artists in residence 2024-25

Bio

Allyson George,  was raised in Orlando by her single mother alongside her two siblings (she's a triplet). She discovered her passion for art at a young age, initially aspiring to be an animator. After earning her BFA in Ceramics from West Virginia University (WVU) in 2021, Allyson continued to expand her artistic horizons. Allyson served as an Education Assistant at the Archie Bray Foundation, where she contributed to educational programs and immersed herself in a vibrant artistic community. In the summer of 2023, Allyson held the position of Summer Studio Manager at the Nantucket Island School of Design and the Arts (NISDA), overseeing studio operations and facilitating a creative environment for students. She recently completed a post-baccalaureate in ceramics at Western New Mexico University. Her artwork continues to be influenced by her childhood dreams of animating characters in the realm of pottery, reflecting a blend of humor and technical skill.

Bio

Lucky Moe is a Southeast Asian Ceramist from Rakhine, Burma. The style of her works is inspired by nostalgia for childhood memories from her time growing up in Burma. Lucky started her art career in Illustration. Her process includes transforming her drawings into figurative sculptures to tell various stories from her life. Lucky Moe received her BFA in Ceramics from the Kansas City Art Institute in 2023.

Bio

Born and raised in a small town in northwest Indiana, Joel Pisowicz began working with clay as a hobby when he was a teenager and eventually pursued a career in ceramics. After receiving a BFA from Indiana University in 2014 Joel built a studio and made a living as an independent studio artist in Porter, IN. He shows his work at art festivals, galleries, and exhibitions throughout the U.S. In 2019 he relocated his practice to Bloomington, IN and went on to receive an MFA in ceramics from Indiana University in the spring of 2023.

Bio

Logan Reynolds is originally from Colorado. He received his BFA from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2017. He was a Project Network resident at Guldagergaard International Ceramic Research Center in Skælskør, Denmark in 2018 and has participated in many group shows across the U.S. He completed his MFA in Ceramics from Ohio University in 2023. He works in clay to fabricate familiar material objects that are performative of a collective middle-class American memory.

Bio

Hannah Schelb started working in ceramics in 2009 while attending Augusta State University. After receiving her Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2012, she started a studio practice and eventually moved to Albuquerque, NM, where she worked in glaze production and taught community classes. In 2016 and 2017, Schelb attended summer residencies at Chautauqua School of Visual Arts in Chautauqua, NY, while teaching after-school programs in Cincinnati, OH, during the school year. She was accepted into the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2019 and graduated with a Master of Arts and Fine Arts in May 2021. She was the director of ceramics for the summers of 2020 and 2021 at a summer camp in Harrison, Maine. Schelb became a lecturer for the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2022-2024 and started showing work at several prominent galleries.

Bio

Warren Van Ryzin is from Chicago and received his BFA in Ceramics from the Kansas City Art Institute. He also completed a post baccalaureate residency at the University of Arkansas. The combination of contemporary internet culture with indigenous ceramic history is a direct reflection of Warren VanRyzin’s cultural identity. Being born from an indigenous mother who was adopted into a white family as a young child from a Shoshone-Paiute reservation drives his inclusion of indigenous ceramic techniques and iconography. The separation of that part of his culture and ancestry led him to the internet at a young age to research his personal lineage. That quickly became interspersed with a massive absorption of early online memes and content that continues to inspire him. He describes his work as a “practical tool to talk about issues of indigenous cultural assimilation and identity in our present time in both digital and physical spaces.”

BIO

Mathew McConnell holds an MFA from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and a BFA from Valdosta State University in Georgia. He has held numerous solo exhibitions including at Mindy Solomon Gallery in Miami and the Jane Hartsook Gallery at Greenwich House Pottery in NYC. His works have been included in over 80 group exhibitions nationally and internationally. Mathew has lectured widely and has been the subject of feature-length articles in Ceramics Art and Perception, Ceramics Monthly, and New Ceramics. He has received an Emerging Artist Award from the National Council on Education in Ceramic Art (NCECA), and has been an Artist in Residence at the Archie Bray Foundation, Greenwich House Pottery, Anderson Ranch Arts Center, and CRETA Rome. He serves as an Associate Professor of Ceramics at the University of Arkansas.

BIO

SMOOSH is a collaboration between artist friends Cara Mckinley and Katlin Shae. Katlin works primarily with weaving and sculpture, while Cara works with clay, ceramics and sculpture. Together, Katlin and Cara create and explore the world through fiber and clay. After meeting in 2017 in a graduate student artist exchange program between University Tennessee Knoxville and University of Georgia, the two artists hit it off connecting over material inquiries, music, objecthood, and process. Both intrigued by found objects, the power embedded in them, and transformation of material, they share the same values and beliefs in the fundamentals of studio practice. Enthralled by the marriage of clay and fibers, and inspired by the theory of how these materials and their process are inherently connected through history, Katlin and Cara’s collaboration is a longterm love letter to the world, our ancestors, and our beloved materials.

From Left to Right: Katlin Shae; Cara Mckinley.