The International Museum of Dinnerware Design’s Sixth Biennial Juried Exhibition

Exhibition dates: September 6, 2025 – January 17, 2026
Opening reception: Saturday, September 6, 2025, 1 – 4 p.m.
Gallery Talk and Artist Awards at 2 p.m.
Location: The International Museum of Dinnerware Design, 524 Broadway, Kingston, NY 12401

An exhibition for artists and designers in all media exploring the theme Picnic through the creation of specialized dinnerware and related 2D and 3D work.

On-Line Exhibition Catalogue

For inquiries about purchases, please email director@dinnerwaremuseum.org.
Prices do not include shipping.

Juried and Invited Artists

Alice Abrams Micha Bentel donald clark Andreia de Matos Irina-Diana Flore Future Retrieval – Guy Michael Davis and Katie Parker Francine Glasser Roberta Griffith Julianne Harvey Jeep Johnson

Heather Jones Etai Klein Robin Kline George Kousoulas & Claudia Kousoulas Marina Kuchinski Cara Jean McCarthy Beth Lo Myra Mimlitsch-Gray Brad Parsons

Phillip Renato Judith Salomon Linda Sikora Charlie Smith Rebecca Stevens Pradnya Venegurkar Matthew Whalen Robin Wilt Robert Rahway Zakanitch

Artist Prizes

First Prize – $1000 sponsored by Unlock Upstate | Compass – Julianne Harvey
Second Prize – $600 sponsored by Rondout Savings Bank – Etai Klein
Third Prize – $400 sponsored by Bailey Pottery Equipment – Rebecca Stevens
Purchase Award – Sponsored by Kellar Kellar & Jaiven – Linda Sikora

Juror’s Statement:

Once a marker of wealth and ostentation, the picnic has become an accessible delight for nearly everyone. Whether a brief outing or an adventure, it offers the opportunity for food, drink, and play away from the routines of daily life. But what is the appeal, when our kitchens and dining rooms already serve the purpose so well? It seems we crave the novelty of eating outdoors, which is a disruption to routine and the chance to connect with nature, in just the right measure. Of course, every picnic also brings challenges—what to bring, how to carry it, managing uninvited creatures and weather, and deciding how much comfort to surrender in pursuit of the experience.

The works in this exhibition reflect on these tensions—drawing on the history, symbolism, joys, and perils of picnics—and range from celebratory and playful to critical and inauspicious. Each tells us something of the picnic’s enduring value. Yet its magic probably depends on rarity; too often, and the kinds of memories these occasions carry might fade into routine.

Juror: Bryan Czibesz

About the Juror: Bryan Czibesz, is an artist and educator who is interested in the relations between materials, technology, and object histories over time. He earned his MFA from San Diego State University and BA from Humboldt State University. He has exhibited his work in solo and group exhibitions, lectured, and taught workshops throughout the United States and internationally, including Fondation Bernardaud in Limoges, France, the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, the Demarest Pottery Exhibition, the Nelson Atkins Museum, Greenwich House Pottery, Peters Valley School of Craft, and the Honolulu Museum of Art. He is a founding member of the Hudson Valley Pottery Tour and has been Artist-in-Residence at The International Ceramics Studio in Kecskemét, Hungary, C.R.E.T.A. Rome, The Clay Studio, Northern Clay Center, and Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts. He teaches at SUNY New Paltz.

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Alice Abrams

 

Alice Abrams
Deviled Eggs, 2025
ceramic
11″ x 8″ x 2″
SOLD

Artist Statement

I have often used food as inspiration. I believe the vitality of play is crucial for artistic development.
My goal is to show that spirit of imagination in my ceramic work.
What is a picnic without a platter of deviled eggs?
Do you like the tang of the mustard in the mayonnaise?
Eat them quickly while they’re fresh. I prefer them with a little dab of paprika, for looks.

Biography

I was raised in St. Louis, Missouri, studied theatre at Tufts University and New York University, and began a career as a creative dramatics teacher at the elementary school level. Along the way, I discovered an appeal for the tangibility of clay and for object making. Ceramics has been my work for over 40 years.

Currently, hand building and sculpture have become my primary focus. I have been a member of the Lexington Arts & Crafts Society, Lexington, Massachusetts since 1974, and curator of the State of Clay Ceramics Exhibition since 1997. I am currently a resident artist at the Harvard Ceramics Program. My home is in Lexington, Massachusetts and Barnard, Vermont, where I also maintain a small studio. My work can be seen at www.aliceabrams.com.

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Micha Bentel

 

Micha Bentel
Picnic Table, 2025
design board
Two panels, each 18″ x 24″
NFS

Artist Statement

Picnic Table is a conceptual art and architectural installation that reimagines the picnic table as a self-operating system of nourishment, blurring the line between hospitality and ecological process. This hybrid structure challenges traditional dining rituals by eliminating the role of the chef or conventional dishware and instead invites birds, trees, and gravity to prepare the meal. Integrated into an orchard-like environment, the table features exposed nesting zones, designed to attract pigeons and other birds. Eggs laid in these hidden cradles roll into a centrally embedded fire pit. Overhead, fruit-bearing trees are intentionally planted so that ripened produce drops directly into the same cooking basin. The act of dining becomes one of passive interaction, where guests are both spectators and recipients of a biologically orchestrated meal. As eggs and fruit fall and roast, the table itself becomes animate, demanding patience,  awareness, and reverence for cycles of life. It subverts expectations of control and culinary authorship, instead creating a visceral, elemental encounter where architecture is not a container for hospitality, but its co-author. Picnic Table prompts reaction on systems of food production, human intervention, and the temporality of meals.

It offers a radical new ritual: dining in surrender to nature.

