In this exhibition, Vessel | Body | Home, each artist tells compelling stories about being human through crafted objects and sculptural renderings that suggest the body as a container, object parts, reflections, and domestic spaces.

Artists Alejandra Almuelle, Jennifer Ling Datchuk, Ron Geibel, Jihye Han, Clara Hoag, Ann Johnson, and Yeonsoo Kim create meticulously constructed artworks that delve into their distinct cultural perspectives and dissect histories. These artworks amplify shared human experiences such as joy, chaos, vulnerability, pleasure, beauty, and resilience, fostering a sense of connection.

Datchuk, Geibel, and Johnson state their art practices make narratives visible, investigate truths, and beat back the erasure of history and culture. Almuelle, Han, and Kim take traditional forms and ways of making, such as moon jars and Onggi, Korean earthenware pots, and skillfully infuse them with contemporary life. Hoag and Almuelle’s figurative sculptures consider the body as constructions, landscapes, and icons. Johnson and Datchuk examine themes of femininity and ritual.

- Tammie Rubin

Artist Statements & Bios

Alejandra Almuelle

Born and raised in Peru, where clay is a deeply ingrained artistic tradition, I developed a profound connection to this medium. While I began exploring clay in Peru, it was in Austin that I truly honed my skills as a ceramic artist. Over the past 25 years, I have established and maintained my practice, dedicated to both the functional and sculptural aspects of ceramics. I have also experimented with other materials, such as paper, beeswax, metal, resin, and gold leaf, to expand my artistic vocabulary. My work has been featured in institutions such as the San Angelo Museum of Art, Elizabeth Nay Museum, Mexicarte Museum, Women and Their Work, Cloud Tree Gallery, Rock-port Center for the Arts, Rock Port, Tx, Hunt Gallery, Webster University, St. Louis, Mo, Gallery Verde, San Angelo, Tx among others. I have also been the recipient of numerous grants from the city of Austin.

The focus of my work is the human form. The body not only carries our genetic memory, but it is the biological archive of experience. We are historically shaped and conditioned by the environment and by the same socioeconomic structures we have participated in creating. The human body is both witness and event, as well as the field where these two aspects are at play. My work points to this juncture. Through the human form in its different

iterations, I shift attention beyond form to what is implicit: the event, the experience that has taken place. I hand build using slabs of clay. This technique allows sculpting simultaneously from inside and outside the form. This process reflects the interplay between the body and the world. A world that expresses itself in our biology, and a body that leaves its imprint on the world it inhabits. The slab of clay becomes the metaphorical ground where that interaction takes shape. Clay, loaded with intelligence, has history. It is malleable but it pushes back. Open to be shaped, it asks for the same, having a bearing on the outcome of the work.

Jennifer Ling Datchuk

Jennifer Ling Datchuk is an artist born in Warren, Ohio and raised in Brooklyn, New York. Her work is an exploration of her layered identity – as a woman, a Chinese woman, as an “American,” as a third culture kid.

Trained in ceramics, Datchuk works with porcelain and other materials often associated with traditional women’s work, such as textiles and hair, to discuss fragility, beauty, femininity, intersectionality, identity, and personal history. Her practice evolved from sculpture to mixed media as she began to focus on domestic objects and the feminine sphere. Handwork and hair both became totems of the small rituals that fix, smooth over, and ground women’s lives. Through these materials, she explores how Western beauty standards influenced the East, how the non-white body is commodified and sold, and how women’s – globally, girls’ – work is still a major economic driver whose workers still struggle for equality.

Datchuk holds an MFA in Artisanry from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and a BFA in Crafts from Kent State University. She has received grants from the Artist Foundation of San Antonio, travel grant from Artpace, and the Linda Lighton International Artist Exchange Program to research the global migrations of porcelain and blue and white pattern decoration. She was awarded a residency through the Blue Star Contemporary Art Museum to conduct her studio practice at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin, Germany and has participated in residencies at the Pottery Workshop in Jingdezhen, China, Vermont Studio Center, European Ceramic Work Center in the Netherlands, Artpace in San Antonio, Texas and the Arts/Industry Residency at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center and Kohler Company in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. In 2017, she received the Emerging Voices award from the American Craft Council and in 2020 was named a United States Artist Fellow in Craft.

