CLEVELAND, Ohio — — Clay takes on an architectural edge in “Surface and Structure: Contemporary Ceramics at the Edge of Form,” a new exhibition opening Jan. 30 at The Sculpture Center in University Circle.
On view through March 28 at 12210 Euclid Avenue, the show gathers faculty and alumni from the Cleveland Institute of Art, Kent State University and the University of Akron whose art is redefining what ceramic sculpture can be.
The opening reception is set for 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 30, where guests can view the artwork and engage in conversation with the artists. It’s free to attend with parking on site.
Rather than treating clay as decorative or functional, the exhibition highlights it as structural and architectural material. The featured works lean into collapse, asymmetry and surface tension, exploring how imperfection and instability can become creative forces instead of flaws.
“These works resist being polite or perfected,” Grace Chin, executive director of The Sculpture Center, said in a press release. “The artists embrace instability, excess, and visual tension, allowing clay to become expressive, physical, and sometimes deliberately uncomfortable.”
The show features pieces by regional artists Seuil Chung, Kristen Cliffel, PJ Hargraves, Drew Ippoliti, Peter Christian Johnson, Anna Kruse, Eva Kwong, Keenan O’Toole, Seth Nagelberg and Phil Soucy. Together, their works suggest architecture in flux — clay that folds, leans, and stretches under its own weight, challenging long-held ideas about ceramics as tidy or contained.
