Marguerita Hagan
Aquamarine Whisper, La Mer Marine Abstract, 2020
Ceramic
6-3/4 x 4 x 5"

Artist Statement

This Marine Abstract was inspired by sponges seen diving Cayman Island in 2019 and their brilliant engineering. Sponges are the filter system of the ocean clearing 90% of its bacteria, viruses and more while also producing oxygen.

While this series was in process, the pandemic lockdown occurred March 13, 2020 in the United States. Later that year the COVID vaccine was developed, modeled after compounds in a sea sponge.

All life on Earth began in the sea which continues to sustain us providing over 50% of the planet's oxygen. Sea sponges also modeled the first HIV treatment and first marine sourced drug for cancer. The list continues, making protecting our planet's largest element a crucial investment as if our lives depend on it, because they do.

Artist Bio
Marguerita Hagan is a ceramic sculptor based in Philadelphia. She is an activist for the thriving of all life in mutually sustainable communities and environments. The concept of interdependence plays throughout her sculpture, teaching and community arts.

Throughout her career, Hagan has brought to light the beauty and engineering of our planet's diverse ecosystems and our powerful role as stewards. At this climacteric time of change, her work focuses on the largest and essential element on earth, the ocean from micro to macro. The intricate ceramic forms shine light on the wonder and respect for the fragile, diverse life with which our lives are intrinsically linked. Hagan's practice is an ongoing discovery, magnifying our awareness, reciprocal responsibility and protection of each other and our planet.

She received her MFA from Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and her BFA in Ceramics at James Madison University. University. Her projects include collaborations with scientists, artists and community, environmental art-science residencies and lectures. Her work is in private and public collections and exhibitions nationally and internationally.

William Bowser
Stacked with 2 ears, 1974
Stoneware / wood-fired
14 x 6 x 6"

Artist Statement
I have a long-standing interest and involvement with clay which is now a basic starting point for my art practice. I have had the very good fortune and privilege to have learned from some of the most well-known and highly knowledgeable instructors throughout my path through college and university, most especially Alfred University.

I have also worked very closely with curators, designers, and artists, as well as paintings and objects of all eras and from many cultures as a result of close to 30 years with design departments in two Smithsonian Museums, and finally with the National Gallery of Art, all located in Washington, D.C.

I'm interested in making "things," objects made in clay. Ceramic objects have been critical in human survival and art through their use in food utensils and food storage, the making of durable shelter, and territorial barriers, as well as sculpture, for millennia.

Clay has also been, and remains, critical in human culture in many areas - industry, art, ritual and metaphorical use. It is in these areas of the ceramic tradition that I am presently most interested.

I have also returned to drawing, primarily with gouache and pastel. The medium of drawing allows me to use a wider range of color than is possible in ceramic work (primarily because of the significant technical restraints in the firing of ceramic work) and allows me the ability to use my imagination more freely.

Bio
Born in Washington, D.C.

Peter Cunicelli
But His Face, 2025
Ceramic
13 x 10 x 9"
This piece is lined and holds water

Artist Statement
I hand build objects with intent. This piece was made for a show in Texas in April. It's a tongue in cheek name to address the severe lack of empathy among much of our population. I turned the phrase so that instead the harsh judgment is of a man instead of a woman. One side of the piece is really fluid and lovely, while the other is awkward.

Artist Bio
Peter Cunicelli is a Philadelphia artist who has been working with clay since 2000. As a student at The Clay Studio, he discovered hand built vessels and soon began rolling out slabs of his own. During this time, he began developing forms by studying traditional thrown forms and cutting templates. He has experimented with a variety of glazes and techniques and has worked in Raku, wood fire, porcelain, paper clay, cassius bassalt and other stonewares. His current studio practice builds and expands upon the desire to create forms that push the boundaries of form that are balanced between the dramatic and the refined.

Wendy Liss
Zigzag, 2026
Ceramic
6 x 13 x 13"

Wendy Liss currently has work on view at the Hyatt Centric Divine Fragments - Meet the Maker Series, now through May 11.

Artist Statement
Wendy Liss creates hand-built ceramic sculptures that delve into the formal elements of line, form, texture, color and composition. Drawing inspiration from nature, architecture and the human figure, her work emphasizes the contrast between soft contours and sharp angles, the interplay of the interior and exterior and the construction of gestural, dynamic edges. This harmonious interaction of opposing forces embodies the physical essence of her work. Liss uses tinted clay in order to reveal the material's natural surface, allowing the inherent beauty of the medium to shine. Her studio practice relies on a balance between conscious intention with spontaneous response, bringing a sense of immediacy and vitality to each piece.

Artist Bio
Liss graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and an Art Education certificate from Moore College of Art in Philadelphia. She has worked in fine art restoration, interior design, and the curation of local art exhibitions. Liss has sculptures in public and private collections and currently teaches "Find Your Edge" at the Community Arts Center in Wallingford, Pennsylvania.