Her work is in the permanent collections at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, San Antonio Museum of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Ogden Museum of Southern Art, Pacific Asia Museum, Blanton Museum of Art, and the Cc Foundation in Shanghai, China.

She is an Assistant Professor of Art in the Ceramics Department at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona and lives and maintains a studio practice in Phoenix, Arizona.

Ron Geibel

My artwork and research address the complex landscape among intimacy, pleasure, and authority as it concerns the opaque boundaries between public and private desires. Through a cross-section of queer theory and materiality, I create meticulously crafted, intimately scaled objects that challenge perceptions of self. Candy-coated surfaces and picture-perfect facades provocatively explore how temptation and

desire captivate, drawing one inevitably closer. Like the 'straight-acting,' queer-identifying individual who inconspicuously navigates the public, the use of multiples masks the suggestive nature of the forms.

For Queer Theorist José Esteban Muñoz, living a queer experience in or out of the public eye is an act of artwork and activism filled with poignancy, pleasure, beauty, and urgency. From coy and erotic to playful and political, I articulate queer positions and visibility through works that examine the nuances of desire.

Ron Geibel’s artwork and research address the complex landscape among intimacy, pleasure, and authority as it concerns the opaque relationship between public and private desires that constitute queer identity.

​​Geibel received a BFA from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania and his MFA from the University of Montana. Geibel exhibits both nationally and internationally, and venues include the Bogert Gallery in Knokke, Belgium; Untitled Space, New York City; Susquehanna Art Museum, Pennsylvania; San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts, Texas; and Manifest Gallery in Cincinnati, Ohio. His work is featured in Create Magazine, ArtMaze Magazine, Ceramics Art and Perception, and Artist Magazine, published in Taiwan City, Taiwan.

Geibel is a recipient of a 2019 Lighton International Artists Exchange Grant. The grant helped to support his three-month artist residency at the European Ceramic Workcentre in The Netherlands. There, his research focused on place and how that affects the queer lived experience. Other residencies include the Clay Art Center in Port Chester, New York; The Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, New York; and the Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Ron is currently an Associate Professor and Chair of Studio Art at Southwestern University in Georgetown, TX.

Jihye Han

My work explores cultural blending through the lens of my experiences in South Korea and the United States, drawing deeply from the symbolic and vibrant imagery of Minhwa, traditional Korean folk art. This aesthetic—rooted in everyday Korean life—embraces bold colors and expressive forms, allowing me to examine themes of home, homeland, and identity while celebrating my heritage. Grounded in personal history, memory, and dreams, my work weaves layered narratives that invite viewers to engage with these stories. I believe in the power of art to bridge cultural divides and foster connections across diverse backgrounds, contributing to an essential dialogue on shared human experience.

Jihye Han earned a BFA in Sculpture and Ceramics from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and an MFA in Ceramics from the University of North Texas. She was awarded the Texas BIPOC Ceramic Emerging Artist Award by Clay Houston in 2021 and received the 2022 Emerging Artist Award from the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA). She has participated in numerous exhibitions at institutions both nationally and internationally. She is currently a full-time faculty member in the Art Department at Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire.

Clara Hoag

My figure sculptures and drawings reflect the complexity of life: buildings, scaffolding, and abstract shapes amass, swirl in space, and combine with the human form to visually describe the human body, mind, and experience. In my new sculptures and drawings, the addition of spheres and polka dots suggest a world that is both chaotic and delightful – like a ball pit. The density of these components in each piece, combined with an architectural visual language, illustrates the human condition as one of turmoil, accumulation, equilibrium, and joy.

Ultimately, my work is about finding awe and beauty in the immensity of our existence: The landscape looks fragile, but it holds; vulnerability and resilience fight, constantly seeking balance.

Clara Hoag is an artist and teacher living and working in Houston, TX (USA). Clara has been a resident artist at The Archie Bray Foundation (Helena, MT) and The Houston Center for Contemporary Craft (TX); she has received grants from the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation (Canada), The Puffin Foundation (New Jersey), and the Houston Arts Alliance; and she has shown extensively in group and solo exhibitions in the United States. Clara received two BFAs from the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign) in 2009, and she received her MFA in Ceramics from the University of Georgia (Athens) in 2013. Clara teaches ceramics as a full-time professor at Houston Community College.

