Independent Arts News Reporting The Clay Studio Presents Three New Exhibitions by Resident Artists
Monday, December 30, 2024.
Pictured Above: Nintendo Super Mario Apse by Liisa Nelson. Photo Credit: Contributed.
NEWSROOM POST: PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA
The Clay Studio’s Resident Artist Program offers the top emerging ceramic talent in the U.S. and abroad the space, time, and resources to develop their artwork and professional careers.
Philadelphia, PA – The Clay Studio (1425 N. American Street, Philadelphia, PA 19122), Philadelphia’s preeminent ceramic arts and resident artist center, premieres three new exhibitions highlighting and celebrating the work of its Resident Artists. From January 15 through March 30, The Clay Studio’s Jill Bonovitz Gallery hosts Doesn’t It Feel Warmer Just Knowing the Sun Will Be Out by Danish-American ceramicist Josephine Mette Larson, Dreams by ceramic artist Liisa Nelson, and Palimpsest by South Korean ceramic sculptor Jinsik Yoo. Learn more about the exhibitions here.
“The Resident Artists represent the creative engine of our organization,” said Jennifer Zwilling, Curator and Director of Artistic Programs. “This highly selective program supports up-and-coming artists as they establish themselves in our artistic community. The work of Larsen, Nelson, and Yoo shows the range and depth of meaning achievable when artists master the skill and metaphor possible when working with clay as their medium.”
Visiting The Clay Studio’s Jill Bonovitz Gallery and Shop is free and open to the public seven days a week: Monday to Friday, from 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., and Saturday to Sunday, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Guests can view exhibitions or items in-person or online.
Pictured Above:Untitled by Josephine Mette Larson. Photo Credit: Contributed.
Exhibition Title: Doesn’t It Feel Warmer Just Knowing the Sun Will Be Out by Josephine Mette Larsen
When: January 15 to March 30, 2025
Description: Danish-American ceramicist Josephine Mette Larsen’s Resident Artist exhibition, Doesn’t It Feel Warmer Just Knowing the Sun Will Be Out, represents the rigid dichotomy of grief alongside immense joy that has been present in her life over the past few years. During that time, important members of her family passed away while two new lives were born. The exhibition’s title is inspired by the mindset Larsen held on to as she worked through these major life changes. The show revolves around a series of sculptures exploring the deep emotions, reflections, and questions that arose while she tried to hold on to the memories of those who passed while also celebrating those who have entered the world. Her piece “Enclosed Cylinder 1” illustrates the exhibition’s dueling themes through the vessel’s warm terracotta colored earthenware topped with a rippling black glazed surface descending down into a small opening.
Josephine Mette Larsen was born and raised in the United States to a mother and father who immigrated from Denmark in the 1990s. Over the last 10 years, she has been dedicated to her education and work experience within the field of ceramics while living periodically in the U.S. and Europe. Larsen’s education in ceramics reflects her bicultural background as she holds a BA in design from The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Art in Denmark and an MFA in ceramics from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan, USA. The specific context of Denmark, however, has been instrumental in the establishment of her artistic identity, as it carries a long history of high-quality craft and design. At the nucleus of Larsen’s practice is a strong sense of craftsmanship. She is currently based in Philadelphia, PA, where she is a Resident Artist at The Clay Studio.
Pictured Above: Angel and Pegasus by Liisa Nelson. Photo Credit: Contributed.
Exhibition Title: Dreams by Liisa Nelson
When: January 15 to March 30, 2025
Description: In her exhibition Dreams, Philadelphia-based ceramic artist Liisa Nelson has created a series of sculptures, furniture, and wall tile pieces exploring human longing through the myths and spirits of the past, blending them with symbols of the digital age and late capitalism. The collection questions how our hopes and dreams are shaped in an increasingly consumer-driven world and how power structures capitalize on our deepest desires. Drawing from video games, advertisements, and media, Nelson highlights mankind’s search for meaning amid a sea of marketed materials and information. Through this interplay of myth and modernity, Dreams invites reflections on personal narratives, cultural identity, and the ethics of commodification in a rapidly changing world. Nelson’s merging of old world and modern pop culture is best represented in her piece “Nintendo Super Mario Apse.” In the sculpture, she takes a traditional apse structure found in Gothic churches and adds a centerpiece resembling an old arcade game complete with joystick and heart icons.
Born and raised in Montana, the wildness of nature and the quietude of mountains is in Liisa Nelson’s blood. In 2018, she graduated with an MFA from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. She holds a BFA from Pacific Lutheran University and a post-baccalaureate from the University of Colorado, Boulder. Nelson was a Visiting Artist at The Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) (Beijing, China) in the Spring of 2019, and an Artist-in-Residence at the Jingdezhen Ceramics Institute (JCI) (Jingdezhen, China) in the Fall of 2019. She has taught at Alfred University and worked closely with students at JCI, and CAFA as a mentor and advisor. In 2020, Nelson founded Theorii Contemporary Art Space, an experimental gallery that is currently transitioning from brick-and-mortar to a digital and pop- up-based project. Her work is in several private and museum collections nationally and internationally.
Pictured Above: Messengers, No. 7 and 8 (with light) by Jinsik Yoo. Photo Credit: Contributed.
Exhibition Title: Palimpsest by Jinsik Yoo
When: January 15 to March 30, 2025
Description: South Korean ceramic sculptor Jinsik Yoo presents a new series of figurative sculptures in Palimpsest. The exhibition reinterprets the Korean funerary ritual of Jesa into a personal mythology, reflecting lineage, memory, and belonging. As a queer artist and the only son in his family, Yoo faces the traditional expectation of performing ancestral rites despite not being expected to have a son. His clay figures serve as messengers between Yoo and his ancestors, shaped through ritual-like processes involving earth, water, air, and fire. Unlike the incense used in a Jesa ceremony, which eventually vanishes, these ceramic figures remain, holding space for communication across worlds. Yoo’s intention was to transform tradition into something enduring, offering a new legacy that rewrites ancestral connections while honoring what came before. The exhibition’s title, palimpsest, is an extension of the concepts and themes Yoo explores, and refers to something reused or altered but still bearing visible traces of its earlier form.
Jinsik Yoo is a figurative ceramic sculptor from Daejon, South Korea. He received his BFA in graphic design from Konkuk University in Seoul, South Korea. He then worked as a graphic designer before returning to Konkuk as a special graduate student studying ceramics. Yoo moved to the United States in 2017 to pursue his MFA at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. He has exhibited and presented nationally and internationally. His studio practice involves translating photographs into paintings, which are then spliced and reassembled into three-dimensional forms.
About The Clay Studio
The Clay Studio is a nonprofit arts organization with internationally renowned artist residency programs, classes and events, exhibitions, community engagement programs, a shop, and more. They serve as a place where established and emerging artists come to shape their careers, a vital resource for arts education at local schools and community organizations, and a destination where people from every neighborhood in Philadelphia and all over the world can explore the vast world of clay. Visit theclaystudio.org for more information.