Michael Morgan
Kensington Apotheosis #19, 2024
Ceramic sherds, resin
10-1/2 x 8 x 6"

Artist Statement
During the past few years, I have been systematically digging up the alley behind my property, which was the site of a dump from mid 19th century to mid 20th century . My finds sometimes include old ceramic pipes and dolls, but the vast majority of objects I have found are mismatched pieces of broken ceramic objects. I decided to give these discarded, broken, long forgotten, buried pieces of ceramic trash a new life. I call this series of work "Apotheosis". By creating objects from these sherds, the rubbish of the past is transformed into a series of small scale assemblages. These sculptures borrow from the Japanese practice of kintsugi, in that they embrace the marks of wear as part of the whole life of the object. The break is celebrated as one more event in the life of the ceramic object. Similarly, I fix these broken sherds together using a shiny, precious looking material to illuminate each broken piece. Where my work differs from kintsugi is that I am making sculptures from disparate ceramic sherds that ascend, swirl, or even appear to dance. I am animating the buried trash of yesterday. This is the 22nd sculpture in that series.

Artist Bio
I am a ceramic sculptor, originally from Portsmouth, England. I completed my BA (Hons) in Ceramics in 1988, at The Polytechnic Wolverhapton UK, where I first began to develop my interest in using Brick as a sculptural medium. I was a Resident artist at The Clay Studio, in Philadelphia from 1988-90. I received my MFA Ceramics at University of Nebraska Lincoln in 1993. Until this year I taught Ceramics at Rutgers University in Camden NJ.

I have completed many brick sculptures for both public and private clients throughout the USA and UK. I live in Philadelphia PA, where I continue to make a living as a practicing artist. My work has been featured in a number of publications such as Neue Keramik, American Craft, Ceramics Monthly, Landscape Architecture, Landscape Architect, Rockland Magazine and Dallas Morning News.

I work with brick as my primary medium. We are all familiar with this geometric building unit, so if it is used to create sculpture it can help us see the specialness of the everyday world.

I also make sculptural assemblages from ceramic sherds that I have excavated.

Demeter Blooming
White Missi Vase, 2023
Ceramic
8 x 11 x 11"

Artist Statement

Hand-coiled and built from clay, this white ceramic vase reflects Chloë's cross-cultural background and her interest in blending Asian and Western aesthetics. Influenced in part by the Japanese philosophy of wabi-sabi, the work embraces restraint, natural irregularity, and the beauty of imperfection. The surface and form retain subtle variations that reveal the handmade process and the character of the material, the rawness of nature balanced with the uniformity of white.

This vase was Part of a series created for Altuzarra, East Hampton (Summer 2023), in collaboration with Missi Flowers. It was designed as a functional vessel that supports floral arrangements in a way that feels structured yet organic in line with Missi's brand and style.

Artist Bio

Chloë Le Pichon is a ceramic artist of French and Chinese heritage, born in London and raised primarily in Hong Kong within a French educational tradition. Her work exists at the intersection of Asian and Western sensibilities, exploring the dynamic tensions between the worked and the raw, elegant and elemental, permanent and impermanent. Grounded in close observation of the natural world, her practice reflects an ongoing cross-cultural dialogue that shapes both her life and her forms.

Working primarily with hand-coiled clay, Chloë embraces a slow, meditative process rooted in one of humanity's oldest techniques. Attentive to the material's strengths and vulnerabilities, she allows intuition and improvisation to guide each piece. Once fired to permanence, her vessels become quiet, enduring markers of time, culture, and shared humanity-objects that hold both fragility and resilience.

Chloë graduated from Swarthmore College, where she fell in love with ceramics under the guidance of Professor Syd Carpenter and teacher Doug Herren. For more than twenty years, she has maintained a dedicated studio practice, exhibiting in local juried shows and selling through galleries, design stores, and private commissions while navigating the evolving stages of life and work. Her recent collaborations include a floral project with Missi Flowers for Altuzarra. She continues to pursue intensive study-particularly in France-where traditional ceramic techniques and modern design aesthetics resonate deeply with her sensibilities and further refine her artistic language.

In addition to her studio work, Chloë has served as a technician and teaching artist with The Clay Studio's Claymobile program, and she teaches private lessons to both children and adults. Her early explorations into earthen building and sustainable architecture using clay continue to inform her material understanding and environmental awareness. For the past three plus years, she has served as Assistant and then Director of Gravers Lane Gallery, a contemporary studio craft gallery in Philadelphia. There, she deepened her engagement with the field through curating exhibitions, supporting artists, and fostering dialogue around contemporary craft-experiences that continue to nourish and expand her own artistic practice.