until 1989. In 1985, Pharis joined the University of Minnesota’s Department of Art as a faculty member, later serving as department chair from 1998 to 2004 and as Associate Dean in the College of Liberal Arts from 2005 to 2008.
His early ceramic work focused on functional, wheel-thrown pottery that was “once-fired” in a combination wood and oil-fired kiln. Since 1992, his studio practice has shifted exclusively to earthenware. Current work is constructed by hand from clay slabs, guided by two-dimensional paper patterns—a method influenced by the pattern-making traditions of sewing and sheet metal work. Geometry plays a key role in the construction process, approached with casual intuition rather than formal mathematical systems.
This ongoing evolution in process reflects a sustained interest in form, surface, and material, grounded in a deep connection to the history and traditions of craft.
Virginia Scotchie
Virginia Scotchie is a ceramic artist and educator who has led the ceramics program at the University of South Carolina in Columbia since 1992. Originally from Portsmouth, Virginia, and raised in Asheville, North Carolina, she earned her BFA in ceramics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and completed her MFA at Alfred University in New York in 1985. Her teaching career has run parallel to her studio practice, and she has received recognition for both, including the USC Creative Research Award and the Emerging Talent Award from the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA).
Scotchie is known for mixed-media ceramic sculptures that often feature fragmented forms, vibrant colors, and textured surfaces. Her work explores the relationship between parts and wholes, drawing inspiration from mass-produced objects, pop culture, and personal memory. Sculptural series like Object Maker invite viewers to consider the familiar and the abstract side by side, often using repetition and arrangement to emphasize form and variation. Her sculptures are hand-built or wheel-thrown and are included in the permanent collections of institutions such as the South Carolina State Museum, the Asheville Art Museum, and the Huntington Museum of Art.
She has exhibited widely throughout the U.S. and internationally and has completed artist residencies in Taiwan, Italy, Australia, and the Netherlands. In 2010, she completed a major public art commission for the Outdoor Ceramic Sculpture Park at the Yingge Ceramics Museum in Taipei. In addition to exhibitions, her work has been featured in numerous publications and collected both privately and publicly. Scotchie continues to be an influential figure in contemporary ceramics, both through her teaching and her ongoing studio practice.
James Tanner
James Tanner is an American sculptor and educator known for his work in multiple media, including ceramics, bronze, glass, and painting. Originally from Florida, he earned degrees from Florida A&M University and the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he studied under Harvey Littleton. While his practice is rooted in ceramics, Tanner has consistently explored the possibilities of material, combining sculptural form with bold surfaces and abstraction.
Tanner taught for over thirty years at Minnesota State University, Mankato, where he retired as Professor Emeritus. Throughout his career, he received several major honors, including a National Endowment for the Arts Visual Artist Fellowship and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Minnesota Craft Council. His work is included in the permanent collections of institutions such as the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Museum of Art and Design in New York City, and the Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum in Minneapolis.
As an artist and educator, Tanner contributed significantly to the development of contemporary craft and sculpture in the Midwest. While his heritage informed his perspective, his work has not centered on themes of protest or cultural critique. Instead, Tanner’s practice focuses on form, color, and material experimentation—creating visually striking works that reflect both technical skill and a deep engagement with process.
Janet Williams
Janet Williams is a ceramic artist originally from England who relocated to the United States to pursue graduate studies at Cranbrook Academy of Art, where she earned her MFA. Now based in the U.S., she has taught ceramics at institutions including the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, the Cleveland Institute of Art, and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where she is Professor Emeritus. In addition to her academic career, Williams co-founded Art Farm, a nonprofit artist residency program in Marquette, Nebraska.
Williams’ work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally. She has received numerous awards and residencies, including a Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant, a McKnight Foundation award, fellowships from the Nebraska Arts Council, and a residency at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts. Her practice engages both traditional and digital methods, often exploring the intersection of tactile ceramics with digital tools such as CNC laser cutting and computer-based design.
Themes of mapping, identity, and place are central to Williams’ work. As an immigrant and naturalized U.S. citizen, she uses maps—both geographical and metaphorical—as a point of entry into her investigations. In recent work, she has translated her own fingerprint into porcelain topographies, linking the physical and the virtual. Her practice reflects an ongoing inquiry into the relevance of ancient materials like clay in the context of contemporary digital culture.
Lucy V. Yogerst
Lucy Yogerst has maintained a studio in the Twin Cities since 1979. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, she has taught youth and adults at the Walker Art Center, the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, the Minneapolis Community and Technical College, and through a variety of community education programs. Her work continues to be exhibited throughout the Twin Cities. Yogerst is currently a board member for the Northside Arts Council in North Minneapolis.
Katharine Gotham
Katharine Gotham is a multi-disciplinary visual artist from Saint Paul, MN.
Her ceramic works are most often described as playful and are known for
their smooth, curvy, wheel-thrown forms and wax-resist glazing process.
Katharine’s works have been in many regional and national exhibitions, and
in several publications including The Best of New Ceramics, Wheel Thrown
Ceramics and The New York Times. Between 1995 and 2010, she maintained
a studio, taught classes and enthusiastically volunteered at NCC. In 2013,
Katharine shifted her primary focus from ceramics to plein air oil painting.
Her current workspace is in the FOK Building in St. Paul where she is the
president of OT Artists- a 13 member studio collective.
Robin Murphy