That old cliché “the cream rises to the top” isn’t so true in these days. The cream is now hidden throughout, scattered about.

Excess is the bi-product of the digital age. Pottery’s formal vocabulary is expanding ad infinitum, and function is in a constant state of flux within this expanding and evolving cultural landscape.
It has become difficult to know good from bad. I fear that the great contributions to this discipline aren’t being appropriately acknowledged or preserved due to the rapid pace of their reproduction. Any opportunity to curate is valuable. Finding only four voices to represent pottery in 2020, amid the universe of capable, noteworthy, and inspiring ones? Daunting.

The 2020 Kent State Ceramics Invitational celebrates the distinct vessels of Sanam Emami, Adam Posnak, Hannah Thompsett, and Brooks Oliver. My goal as curator is to promote four phenomenal potters who, in my judgment, are underrepresented in the current conversation. Each potter has been selected for their ability to be articulate, direct, and subtle, and also to represent a facet of the field as it exists at this moment in time. I admire these individuals personally and professionally, and see them as a collective image of the greatest work being done today.

Sanam Emami is a potter and educator who lives and works in Fort Collins, Colorado. When I was a bright-eyed freshman, I happened upon Sanam’s graduate exhibition at Fosdick-Nelson Gallery. I’ve followed her work closely since that show, and see her as one of our great living potters. Sanam is a scholar of ceramic history. She makes curious forms, that are sometimes extravagantly shaped and surfaced, and at other times paired down and subtle. She is inspirational in her dedication to
continuous evolution, scholarship, and quality.

Adam Posnak is a potter whose work explores belief systems, spirituality, and culture. Adam’s studio practice extends into installation, sculpture, and performance. Overarching curiosity toward travel, cultural immersion, and global awareness defines a foundation from which Adam builds
vessels. Adam knows traditional pottery forms academically and intuitively. His surfaces are
luscious and visceral, and the overall compositions of his work are audibly poetic.

Hannah Thompsett has built a studio practice based on a desire to challenge perceptions of constructed reality. Her work in sculpture and utility originates on paper, or in CAD, through complex geometric drawings. With absolute precision, Hannah folds paper to reveal transformative structures. Hannah works carefully to preserve exact surface elements. The bi-products of her meticulous hands are splendid. Hannah is proof that perceived boundaries between sculpture and utilitarian ceramics don’t exist. This type of work has the potential to majorly redefine our discipline in the next few decades.

Brooks Oliver’s bold, vibrant, and extravagant pots have redefined the potential of ceramics in the digital age. His often wildly articulated objects challenge gravity, as well as the realities of what
materials can and can’t do. Though his work favors variety and complexity over simplicity and
structural logic, Brooks remains committed to the study of utilitarian form. He has both a serious and humorous approach to the way his pieces work.


-Peter Pincus, March 2020