Functional Fall: Shake It Up

Clay Art Center National Juried Exhibition

Guest Jurors: Austin Coudriet & Nikki Lau

NATIONAL CALL FOR ENTRY 2025
FUNCTIONAL FALL: SHAKE IT UP

Guest Juried by Austin Coudriet & Nikki Lau.

Clay Art Center is happy to announce a Call for Entry to "Functional Fall: Shake It Up", guest juried by Austin Coudriet & Nikki Lau.

Submission Period Begins: February 1st, 2025
Deadline: May 18th, 2025

Exhibition: September 1st – October 18th, 2025

Juror Prizes: $300 (Decided upon by jurors) / $100 (People’s Choice Decision)

Our Call For Entry Exhibition in 2025 is Shake It Up, guest juried by Austin Coudriet & Nikki Lau. The Third Annual Functional Fall Exhibition at Clay Art Center features ceramic salt and pepper shakers and cellars, and encourages submissions from artists at all stages of their careers.  

Salt and pepper shakers have been integral to our daily lives for over 200 years, playing a crucial role in cooking, dining, and the overall food experience. Though often considered ordinary objects, salt and pepper shakers (along with salt cellars or salt pigs) boast a rich history as collectibles, souvenirs of travel, and reflections of design trends. These simple items, intricately intertwined with human history, also serve as silent witnesses to the complexities of colonization. Their contents—salt and pepper—carry stories of trade, exploration, and culture. This Call for Entries invites ceramic artists to create functional salt and pepper shakers or cellars, and encourages them to explore the theme from a variety of perspectives, including function, style, culture, and social significance.

Guest Jurors

Guest Juror Austin Coudriet is a ceramic artist, designer, and educator, currently based out of Helena, Montana where he is a long-term resident artist at the Archie Bray Foundation. Born and raised in Lincoln, Nebraska, He earned his BFA from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2019. Coudriet was a long-term resident at the Clay Art Center in Port Chester, New York (2019-21) and at The Clay Studio of Missoula (2021-23). He has also had short term residencies at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts (2021) and The LUX Center for the Arts (2020). Over the past decade, Coudriet’s work has been showcased in prominent ceramic exhibitions across the country, including solo shows in New York, Los Angeles, Santa Fe, Missoula, and Lincoln. His work has also been featured in international publications, most notably in Vogue Magazine—Vogue Living. Recently Coudriet has led ceramic furniture workshops across the United States— in New York, California, Texas, Montana, and Pennsylvania — and internationally in France, Spain, Chile, and Mexico.

Learn more about Austin Coudriet

Guest Juror Nikki Lau was born and raised in San Francisco, CA. She received her MFA at Penn State in 2016. Penn State awarded her the Bunton Waller Assistantship. She received her BA in Interdisciplinary Visual Arts at the University of Washington in 2008. She was an Artist-in-Residence at The Clay Art Center New York from 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 a resident artist at Armory Art Center in Florida. Nikki has done short term residencies at Vermont Studio Center, Pittsburgh Glass Center, Arrowmont’s Pentaculum and an international residency at Casa Lu Sur in Mexico City. She’s participated in art shows throughout the country. She currently splits her time between California and Pennsylvania living her snowbird life as she works on her pottery and home décor business Little Lau Shop.

Learn more about Nikki Lau

The Mission of the Clay Art Center Gallery is to provide a platform for emerging and established artists to explore a wide range of topics that address materials, processes and techniques, and to engage in critical dialogue through clay. We are committed to exhibiting a variety of work representing diverse backgrounds, and we support our artist and student communities through gallery programming opportunities.

Submission begins February 1, 2025 and ends May 18, 2025 at midnight EST.

Applications will be accepted online only through the CaFÉ™ Portal:

APPLY HERE: Functional Fall: Shake It Up

To Apply, please read ALL the information outlined below:

  • Create a CaFÉ™ profile: www.callforentry.org

  • Upload Work Samples: Uploaded media files will be stored in your CaFÉ™ Portfolio so you can submit them to calls. You will choose which media files to submit to a call when you fill out the application.