Biography

Micha Bentel is an interdisciplinary designer whose work spans the full scale of hospitality—from utensils to immersive dining environments. With a background bridging culinary arts and design, she explores how food, space, and interaction shape one another. Micha studied industrial design at RISD and architectural history at Brown University, where she focused her research on the intersections of food and design. Her creative journey began in Michelin-starred kitchens and deepened through chef training at Ballymaloe Cookery School and the Rome Sustainable Food Project under Alice Waters. These experiences grounded her in sensory engagement, materiality, and craft. Her practice has evolved to include product, spatial, and event design, notably at Pinch Food Design and as Director of Design at Great Performances, where she developed performative hospitality experiences that fuse service, storytelling, and spectacle. Now pursuing her Master of Architecture at Columbia GSAPP, Micha continues to explore hospitality as a dynamic form of cultural exchange—designing tools, tables, and environments that re-script everyday rituals with care, critique, and conviviality.

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donald clark

donald clark
Picnic, 2025
mixed media – tag sale teapot, game pieces, doll house objects
7″ x 9″ x 7″
$550

Artist Statement

I have been privileged to be a part of the American ceramic art movement over the past 40 years. I have built a sizeable collection of studio pottery beginning in my 30 years as a partner in Ferrin Gallery and continues today. I strive to know the makers whose work I collect and to build lasting relationships. Selections from The Donald Clark Collection was shown at the D’Amour Fine Art Museum, Springfield, MA in 2020.

Throughout my life I have been an active maker. My work has been informed by my interest in repurposing materials and an ongoing interest in collage and assemblage. Early on I created a series of pieces using wood gathered at a beach in Connecticut. At one point I created mirror frames and teapots using repurposed objects. Most of the work at this time was with teapots; jewels, tea topics, and the natural world were often the themes used. Each of my teapots carries words that reveal the theme of the piece. My teapots are held in major collections and in museums.

However, the majority of my work has been in collage. Working small, my pieces are created in journals and are typically 4 inches square. Materials used run the full range of paper including candy wrapping foil, stamps, paint samples, wrapping paper, and assorted scraps gathered here and there.

The PICNIC theme for this competition brought back my interest in teapots. I based this piece on the red and white tablecloths that covered the tables at picnics in my childhood. In addition, there are pieces made in doll house scale, glass pieces and beads, stones, paper scraps, and letters from various games.

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Irina-Diana Flore

Irina-Diana Flore
Nestle, 2025
3d printed in PLA bioplastic
10″ x 10″
$65 for set of two

Artist Statement

Nestle is a collection of 3D-printed surfaces designed to invite moments of pause, connection, and quiet interaction with nature.

Inspired by the meeting points between organic landscapes and human-made structures — like grass growing through a concrete path — these pieces explore the harmony between built form and living ground.

Each surface is a composition of geometric lines and open grids, allowing grass, light, or texture from the environment to pass through and become part of the dining experience. The surfaces are functional and can be used to place snacks or be used as placemats, while being also open and abstract — offering space, rather than containment.

Designed for picnics, these lightweight, modular pieces can be layered or used individually, creating playful compositions that echo the joyful randomness of nature. Bright colors and graphic lines meet the soft textures of grass, stone, and soil — blending rather than contrasting. Their role goes beyond utility; they invite a moment of delight, encouraging us to notice how color, texture, and environment come together in quiet harmony.

Nestle celebrates the pleasure of settling into a landscape — not as visitors imposing order, but as participants in its rhythm. It is a surface, yes — but more so, a gentle gesture of connection and care.

Materials & Care:  3D printed in PLA, a recyclable bioplastic. Hand wash only. Not dishwasher safe.
Fabrication: Digitally designed and printed flat, each piece blends organic and geometric textures. Made in small batches.

Biography

Irina Flore is a multidisciplinary designer and the founder of Studio Flore, a design studio dedicated to design research, functional art objects, and innovative products. After earning her MFA in Design and graduating with honors for her BFA from the Haute école des arts du Rhin in Strasbourg, France, an institution known for its interdisciplinary and forward-thinking design education, Irina began her career as a designer at Studio Sebastian Herkner in Frankfurt, Germany. Following her time at Sebastian Herkner, Irina founded Studio Flore, where she worked with a variety of companies and clients, creating unique and innovative designs tailored to their specific needs. In addition to her studio work, Irina has also worked at Nike as a Lead Materials Designer (NExt) in the Accessories team. This experience allowed her to apply her design expertise in a corporate setting while maintaining her commitment to creativity, craftsmanship, and material innovation.

Her design practice revolves around creating functional art and focusing on deep design research. She carefully explores materials, forms, and their functionality through a thoughtful, research-driven process. Working closely with artisans, and drawing from her family’s tradition of craftsmanship, she weaves together modern design with timeless techniques.

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Future Retrieval / Katie Parker and Guy Michael Davis

Invited Artists

Future Retrieval / Katie Parker and Guy Michael Davis
After Kandler, Camo Tureen, 2021
porcelain, overglaze decals
14.5″ x 16″ x 10″
$4500

Artist Statement

After Kandler, Camo Tureen was developed during our investigation into the decorative arts collections of the Cincinnati Art Museum, while we were preparing for our exhibition Close Parallel. This tureen was created from our photogrammetry model of a Meissen tureen (circa 1745-47), made in the Cincinnati Art Museum’s storage area. We processed the images with photogrammetry software to generate a model which we made plaster molds from. Due to the glazed surface, the refraction of light on much of the tureen became bent and softened lending the look of a melted surface on our reproduction. We also replaced the goat heads with goat skulls as a contemporary nod to the original form.

The original tureen is said to be a gift from Saxony to the Queen of Naples, and displays the royal coats of arms of Saxon/Poland and Naples/Sicily, along with pastoral scenes inspired by the painter Jean-Antoine Watteau. We were fascinated by the fact that the tureen had a firing crack on the foot, and we were trying to figure out why a piece with a “flaw” had such an impressive back story. As we scaled up the tureen, 3d printed our model, and started casting our version – we ended up with a crack in the exact same spot almost every single time. What we discovered was an 18th century design flaw.

