A journey through art: Carbondale Clay Center showcases local artists in Salt Lake City exhibition 

This week, the Carbondale Clay Center celebrates over 30 artists who have played a pivotal role in the center’s development in an exhibition in Salt Lake City.

Titled “For the Love of Clay: Artists Who’ve Shaped the Carbondale Clay Center,” the exhibition is presented in conjunction with the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts’s (NCECA) 59th annual conference. Every March, over 4,000 art lovers flock to the international conference for informative presentations, exhibitions, and activities by artists that specialize in sculpture, pottery, performance, design, and installation.

Carbondale Clay Center Operations Manager Matthew Eames is also highlighted in a solo exhibition titled “Trial and Error.” Both exhibits are on display at the Salt Lake Acting Company until Saturday, with an opening reception from 6-8 p.m. on Thursday.

Although Carbondale Clay Center staff have tabled at the conference for around 20 years, this is the first time the center will present exhibits included in the National Council’s conference exhibition schedule.

“For the Love of Clay” displays the work of 37 local artists who have influenced the clay center since the organization was created in 1997. Exhibiting artists include volunteers, interns, employees and other community members that support the nonprofit’s mission to enrich lives through the ceramic arts. Artwork by Diane Kenney, the Carbondale Clay Center’s founder and former director, is also included in the exhibition.

Together, the ceramic artworks embody community passion, creating a visual history of the network that has banded together to keep the nonprofit thriving for the last 28 years.

Steven Colby is one of the many local artists whose work is highlighted in “For the Love of Clay.” His piece, titled “Aširat,” is a wax lamp inspired by Mesopotamian oil lamps and goddess sculptures.

“I’m a functional potter, and it is a functional pot, but a little bit on the sideline, I get to flirt with sculpture,” he said. “What I tend to do is collect the bits and pieces from my pottery making that don’t end up in the pot … and would otherwise go into the scrap pile or my mud bucket, but there’s something beautiful about it, so I’ll take that little piece, and then I’ll put a whole bunch of little pieces together.”

He also curates for the clay center. In addition to contributing his own work to the exhibition, he gathered pieces from some of the clay center’s beloved late artists. “For the Love of Clay” includes work by the late Angus Leslie Graham, Peg Malloy, Sandra “Sandie” Donham Gardner, and Jeannine Packel.

“I’ve been an associate of the clay center for almost 25 years,” Colby said. “It’s what brought me to the valley, so it’s sort of my home. Carbondale Clay Center is more home than any apartment I’ve lived in here in Carbondale.”

Artist Nolan McPherson’s soda-fired ceramic coffee set, “Personal Pour Over,” is also on display in “For the Love of Clay.” McPherson, who now lives in Durango, was a summer intern at the clay center in 2022 and 2023 and volunteers for the nonprofit.

“Honestly, I was really shocked when (Eames) invited me to be a part of the show because I know it’s a big deal for the clay center to have a show at NCECA and especially one that showcases many of the great artists they’ve had,” he said. “So I felt really honored to be included as part of the show. I feel really proud of myself.”

As an aspiring studio potter and educator, he is “forever grateful for the Carbondale Clay Center,” he said.

The exhibitions in Salt Lake City are yet another win for the expanding center, which is planning a new, state-of-the-art campus to meet the growing demand for the organization’s programs.

The new two-story, 8,000 square-foot facility will allow the center to triple its program capacity and increase community outreach while remaining at its current location. Artists can expect additional classrooms, rental studios and rental shelves and a larger gallery and flexible maker space. For more information or to donate to the center’s fundraiser visit carbondaleclay.org/shaping-the-future.

“As a small nonprofit in the Roaring Fork Valley, we have always really catered to our community … with providing education and exhibitions and trying to teach people about ceramics and that art form,” Eames said. “It’s very near and dear to our heart, and everything that involves this (‘For the Love of Clay’ exhibition) is, in a way, embodying all of those people that have this similar mentality, the similar love for this medium, and how dedicated we are to it.

“Those folks that I invited to this show were all people that I knew shared the same love,” he added. “The clay center is truly a passion project for every one of us. It’s more than a job — it’s a life. It’s a style of living.”