    • CaFÉ™ Image Guideline: Only JPEGs up to 5MB with a minimum of 1920 pixels on the longest side.

Before beginning submission, applicants must be prepared to provide the following:

  • Artist statement (up to 1000 characters - Do not include artist name in statement.)

Each work submitted must include the following details:

  • Title

  • Medium (60 character limit)

  • Height/Width/Depth

  • Price

  • Year completed

  • Primary Discipline (ceramics)

  • Description (300 character limit)

No changes will be allowed once an entry is accepted into the database. Proofread your data carefully as this information may be used to generate the catalog, insurance, and publicity information.
 
Exhibition Guidelines

  • Artists must be based in the United States and over the age of 18.

  • Works must have been made within the last two years

  • Works presented must be available and for sale at time of exhibition. Works may not be listed elsewhere for sale during the exhibition, including ETSY listings, or on artists online Shops.

  • Primary medium must be ceramic / clay – at least 85% where other media are utilized. Clay Art Center is a non-profit organization for the ceramic arts, and does not accept works in polymer clay, or paintings.

  • Work must stay in the gallery until the exhibition ends.

  • Gallery commission is 40% of selling price.

  • Artists are responsible for the cost of shipping their work to Clay Art Center. Artwork that is hand delivered must be picked up at the end of the exhibition. Work that has been shipped to CAC will be returned at CAC’s expense.

 Clay Art Center accepts submissions from all US based artists regardless of race, color, gender, religion, disability, national or ethnic origin.

As Clay Art Center strives to deepen our connections to our local families and community in the Port Chester, NY area, we especially encourage Artists of Latina/o/x and Hispanic origin to submit. According to data released in 2019 by the American Community Survey, our local Hispanic* community makes up 64.8% of the population in Port Chester. Clay Art Center hopes to particularly highlight participating Latina/o/x and Hispanic artists in this exhibition as part of our efforts to celebrate Hispanic Heritage month.

*The definition of the word Hispanic does not truly illustrate the complexity of demographics of our community but it is widely used in statistical research and surveys like the 2020 Census or American Community Survey.

Fee

  • $25 application fee

Number of Works

  • No more than 3 artworks may be submitted for consideration

Deadlines

  • Application Deadline: May 18th, 2025

  • Adjudication: May 21st - May 31st, 2025

  • Notification: By June 9th, 2025

  • High-Resolution Images for Press Release: June 16th, 2025

  • Work Received: August 11th - 15th, 2025

  • Exhibition Dates: September 1st – October 18th, 2025

  • Work Returned: by the end of October 2025

    If you have questions, please reach out to mail@clayartcenter.org

CONVOCATORIA NACIONAL DE PARTICIPACIÓN 2025
OTOÑO FUNCIONAL: ¡SACÚDELO!

Jurado invitado: Austin Coudriet y Nikki Lau.

Clay Art Center se complace en anunciar la convocatoria para la exposición "Otoño Funcional: ¡Sacúdelo!", con jurado invitado Austin Coudriet y Nikki Lau.

Inicio del período de envío: 1 de febrero de 2025
Fecha límite: 18 de mayo de 2025
Exposición: 1 de septiembre - 18 de octubre de 2025

Premios del Jurado: $300 (seleccionado por los jurados) / $100 (elección del público)

Nuestra convocatoria para la exposición en 2025 es “Shake It Up”, con los jurados invitados de Austin Coudriet y Nikki Lau. Esta Tercer Exposición Anual Funcional de Otoño en Clay Art Center presenta cerámica con tapa y fomenta la presentación de artistas en todas las etapas de sus carreras.

Los saleros y pimenteros han sido elementos esenciales en nuestra vida diaria durante más de 200 años, desempeñando un papel crucial en la cocina, el comedor y la experiencia culinaria en general. Aunque a menudo se consideran objetos cotidianos, estos artículos (junto con los recipientes para sal) poseen una rica historia como coleccionables, souvenirs de viaje y reflejos de las tendencias de diseño. Estos objetos sencillos, profundamente entrelazados con la historia humana, también son testigos silenciosos de las complejidades de la colonización. Su contenido —la sal y la pimienta— cuenta historias de comercio, exploración y cultura.