After Kandler, Camo Tureen is covered in hand cut ceramic decals, traced from leftover pieces of our cut paper work. We are thinking about the outdoors and the need for a covered dish, using a camouflage surface to hide the food inside from any animals or critters. One of the best parts of a picnic is the packing and presentation of the food, adding a level of sophistication to a bucolic setting while ditching the formality of table and chairs.

Biography

Future Retrieval’s Davis and Parker currently reside in Scottsdale, Arizona where Parker is a Professor in the School of Art at Arizona State University. Recent solo exhibitions include Underground World Experience at form and concept in 2025, Crystal-Walled Seas at Denny Dimin Gallery in 2022 and Close Parallel at the Cincinnati Art Museum in 2021. Future Retrieval’s work is held in numerous collections such as Arizona State University Ceramics Research Center (AZ), Cincinnati Art Museum (OH), 21C Museum/Hotel (NC), Society of Dresden Porcelain Art (Germany), and Jingdezhen International Studio (China). They have exhibited both nationally and internationally and received prestigious awards and residencies such as the Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship, IASPIS, and Bemis Center Arts Residency. Their work has been reviewed and featured in Artforum, Vogue, Sculpture Magazine, AEQAI, Los Angeles Times, and Hyperallergic. Davis and Parker both received their MFA from The Ohio State University and BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute.

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Francine Glasser

Francine Glasser
Psychedelic Sisters Picnic, 2025
mixed-collage-assemblage-tile
8″ x 8″
$175

Artist Statement and Biography

I am a retired psychotherapist who worked with teenagers and adults and have been living in Kingston, New York for twenty years.  I developed group circles called creative recovery combining the arts and 12 Step Recovery and shared this with clients. l’ve alway dabbled with creating art from found objects in nature, antique stores and crafting. I love to birdwatch and am especially drawn to eagles and to great blue herons.

I love the diversity and inclusivity of our City of Kingston, and enjoy the local art scene.

I’d begun creating 3-D collages as that’s what I had called them initially, but now I see that my art is in the category called assemblage art with upcycled materials, mostly found in antique stores and in thrift stores and yard sales. I scour the shelves to find interesting pieces that I can put together into a cigarbox or rehomed montage. I started making shadow boxes and other collage inspired items several years ago during the Covid pandemic and I use upcycled materials which I find fascinating to work with as I can create a new life for old broken treasures. My first shadowbox (shadow references Jungian concepts) I included the skull of a raven creating a Covid montage.

Some of my findings are not broken, but old antique, vintage treasures that create a life of their own. Once I start preparing the space for them, they create themselves as life is imbued into them.

It’s almost like creating montages out of various materials, gives me a glimpse into other worlds. I was introduced at this time by my friend, also an artist, to Joseph Cornell’s work, and his assemblage and up cycled creations which are fantastic. I was thrilled to know that what I was creating had a name had a place in the art world, and that I was creating and adding my vision to creating art boxes. I began the art boxes calling them resilience boxes, but I just changed the name to cigarbox montages because I think that name helps viewers to understand my intentions.  I make custom-made boxes for gifts or for personal purchase, and I hope you enjoy the world’s view that I have, and share with you, the viewer, the art receiver.

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Roberta Griffith

Roberta Griffith
Fiesta for Six, 2025
ceramic and mixed media
22.5″ x 18″ x 5.25″
$6500

Artist Statement

The installation, Fiesta for 6, reflects the festivity of picnics, as well as tableware included in the large wicker hamper my mother used for our family picnics when I grew up. Included are wheel-thrown ceramic plates, similar to our 9-inch yellow Fiesta ware plates, wheel-thrown porcelain cups representing the paper cups decorated red for color, plus a stack of paper napkins also made of porcelain, accompanied with black plastic forks to represent utensils, all placed on a checkered cloth like the one used to cover our picnic table.

Biography

Roberta Griffith, (BFA 1960, Chouinard Art Institute, MFA 1962, SIU-Carbondale) is an accomplished artist and educator. Her impressive career spans six decades, She served as the North American correspondent for Cerámica magazine, Madrid, from 1974 to 2022, and was a Fulbright grantee in Spain with mentor Josep Lloréns Artigas from 1962 through 1964. Griffith has exhibited ceramics, drawing, painting, hot glass, and installation art nationally and internationally in 34 solo shows and more than 250 invitational and juried exhibitions.

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Julianne Harvey

First Prize – sponsored by Unlock Upstate | Compass

Julianne Harvey
Under the Hood, 2025
porcelain
12″ x 7″ x 8″
$4500

Artist Statement

The phrase “under the hood, “commonly refers to a process that is not visible to a casual observer but are responsible for everything that is going on.

I often use fairy tales as inspiration for the layered narratives in my work. Fairy tales can reveal aspects of our culture, our history, and ourselves. There are multiple hidden meanings in Little Red Riding Hood. The symbolism of Little Red Riding Hood is one of the richest of all classic fairy tales, which has contributed to its popularity. It is a rather intense narrative providing as many undertones are there are different versions and interpretations.

The “Picnic” theme shares a varied historical and cultural context as well. Symbolic elements of the basket include abundance, fertility, and protection providing an interconnectedness for combining a romantic idealization of nature and the opposing concepts of wolves.

Biography

Julianne Harvey works across a variety of media including ceramics, printmaking, painting, drawing, and sculpture. Her work addresses environmental issues and how those consequences affect the natural world. She received a BFA and MFA from the University of New Mexico.  She lives and works in Albuquerque, New Mexico and is an adjunct faculty member in the College of Art and Art History at the University of New Mexico and Central New Mexico Community College. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally.

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Jeep Johnson

Jeep Johnson
Plate Maps, 2025
papier-mâché
10″ x 10″
$100 for set of 2

Artist Statement

At this point in my career and my life I want to explore and investigate many new projects, places, and media. Process takes a front seat now in my creative exploration versus product.