Ann Johnson

On more than one occasion my work has been described as intentional. It’s true. The majority of my work is created with the intent of generating conversation, giving shout outs, and telling stories. I ask viewers to look into my work, not simply at the work. My process. I am a rule breaker. Curious. Thoughtful. Stubborn. I push boundaries. Particularly in printmaking. I have no interest in printing on paper. I choose to print on feathers, leaves, concrete, and cotton. It makes the process more interesting and creates compelling narratives. The beauty of printmaking is how the same image can tell multiple stories. My work investigates truths. Hard truths. My work focuses on the Black experience as I examine ancestry, injustice and double consciousness. I began printing hand poured bricks to investigate history and the gentrification of communities like Freedmen’s town (4th Ward, Houston, TX). I know use this process to tell deep-rooted stories related to identity. My work examines Black womanhood. From Mammy to Breonna. Women in the shadows. The work is about being seen. I honor the woman who had to take care of other families before she could take care of her own. Printing on cotton speaks for itself and undoubtedly analyzes the ills of slavery in this country. Something that is increasingly being dismissed from the history books due to the current political climate. Artists and art teachers are the new history teachers and are the last hope to accurately portray and discuss history, as culture is being erased. I proudly put my work on the front lines of injustice. That is who I am.

Born in London, England and raised in Cheyenne, WY, Ann Sole Sister Johnson is a graduate of Prairie View A&M University in Texas, (where she now teaches) and received a BS in Home Economics. She has also received an MA in Humanities from the University of Houston-Clear Lake, as well as an MFA from The Academy of Art University, in San Francisco with a concentration in printmaking. Primarily an interdisciplinary artist, Johnson’s passion for exploring issues particularly in the Black community has led her to create series of works that are evocative and engaging. Johnson is based in Houston, TX.

Yeonsoo Kim

Living on the island I opened my mind to all sorts of natural objects such as: mountains, sea, fields, and eventually I fell for the clay and fire. I have been doing my study in art with painting and playing with nature. From there I have learned the characteristic of clay and I was attracted to its power of liveness and vigor. This has made me focus my interest on ceramics.

‘Onggi’ are Korean ethnic earthenware, which was extensively used as tableware as well as storage containers in Korea. I had a memorable experienced when I was a freshman at the University, it was an onggi workshop. The master of onggi, who made a big pot around 1m 50cm. I was overwhelmed by making giant onggi at once. At first I was simply attracted to technique, however as I worked with master crafts people for many years, I learned of my country’s history, culture, and even life overall. I was trained not only technically but also spiritually, for I gained the wisdom of life and life-altering experience.

My desire is to find and develop my aesthetic sense by focusing on the relationship of the old and the new. The interest in this relationship is getting wider and wider until it reaches human, nature, and space. Until now, a lot of effort and time were spent for develop my works, yet I want to create more inspirational and touching works that integrate both technique and ideas through ceaseless efforts while developing my artistic views and values.

I tasked myself with the job of creating a new hand-built vessel of mask daily. The works, in accumulation act as a type of diary or as a call “to listen to my inner voice.” My works explore identity and psychological conditions through the processes of making and daily life.

Yeonsoo Kim was born in Haenam, South Korea. He is full time studio artist in Exeter, NH.

Kim earned his Master of Fine Arts degree in Ceramics at Lamar Dodd School of Art, University of Georgia in Athens, GA. He achieved his Bachelor of Fine Arts in ceramics and glass from the Hongik University located in Seoul. Kim has held apprenticeships with Onggi masters in Jeolla-do(Hayngjong-Oh) and Gyeongsang-do(Jinkyu Huh) in Korea.

Kim has won multiple awards; His most recent recognition is being from the National Council on Education the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) for, which granted him one of the top six Emerging Artist for the Year 2020 Award.

He has participated in several artist residency programs, including the Baltimore Clayworks, Korea Ceramic Foundation, Montana State University, and the Archie Bray Foundation.

Kim has exhibited nationally and internationally and recently had a solo exhibition at the Radius Gallery in Missoula, MT.