Esta convocatoria invita a los artistas ceramistas a crear saleros, pimenteros o recipientes funcionales para sal y a explorar el tema desde diversas perspectivas, como la función, el estilo, la cultura y la relevancia social.

Jurados Invitados

Austin Coudriet nació y creció en Lincoln, Nebraska. Recibió su BFA de la Universidad de Nebraska-Lincoln. Fue artista residente en Clay Art Center de 2019 a 2021 y desde 2023 es residente en la Archie Bray Foundation, MT. Inspirado originalmente por el mobiliario de mediados del siglo y la arquitectura deconstructivista, su práctica actual se centra en la escultura no representativa y en muebles. Ha impartido talleres por todo Estados Unidos e internacionalmente.

[Más información sobre Austin Coudriet]

Nikki Lau nació y creció en San Francisco, CA. Obtuvo su MFA en Penn State en 2016, donde recibió la beca Bunton Waller Assistantship. Obtuvo su licenciatura en Artes Visuales Interdisciplinarias en la Universidad de Washington en 2008. Ha sido artista residente en Clay Art Center, NY (2018-2019) y en Armory Art Center, FL (2019-2020). Ha realizado residencias en Vermont Studio Center, Pittsburgh Glass Center, Arrowmont Pentaculum, y en Casa Lu Sur en la Ciudad de México. Actualmente divide su tiempo entre California y Pensilvania, gestionando su negocio de cerámica y decoración para el hogar, Little Lau Shop.

[Más información sobre Nikki Lau]

Misión de la Galería de Clay Art Center

La misión de la galería es proporcionar una plataforma para que artistas emergentes y establecidos exploren temas relacionados con materiales, procesos y técnicas, y fomenten un diálogo crítico a través de la cerámica. Nos comprometemos a exhibir una variedad de trabajos que representen diversos orígenes y a apoyar a nuestras comunidades de artistas y estudiantes a través de oportunidades de programación en la galería.

Período de envío: del 1 de febrero de 2025 al 18 de mayo de 2025 (medianoche EST).
Aplicaciones solo a través del portal CaFÉ™: APLICA AQUÍ: Functional Fall: Shake It Up

Guía para la aplicación

  1. Crea un perfil en CaFÉ™: www.callforentry.org

  2. Sube muestras de tu trabajo: Archivos en formato JPEG (máximo 5MB, con al menos 1920 píxeles en el lado más largo).

  3. Detalles necesarios para cada obra:

    • Título

    • Medio (máximo 60 caracteres)

    • Altura/Ancho/Profundidad

    • Precio

    • Año de finalización

    • Disciplina principal (cerámica)

    • Descripción (máximo 300 caracteres)

    • Antes de iniciar el proceso de presentación, los solicitantes deben estar preparados para proporcionar lo siguiente:

      • Declaración del artista (hasta 1000 caracteres; no incluya el nombre del artista en la declaración).

- El envío de archivos multimedia debe cumplir con las especificaciones que se encuentran en CaFÉ™. https://www.callforentry.org/artist-help-cafe/uploading-media/

- Para ver las especificaciones completas, los tutoriales y los recursos, vaya a la Ayuda de CaFÉ™: https://www.callforentry.org/artist-help-cafe/

Pautas de la exposición

  • Artistas deben residir en EE. UU. y tener más de 18 años.

  • Obras deben haber sido creadas en los últimos dos años.

  • Las obras deben estar disponibles para la venta durante la exposición.

  • La obra debe estar compuesta por al menos un 85% de cerámica/arcilla.

  • La comisión de la galería es del 40% del precio de venta.

Los artistas cubren el costo de envío a Clay Art Center. La galería cubre el retorno de las obras enviadas.

Cuota de inscripción: $25
Número máximo de obras: 3

Fechas importantes:

  • Fecha límite de aplicación: 18 de mayo de 2025

  • Notificación: 9 de junio de 2025

  • Exposición: 1 de septiembre - 18 de octubre de 2025

Clay Art Center fomenta especialmente las aplicaciones de artistas de origen Latina/o/x e hispano para celebrar el Mes de la Herencia Hispana.