I love maps, I miss maps! I love looking at maps and figuring which direction I am going. Making papier-mâché paper plates and working with map scraps resonates with me on several levels. Location and place are integral in my thinking and my work reflects places in the country and world that I have traveled to, or am looking forward to going to. One of my favorite maps is an old shower curtain of the world hanging in my studio.

Biography

I became an artist by chance, when I was a 21 year-old photojournalism student seeking adventure. I landed a summer job as a cook on a geologic expedition to the Alaska wilderness. The expedition chief asked, because of my photography experience, if I was interested in making a film about our trip. So when I wasn’t cutting up potatoes or frying eggs, I was shooting geologists working in the field, taking samples and collecting fossils. I was hooked on film and the assignment quickly evolved into a full-time job making scientific documentary films with the U.S. Geological Survey for the next several years. This work took me to magnificent locations like the Arctic Ocean in Alaska and White Sands, New Mexico where I shot my own personal projects that explored mood and composition with graphic cinematography and original sound tracks.

I moved from California to New York City to be in the “center of the universe”.

The first exhibit I went to see was the Nam June Paik retrospective at the Whitney. When the big elevator doors opened, there was dancing color, on a row of monitors. I was moved; inspired and happy I had moved to New York.

Although focused on film and video I was also eager to learn about other media, which led me to Urban Glass to learn blowing. I am drawn to creating substantial objects and quickly shifted to sand casting, working with Mark Ferguson.  Glass is magical for me; it’s like no other material that I’ve experienced.  At Urban I gained a solid foundation of technical knowledge and concept development. I also had the opportunity to take multiple workshops with Gene Koss. I strongly responded to Gene’s work and his enthusiasm for exploration and his desire to push boundaries. Working with him changed how I worked, informing my process with a more rigorous analysis and evaluation of what and why I make what I do. Gene is also constantly encouraging me to think bigger! Through one of Gene’s workshops, I met three other artists, and we formed a group that has been making glass together for over 35 years. The group focuses on concept development, technical exchange, and working on our pieces together in the studio. I currently continue to explore in many directions. With glass now I am working with upicycle materials and melting them in the kiln and reshaping and repurpose the objects. The objects include bugs, vases, abstract serving dishes. I am also exploring new media like textiles.

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Heather Jones

Heather Jones
Perfect Day for a Picnic, 2025
digital illustration
20″ x 24″
$150

Artist Statement

For this particular work, I wanted to delve into the rich and varied history of the picnic and present an infographic poster … to inform and delight with as many fun factoids I could fit! I researched the data. sketched out the overall look, and designed it digitally in Adobe Illustrator and InDesign applications. It is titled Perfect Day for a Picnic and was done specifically for this show in May 2025.

Biography

With 20+ years experience in media and publishing, I’ve worn the hats of Art Director, Designer, Graphics Producer and almost everything in between. Using whatever tools at hand-text, numbers, dataviz. illustration, photographs, motion and sound— I enjoy exploring and navigating the world through graphics. With both my own storytelling designs and collaborating with other artists, I love to tell data-driven visual stories with a detailed eye.

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Etai Klein

Second Prize – sponsored by Rondout Savings Bank

Etai Klein
Indoor Picnic Cups, 2025
glass
Six cups with diameter 3.5″ – 4.5″ and height 5″ – 6″
$200 each for sandblasted red cups, $150 each for others
photography by RubiRose.com

Artist Statement

Picnics are all about that grounded, embodied sense of belonging that we feel having a fun meal in the grass with friends and loved ones on a warm sunny day. I created these cups to entice that fresh, playful, fleeting feeling indoors with us: bright colors, simple shape, and familiar picnic blanket patterns. Like any thriving, healthy community, these one-of-a-kind gingham glass cups come in a diverse range of colors, sizes, and attitudes.

Biography

Etai Klein is an emerging glassblower and ceramicist, born and based in New York. His work is rooted in a belief in the healing and transformative nature of glass. A childhood cancer survivor, he draws deeply from lived experience to create objects that reflect resilience, vulnerability, and renewal. Etai’s aesthetic balances playful contrasts in material and color with the elegance of classical Venetian forms. He is currently training at the Glassmaking Institute at the Corning Museum of Glass. Follow his journey on Instagram at @yourfriendwhoblowsglass

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Robin Kline

Robin Kline
Summer Fun, 2025
ceramic
Plates 8.5″ x 1″, platter 10″ x 1.5″, tumblers 3″ x 3.5″, wine cooler 4.75″ x 5.5″, bowl 8″ x 4″
$650

Artist Statement

What I strive for in all of my work, is to maintain a sense of the process in the finished pieces and to overcome the dichotomy between the fluidity and plasticity of the process of throwing pots and the permanence and often static quality of finished pieces.  The phrase that characterizes my esthetic is to achieve “movement in stillness”.

Biography

I spent the early years of my adult life working in health care management, always wishing I had more time to make pottery. It was a beloved hobby from 1982-1986 and then the demands of parenthood and work created a 12-year gap when I didn’t have time for clay. When I returned, in 2000, I vowed never to give it up again.

My studio experience throughout the Hudson Valley includes working as an Associate and teaching at Mugi Studio on the Upper West Side, the JCC Manhattan and Pottery on Hudson in Dobbs Ferry. I have been a member of the Peekskill Clay Studios at the Hat Factory, have taught at and managed the pottery studio at the Putnam Arts Council, teach at Cedar Lane Arts Center, am a member of Hudson River Potters and served as President of the Peekskill Artists’ Alliance for 7 years. I co-direct a public art project called “Making Connections,” funded as part of a New York State Downtown Revitalization Initiative grant to Peekskill and serve on the Peekskill Arts Council.

I have worked full time as a potter for the past 15 years and moved to Peekskill 10 years ago where I finally gained a home studio. I love the challenges of continually trying to refine forms and I get great pleasure from sharing my love and knowledge of throwing with my students. Knowing that my functional work enhances the daily life of my customers gives me great joy and satisfaction. My more recent sculptural work enables me to explore different approaches to altering and composing larger scale work. The sculptural work also provides a means to express my feelings about life experiences in the work and I have shown it in multiple galleries.

