On view: February 3 – March 1, 2026
Sales Gallery & Online
Alysha Hill, Didem Mert, Chris Singewald, Shumpei Yamaki
Jewelry Spotlight: April D. Felipe
February Featured Artists: Alysha Hill, Didem Mert, Chris Singewald, Shumpei Yamaki
Jewelry Spotlight: April D. Felipe
About the Artists
Alysha Hill
Richfield, Minnesota
Alysha Hill is a born, raised and rooted Minnesotan from the Twin Cities. Hill holds a BFA from MSUMoorhead and in 2025 the Harlan Boss Foundation, through American Craft Council, awarded her as one of their emerging artists. Hill teaches ceramics at Northern Clay Center, in addition to being their Community Engagement Coordinator. She produces her ceramic work from her in-home studio in Richfield as A Hill Studio. Hill crafts whimsical utilitarian ceramics, and renders forms using methods of wheel throwing, while often incorporating functional shaped wire into the pieces. Her work is inspired by mindfulness and the Minnesota seasons, which is reflected in the clay bodies, colors and designs she creates. From dishes, earrings, and to home decor, she makes functional art that holds a vessel of treasures from the thrills of use, to capturing memories of moments in time.
Didem Mert
Sebastopol, California
Didem Mert (she/they) was born and raised in Cincinnati, OH. Mert received their BFA in ceramics from Northern Kentucky University (Highland Heights) in 2014 and MFA in ceramics from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania in 2017. Mert has exhibited nationally in over 40 venues including The Clay Studio (Philadelphia, PA), Companion Gallery (Humboldt, TN), Charlie Cummings Gallery (Gainesville, FL), CLAYAKAR (Iowa City, IA), and Erie Art Museum (PA). Mert’s work was published in Ceramics Monthly’s 2014 Undergraduate Showcase. She was awarded a first prize grant through the Three Arts Foundation in 2014. They were featured on the cover of Pottery Making Illustrated’s January/February 2016 issue. Mert was included on CFile’s list “15 Potters to Watch in 2016,” and was featured on Architectural Digest’s list, “10 Ceramic Artists Giving Pottery a Modern Update.” Mert led a residency at Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts during the summer of 2017. In 2018, she was honored as one of Ceramics Monthly’s Emerging Artists and was a summer resident at the Archie Bray Foundation. Mert currently lives between Sebastopol, CA and Burlington, KY and works as a full-time studio potter and workshop instructor.
Chris Singewald
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Chris is a potter, clay studio director, and teaching artist living in Minneapolis, MN. His pottery is fired to 2350 degrees Fahrenheit in soda kilns and wood kilns. The atmosphere from these firing processes interacts with the pieces form and volume, resulting in unique surface variation for each piece. Singewald wants his pieces to invite contemplation and curiosity while using his pots.
Shumpei Yamaki
West Branch, Iowa
Shumpei Yamaki was born and raised in Kamakura, Japan and moved to Philadelphia in 1996 to study dance. In 1999, Yamaki was injured in an automobile accident and enrolled in a ceramics class as physical therapy for his arm. He discovered his passion for ceramics and learned traditional Japanese pottery techniques, wood-firing, and ways to rely on local resources during his apprenticeship under Richard Bresnahan. He went on to graduate studies at the University of Iowa (Iowa City) and in 2005, Yamaki moved to Brooklyn to participate in wood-firings with Tim Rowan and Roger Baumann. Yamaki now resides in Iowa where he combines his passions for dance and ceramics. He says, “I view clay on the pottery wheel as a sort of stage for myself as a dancer.” Yamaki is mainly working on functional ceramics and has been experimenting with local clay in his personal endeavors as a wood-fire potter.
April D. Felipe
Albany, Ohio
April D. Felipe received her MFA in ceramics from Ohio University in Athens and her BFA from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. She is currently living in Albany, Ohio, where she holds her studio practice and teaches at community arts centers in her region. She is interested in the idea of adornment and the relationship between jewelry and the user. Felipe utilizes jewelry as a means to move through patterns and colors more freely. Jewelry provides an additional multidisciplinary approach outside of her ceramic sculpture practice. Felipe is a co-founder of The Color Network .org. She has been a resident and Windgate Scholarship recipient through the Archie Bray Foundation for Ceramic Arts (Helena, MT). She was also a 2017 emerging artist in Ceramics Monthly magazine.