Opening July 20:
           Artists of NCC
           rec•ol•lect
      Opening September 27:
           Exquisite Pots II
Upcoming Exhibitions 

Artists of NCC

July 20 – September 1 | Gallery M

Opening Reception Saturday, July 20, noon – 4 pm

Every two years, Northern Clay Center turns the exhibition spotlight on our many talented teachers, students, resident artists, current artists on staff, and clay camp-goers.  We invite you to view the wide variety of art making that goes on at NCC: functional and sculptural works, made with low- and high-fire clays, traditional reduction glazes and soda-fired surfaces, and everything in between. Please join us for the opening reception as we celebrate the many talented individuals who have helped make NCC what it is today.

Please note: Due to the vast number of prospective participants, each individual is limited to one piece for the exhibition.  This one piece can be comprised of several smaller works. Work must have been executed during the past two years. We would prefer not to include pieces that have been exhibited previously at the Center. Due to space constraints, and a desire to include each of you, we must limit the size of any individual piece to 36” x 36” x 36.”

Further eligibility criteria and submission requirements for those interested in participating in this exhibition include:

  • Studio artists who have licensed studio space at the Center for at least six months between the dates of July 1, 2011, and June 30, 2013, are eligible to participate.
  • Teaching artists who have taught at least two, regular quarter-long classes at NCC between the dates of July 1, 2011, and June 30, 2013, are eligible to participate.  Those who are not teaching regular onsite adult classes, but who are regularly teaching for NCC’s ClayToGo and ART@HAND programs are eligible.
  • NCC students are eligible to participate if they have completed at least two regularly scheduled adult or children’s classes between the dates of July 1, 2011, and June 30, 2013. These students are invited to deliver one piece to the exhibition gallery on Thursday, July 11, from 12 noon – 6:00 pm.
  • Clay Camp students are invited to deliver one piece created during clay camps in the summers of 2012 and 2013 (to date) on Thursday, July 11, from 12 noon – 6:00 pm.
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The work will be subject to a juried selection process. A panel of two teaching artists and NCC Exhibitions Manager, Mike Arnold, will select up to 30 student works for this representative group exhibition. If your work is not selected, you must be available to pick it up Saturday and Sunday, July 13 and 14, from 12 noon – 4 pm.

rec•ol•lect

July 20 – September 1 | Emily Galusha Gallery

Opening Reception Saturday, July 20, noon – 4 pm

A call for high-quality ceramic pieces for donation or re-sale.

Northern Clay Center announces its biennial secondary market sale and exhibition that will take place in conjunction with the Artists of NCC exhibition, July 20 – September 1. This unique opportunity will showcase select objects (both older and more contemporary) from various private and personal collections, all of which will be available for purchase. NCC is now collecting donations and works on commission for this event.

Secondary Market sales by Northern Clay Center were born, in part, in response to our audience. Collectors, corporations, and artists who have long been collecting great work over the years are ready to narrow their focus, or thin our their collections, and ultimately, find new homes for some much loved, but no longer needed pots. Northern Clay Center is a natural resource for such individuals, given our reputation, gallery experience, and customer relationships.

The rec·ol·lect sale at Northern Clay Center will bring together buyers and sellers, all the while raising revenue for NCC’s artist services program. Specifically, 100% of proceeds from the sale will support a variety of opportunities for emerging artists, including the Anonymous Potter Studio Fellowship, which now annually provides two artists with a fully-subsidized studio space and a modest firing/materials stipend. Additionally, exhibiting older pots from noted local and national artists provides us with an opportunity to educate our students and clay community on particular techniques and an artist’s specific contribution to the field of contemporary ceramics.



Interested in donating your pots for this particular sale? 
Please contact NCC’s sales gallery manager, Karen McPherson at 612.339.8007 x 300 or karenmcpherson@northernclaycenter.org. Donations will be accepted through July 1.

At top: Silvie Granatelli (detail of platter). Bottom left to right: Warren MacKenzie, Jan McKeachie Johnston, Jeffrey Nichols, Jo Severson, McKenzie Smith

Exquisite Pots II: Red-Handed

September 27 – November 3

Opening Reception Friday, September 27, 6 – 8 pm

Northern Clay Center’s exhibition, Exquisite Pots II: Red-Handed, is based, in part, on its predecessor, Exquisite Pots: 6 Degrees of Collaboration, which explored various collaborations in porcelain, and derived its idea from the 1920s Surrealist game “Exquisite Corpse,” where each successive collaborator built upon the preceding work of another without fully knowing what had come before.

Re-imagined, Exquisite Pots II: Red-Handed, steps outside the parameters of its first iteration, now exploring collaborations in earthenware, and expressly encouraging the participants to contrive, alter, and redefine the signature forms of their peers through every stage of the making process. With nearly absolute freedom, eight artists—for a period of eight months—are taking part in a bisque and greenware exchange, half of them shipping their works to one another, with the other four artists working collaboratively in residence at Northern Clay Center. Upon receipt of the work, each artist will alter and glaze the pots with their own processes and palette. Not simply reactive, the artists will communicate with each other throughout the entire process, conspiring on new approaches, challenging each other to address the making and decorating processes in new ways. With one common bond—red earthenware—the artists will be forced to reconsider what is typically a singular and solitary process of making – despite one’s influences – and concede their own vision to that of someone else.

The participants in the exhibition will include: Jason Bige Burnett, Marc Digeros, Ursula Hargens, Lisa Orr, Liz Quackenbush, Joseph Pintz, Pete Scherzer, and Holly Walker.

In conjunction with the exhibition, Bige Burnett, Hargens, Pintz, and Orr will be in residence at Northern Clay Center. Between July 14th and 26th, they will decorate, alter, and glaze each other’s work. Their work (and their process) will be on view to the public at NCC, in studio D, typically from 9 am – 5 pm daily over the course of their residency. Their progress can be tracked now on the Exquisite Pots blog.

A special artist talk will take place among participants on Tuesday, July 23, from 6 – 8 pm in NCC’s library.