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George Kousoulas & Claudia Kousoulas

George Kousoulas & Claudia Kousoulas
Sand, which, 2025
digital photography
20″ x 20″
$800

Artist Statement

The beach is exquisite torture—sand invading every corner and crease, sun crackling the skin, the itchy scour of salt water—but we are drawn to its eternal beauty.

We hope this work captures the challenge of making a momentary paradise, with lunch included.

Part of making that paradise is the attraction of things. Coordinated colors, the right materials for the place, and the food that will travel and satisfy. And while things can give convenience and pleasure, they ultimately can’t protect us from inevitabilities of time and nature.

Biography

George Kousoulas is an architect and photographer whose work has appeared in numerous publications, most notably, Washington, Portrait of a City, a collection of 110 duo-tone images that capture the human emotions and ideals behind the capital city’s monuments, and that includes a foreword by the late Senator Patrick Daniel Moynihan.

Claudia Kousoulas is an author and editor whose work focuses on urban design, landscape and land use, and culinary history. Her books, Bread & Beauty, A Year in Montgomery County’s Agricultural Reserve and A Culinary History of Montgomery County both explore the connections between land, culture, and food.

George and Claudia work on many projects as a team and they both love the beach.

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Marina Kuchinski

Marina Kuchinski
Soil My Jeans, 2023
ceramic, reused styrofoam container and shredded styrofoam, poem by George Kuchinsky
8″ x 8″ x 2″
$180

Artist Statement

In this body of work, I strive to examine encounters of intimacy and comfort, and at the same time, reflect on power dynamics that effect the behaviors of both humans and nonhuman animals. With focus on the chicken in this work, l investigate the ethical and epistemological consequences of humans objectifying animals for food, entertainment and decoration. A contradiction that may be characterized by both intimacy and exploitation continues to evolve and alter the attitudes humans exhibit towards animals. We live with animals, we try to communicate with them, we name them, but at the same time, we use and consume them as if they were objects. The ambivalence of this relationship is one that is sometimes difficult to acknowledge as present. What are the cultural and psychological distinctions we make about what and who we can eat and what does it say about the complex coexistence we have with each other?

Biography

Marina Kuchinski is a Chicago based visual artist and educator practicing in ceramics, mixed media and installation. She primarily handbuilds and sometimes slip-casts animal and human forms.

Animal and human subjects are used to explore various issues, be they social or psychological.

Kuchinski exhibited extensively throughout the United States and abroad in solo and group exhibitions, including Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, Poland, European Cultural and Technological Centre in Slovenia, Beit Aharon Kahana in Israel, American Museum of Ceramic Art, The Daum Museum of Contemporary Art, Randall Museum, The International Museum of Dinnerware Design, Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, Albuquerque Museum, Susquehanna Art Museum, The Plains Art Museum, Palmer Museum of Art, Koehnline Museum of Art, Kohler Arts Center, Northern Illinois Art Museum, and premiere NCECA exhibitions, including the NCECA Biennial and NCECA Annual.

Publications include Ceramics Monthly, Ceramics Art and Perception, Ceramics Now magazine, The Boston Globe and The Philadelphia Inquirer. Kuchinski received numerous grants and awards, including Jerome and McKnight grants, juried exhibitions, and was a guest artist at a number of colleges and universities. Kuchinski has been an artist-in-residence at the Kohler Arts Center, Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, Chester Springs Studio, Northern Clay Center, New Harmony Clay Project, and Punch Projects.

Born in Latvia and raised in Israel, she earned her BFA from Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem and her MFA from Penn State University. She has been a full-time art professor at St. Cloud State University and College of DuPage.

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Beth Lo

Invited Artist

Beth Lo
Chi-not Series: Picnic, 2025
porcelain
9″ x 12″ x 1″
$680

Chi-not Series: Hot Dog, 2025
porcelain
9″ x 12″ x 1″
$680

Artist Statement

My work in ceramics and mixed media collage revolves primarily around issues of family and my Asian-American background.  Cultural marginality and blending, tradition and Westernization, language and translation are key elements in my work.  Since the birth of my son in 1987, I have been drawing inspiration from major events in my family’s history, the day-to-day challenges of parenting, and my own childhood memories of being raised in a minority culture in the United States.  I use the image of the child to illustrate qualities of innocence, potential, vulnerability and play.  I often make reference to traditional or popular Asian aesthetics, including calligraphy, origami, Socialist Realist artwork, Chinese food and restaurants, and Tang and Han Dynasty ceramics, often set in contrast to Western counterparts.

In Hot Dog and Picnic the Chi-not logo plays off of the Chinet paper plate, commonly used for picnicking.  Elaborating on the contrast between Western and Eastern cultures and high and low art, these porcelain pieces reference the paper Chinet plate, which was originally created to be a high class disposable substitute for a bone china product.

Biography

Born in Lafayette, Indiana to parents of Chinese nationality, ceramicist Beth Lo makes work about family, culture and language.  Her Good Children vessels and sculptures have been exhibited internationally, and her work has been recognized by fellowships from United States Artists, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Montana Arts Council and the American Craft Museum.  She is a Professor Emeritus of Art and taught Ceramics at the University of Montana from 1985-2016.  Beth is also an award-winning children’s book illustrator and professional bass player for several musical ensembles.

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Andreia de Matos

Andreia de Matos
girl lunch (picnic edition), 2025
digital illustration
18″ x 24″
$95

Artist Statement

In May of 2023, TikToker @liviemaher coined the phrase “girl dinner” to describe her ideal meal.  “I call this girl dinner,” she says in a clip, showing off her dinner of bread, pickles, grapes, and cheese. The video went viral as people resonated with its casual, simple approach to smorgasbord-style meals.

In contrast, girl lunch (picnic edition) represents an aspirational fantasy of girl dinner taken past its practical limit: an elaborate, entirely romantic picnic with carefully curated vintage and designer dinnerware and perfectly styled food. girl lunch (picnic edition) embodies the twenty-something’s ideal picnic of 2025—a little too trendy and photo-ready, globally inspired yet somewhat contrived, blissfully ignorant of the reality of ants and bugs.

Ultimately, girl lunch picnic is too involved and logistically challenging for the true girl dinner connoisseur. Still, a girl* can dream while hunched alone at the kitchen counter after another day’s work shift over a jar of pickles and packaged pastrami.

*girl, in relation to girl dinner and girl lunch picnic, is a state of mind. Anyone can be “girl.”

Biography

Andreia de Matos (b. 1997, Lisbon, Portugal) is a multi-disciplinary illustrator based in north New Jersey. They hold a BFA in Illustration with a Concentration in Theatre from the Maryland Institute College of Art. Their work includes creating signage and illustrations for local business owners, with a primary focus on food illustration in their personal practice.

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Cara Jean McCarthy

Cara Jean McCarthy
Picnics with Heather and Strawberry Shortcake … “The Berry Best Friends’ Picnic”, 2025
porcelain, wheel thrown, hand built coiled attachments, twice fired, decorated with freehand drawings using underglaze pencils, watercolors and pastel underglazes
(various dimensions)
$5000

Artist Statement

Childhood memories, shared with my daughter Heather, whispers, giggles and sweet sunny moments – painted on porcelain – dreamy wisps of angel winged memories and ghosts of family lore. My daughter loved Strawberry Shortcake, Custard the Cat and all of her Berry Best Friends in the Loving and Inclusive Rainbow World of Strawberry Shortcake’s Books and Colorful Games. This Memory Montage of Picnics and Pies, tiny Doll Sized Croissants, Cookies, Candy and Cupcakes with little Serving Dishes and Cups … is from Once Upon a Time in Life shared in sandboxes, Brooklyn playgrounds, Central Park, Jones Beach and her Grandma’s back yard. A Retro Strawberry Shortcake Summertime Picnic. The Berry Best Friends’ Picnic is filled with sparkly Porcelain moments captured forever in time and Always in my Heart. The Berry Best of Times!

Wheel thrown, altered, hand drawn and underglaze painted with radiant colors and rainbow sprinkled Sunshine Chaos all around. Handmade with Love. All of the strawberries were individually hand coiled, rolled, hollowed out and re-shaped before layering in the Graham Cracker-like pie crust and bisque fired. Then brushed with more Radiant Red and a Clear (sugar-like) glaze, with a few secret ingredients (sparkle dust and angel glow) thrown into the Recipe! Tiny plates and Small Cups decorated with Creamy Luscious visions of Sunshine and Sugar Cupcakes are ready for serving Strawberry Shortcake, her cat Custard and all of Heather’s Friends in the playground.

Biography

My Dance with Clay began in 2007 after my first chapter in Life as a Professional Dancer, from Ballet to Broadway. I couldn’t Wait to get to…  to Live in, to Just Be in NYC so I dashed through school – dancing while earning a B.A. from Butler University and an M.A. “Analyzing the Vaganova Russian Syllabus Method of Ballet Instruction.”  And I absolutely Loved Every minute of my NYC Musical Theater Dancer’s Life, Performing, Choreographing and Teaching there.

After my Dance career ended and my beautiful daughter Heather had left home, I discovered Clay Love at Greenwich House Pottery, jumping into, and quickly obsessed by Wheel classes with Peter Lane. He nurtured my new language in clay, encouraged personal style and emphasized the importance of practice, technique, focus and play … so similar to the discipline of Dance. Working with Clay became my new Dance, creating Movement and Sunshine in Porcelain Stillness, my motif.

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Myra Mimlitsch-Gray

Invited Artist

Myra Mimlitsch-Gray
Four Handled Skillet, 2007
cast ductile iron
15″ x 25″ x 2″
$6500

Artist Statement

Myra Mimlitsch-Gray studies craft as subject and object, engaging the field’s history and methods to interpret utility. With specific attention to the formal language of use, she constructs fictions that suggest variant social contexts and contracts. Her interest in familiar domestic objects and their potential to disrupt is exemplified in this work.

Biography

Mimlitsch-Gray received her MFA in Metalsmithing from Cranbrook Academy of Art. She has been awarded individual artist fellowships by the United States Artists Foundation, the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the New York Foundation for the Arts. Artist Residencies include: The Banff Centre, Alberta; Konstfack University, Stockholm; The MacDowell Colony; and the Arts/Industry Residency in Foundry at the Kohler Co./John Michael Kohler Arts Center. An American Craft Council Fellow, Mimlitsch-Gray was named Master of the Medium by the James Renwick Alliance. As Professor and Head of the Metal program at SUNY New Paltz, she received two Chancellor’s Awards from the State University of New York: Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities, and Excellence in Teaching.

Mimlitsch-Gray’s work is currently on view in Let It Shine at Mark McDonald Ltd. (Hudson NY), and recently in OBJECTS: USA 2024 at R and Company (NYC), and her solo exhibition, CONDUIT, at Brooklyn Metal Works (NY). Past exhibitions include The Source of Everything (Manitoga/Russell Wright Design Center, Garrison NY); Gone Astray: Jewellery and Utensils on the Fringe of Reason (Jewellery Museum, Pforzheim DE; CODA Museum, NL); Parall(elles): A History of Women in Design (Montreal Museum of Fine Arts QE, CA); Prima Materia: the Periodic Table in Contemporary Art (Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, CT); Crafting America (Crystal Bridges Museum of Art, AR), and EXACTLY: precision and process (Pamela Salisbury Gallery, NY). Mimlitsch-Gray is a contributing essayist to the exhibition catalogue, This Present Moment: Crafting a Better World, published by the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution. Her work is included in public collections of the Smithsonian Institution, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Arts and Design, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and Yale University Art Gallery, among others. She maintains a studio in the Hudson Valley of New York.

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Brad Parsons

Brad Parsons
Summer Picnic (Bees in the Cherry Pie), 2025
analog collage on wood panel, found paper, glue, paint
14.25″ x 7.5″ x 5″
$800

Artist Statement

Drawing from a vast catalogue of imagery from across the ages, I distilled the feeling of a summertime picnic into a series of analog collages. Made from salvaged paper media, each one captures the essentials of the perfect picnic: mayo, enjoyable companions, copious snacks, slices of leftover cake, a big blanket, cold drinks, and open air. Dining outside also means fending off bees, birds, and other creatures searching for crumbs as we invade their space.

Pack your sunscreen, bring a treat to share, and lounge outside – this picnic is an all day event!

Biography

Brad Parsons is a multidisciplinary artist and craftsperson living and working in New York.

His fantastical found paper media collages explore nostalgia, the natural world, familiar places and recycling. Brad has shown at Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild, Westobou, Cindy Rucker Gallery, Thomas Hunter Project Space, Chaos Contemporary Craft, Jane Hartsook Gallery, Surface Library, and the Schafter Gallery at Pratt Institute.

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Phillip Renato

 

Phillip Renato
The Stinging, 2025
3d printed plastic, paint, stainless steel, Epipen
11″ x 6″ x 15″
$600

Artist Statement

A woman and two young boys sit on a plot of grass next to a parking lot, legs crouched over the edge of the concrete, near the door to an auto factory. They watch foundry smoke float from the chimney of a nearby plant. They wait for a worker to walk down the ramp in his incongruous cowboy boots, wondering which of him will show. A grateful, hungry, tired father? A hung over, high, irascible prick? Hamburgers wait too, in still warm white paper bags. One week they get the charmer, the next the monster.

One of those boys never made it to adulthood. The other grew into someone who didn’t repeat the mistakes of his father. No drugs, no drinking, no meat, no beating wives or children. But not someone who magically built-up habits he never learned. His regrets are not primarily for the experiences he never had, but that he couldn’t put a stop to those he did. When he thinks of picnics he thinks about the sound of his own breath, he hears his own heartbeat. He fears.

The Stinging is a synthetic basket for an absent experience. It’s a first-aid kit for an asthmatic kid, a valuable object held in reserve to protect life. But also, a set of crutches futilely trying to hold the exits closed. A shot of adrenaline suspended above the void of sometimes unreliable memory, focusing the mind on the off chance that it might have made even a child brave enough to toss the bag, to toss someone into the crucible.

Biography

Phil Renato is a professor and the chair of the product design program at Kendall College of Art and Design in Grand Rapids, Michigan, His research and design practice blurs idiosyncratic computer simulation, algorithmic form development and the tensions of ornament and function.

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Judith Salomon

Judith Salomon
2 Bowls, 2024
mid-range whiteware ceramic
9″ x 9″ x 2″
$185 each

Artist Statement

My work revolves around my interest in creating vessels that can be used on a table, viewed on a shelf, contemplated on a pedestal, or interacted within an installation. The history of art and ceramics is borrowed and appropriated with abandonment. I collect random visuals, in my daily life, that gets processed into my artwork and becomes my aesthetics. Clay is my choice of material because of its history, its tactile nature, and its utilitarian usage.

Biography

I have been making ceramics since high school in Rhode Island, after taking just one class in pottery. From there, I went on to Rochester Institute of Technology to the School for American Craftsman for a BFA and I continued my studies at the NY State College of Ceramics in Alfred, NY where I received my MFA. Teaching at a college level had always been of interest to me and I was lucky enough to get a job at the Cleveland Institute of Art. I am now a Professor Emeritus from there after 37 years of teaching and maintain a full time ceramic studio in Cleveland. My work is in the permanent collections of numerous corporate and museums, such as Victoria and Albert Museum in London, Los Angles County Art Museum, CA, Houston Fine Arts Museum, TX, National Museum of History, Taipei, Taiwan, Cleveland Museum of Art, Everson Museum, Syracuse, NY, and the Progressive Insurance Corporation, Cleveland, OH. Please feel free to look at my complete resume and artwork on my website: judithsalomonceramics.com

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Linda Sikora

Invited Artist
Purchase Award sponsored by Kellar Kellar & Jaiven

Linda Sikora
Gather, 2025
stoneware, polychromic glaze, salt fire
10.5″ x 18″ x 7.5″

Artist Statement

Picnics inspire sharing,
sharing inspires keeping company,
keeping company inspires picnics…when the weather is fair.

When the weather is fair
the pouring pot might hold iced coffee –
the stand, a surface to catch the condensation.
Twelve plates for twelve guests.

Above all –
and regardless of how these vessels may become performative-
that the pouring pot, the stand and the plates,
together,
even when idle,
might inspire gathering
is its most important function.

General Statement of Practice:  Service and display are platforms for culture and behavior. To serve, to display (make visible) and to store (preserve, hold) – are scalable gestures in the world. These gestures occur in close proximity at individual/private levels and also occur at larger scale societal, global levels. They are the conceptual underpinning of functional subjects such as kettle or jar – which in my practice are presented as individuals or, within ‘prototype’ series or groups. Pottery form can be familiar and congenial; it can readily disappear into private, personal activities and places. But this is only one aspect of the work that, through its intelligence of aesthetic, stance and lineage, can also excite and awaken attention thereby reflecting back to the viewer their own imagination. Invisible or visible, or oscillating back and forth between these states, the functional forms foster both attention and inattention – and in this constantly stir.

Biography

Linda Sikora resides with her family near Alfred, NY where she has a studio practice and is a professor of Ceramic Art at Alfred University. Sikora studied at Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University (BFA) and University of Minnesota–Minneapolis (MFA). Professional activities are national and international. Residencies include Archie Bray Foundation; Chunkang College of Cultural Industry, Korea; Tainan National College of The Arts, Taiwan; Clay Edge, Australia. Collections include Art Gallery of Nova Scotia; Racine Art Museum; Alfred Ceramic Art Museum; LA County Museum of Art; Minneapolis Institute of the Arts; Everson Museum; Huntington Museum of Art; Fuller Craft Museum, National Museum of Sweden(pending). Sikora is a United States Artist 2020 Fellowship recipient.

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Charlie Smith

Charlie Smith
Lunchtime for Lonely Joe, 2025
lowfire mixed stoneware ceramics, custom decals
8.5″ x 8.5″ x 0.5″
$200/set

Artist Statement

My current work explores a variety of themes including memory, family, loss, resilience, identity, and attachment. I am interested in the stories attached to the objects that we interact with in our lives. I am looking for significance from these objects, and from my past, to create work that speaks to a personal journey as well as a universal experience.

Objects come and go from our lives; they may wear out or reach the end of their usefulness, they may break, they may be lost, but their importance and value can be immense and significant to the individual or culture that is utilizing it. Friends coming together to listen to a newly released cassette tape or vinyl record – both of which will eventually wear away until they become unlistenable. A young student or artist scribbling away in a notebook with a pencil that will eventually wear down to a useless stub. A cherished t-shirt emblazoned with a favorite tear or band, bound to tear and wear over time.

I’m interested in the emotional attachment we prescribe to objects, as well as the cultural significance of items that may lack monetary value but be held in high regard. What do these objects reveal about the owner or culture that is celebrating them? How do objects help define our identity? Why do certain objects hold a disproportionate importance to their value? Why do we cherish the memory of certain objects?

Biography

A lifelong resident of the Northeast (excepting a few years exploring life in New Orleans), Charlie has spent his professional life pursuing a career in the arts and education. He has spent the past 12 years living in New Hampshire with his wife, Cath, and children, Mariposa and Ansel.

Over the years, he has taught middle and high school courses in drawing, sculpture, photography, and film. He is currently teaching ceramics and graphic design at New Hampton School and pursuing his MFA in Visual Art from Clark University. His ceramic work has been shown in galleries around the country, including in Boston, Philadelphia, New Orleans, and Savannah, along with several locations around New Hampshire. When not working in the studio, Charlie enjoys hiking, skee ball, bootleg action figures, vinyl records, the haikus of Jack Kerouac, and a cold glass of apple juice.

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Rebecca Stevens

Third Prize sponsored by Bailey Pottery Equipment

Rebecca Stevens
Garden Picnic, 2025
wheel thrown ceramics
12″ x 16.5″ x 9″
$1500

Artist Statement

When crafting this ceramic set, I considered a picnic as a solitary ritual that provides the user with an experience of communion with nature itself. Designed to be carried outside and enjoyed in a garden or on a patio, my ceramic set includes a tray, teapot, covered personal platter, and lidded cup. Lids are included with each piece to prevent bugs or natural debris from contaminating the food and drink. Ornamental details including sculptural leaves and grapes and hand painted / carved floral imagery are meant to connect the user to the beauty of plants, as they take the time to slow down and enjoy a tea with them.

Biography

Rebecca earned her BFA in ceramics from the University of North Carolina Asheville in 2021.  From 2021-2023, she was an artist-in-residence at the Morean Center for Clay (Saint Petersburg. FL) which included teaching and two solo shows. Rebecca has participated in numerous juried and invitational exhibitions. Recent awards include first place in Lighthouse Art Center’s 2023 functional ceramics show, Little Lush (Tequesta, FL), second place in Blue Line Art Gallery’s 2024 exhibition, By Hand – An International Fine Craft Competition (Roseville, CA), and the juror’s award for ceramic in Wayne Art Center’s 29th international juried exhibition of contemporary fine craft, Craft Forms 2024 (Wayne, PA). Currently, Rebecca lives in Providence. RI, where she is pursuing an MFA in ceramics at the Rhode Island School of Design.

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Pradnya Venegurkar

Pradnya Venegurkar
In the Shadow, Serving Plate, 2025
handbuilt with translucent frost porcelain and hand painted with underglazes, glazed and fired cone 6
12.5″ x 12″ x 2″
$125 

Pradnya Venegurkar
Sun Soaked, Carafe and Cup, 2025
handbuilt with translucent frost porcelain and hand painted with underglazes, glazed and fired cone 6
Carafe 11.2″ x 4″ x 4″, Cup 3.7 “x 3″ x 3”
$195

Pradnya Venegurkar
Winding Down, Mug Set, 2025
handbuilt with translucent frost porcelain and hand painted with underglazes, glazed and fired cone 6
4.8″ x 4.7″ x 3.5″ and 4.5″ x 5″ x 3.7″
$205

Artist Statement:

I am a mother and an artist, drawn to the world of creativity and imagination no matter where life has taken me. Over the years, I’ve done all kinds of work some by choice, others not, but I always find myself returning to world of an art and imagination. Every piece I create carries a memory or a moment from my life, inspired by things that have left a lasting impression on my mind. My objective is to make the audience find themselves to a place of happiness and enlightenment. I primarily work with porcelain, a truly exquisite clay that beautifully enhances my drawings and illustrations. I take great pride in crafting featherlight porcelain pieces. While porcelain is my favorite medium, I also enjoy working with various types of clay for sculpting. Clay is an ongoing journey for me. I’m continually discovering, experimenting and learning every day.

Biography

I am an artist and sculptor who primarily works with ceramics. My journey in clay began at a community art center, where I trained for nearly seven years—studying different types of clay, hand-building techniques, sculpting, wheel work, and mastering various tools and methods. Over time, I developed expertise in working with challenging clay like porcelain, creating feather-light forms that reflect both strength and delicate texture.

My work has been exhibited and sold in over 15 galleries across the United States, and I have received multiple awards along the way. In addition to my artistic practice, I hold a Master’s degree in Management and previously worked in the insurance industry for several years.

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Matthew Whalen

Invited Artist