Current Exhibition
Portrait of a Kiln: 2026
Portrait of a Kiln: 2026 is an exhibition showcasing the work of eight ceramic artists from across North America that provides an intimate view into their lives through photography, written narratives and work from each artist's own kiln.
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Crossdraft Ceramics Gallery is excited to announce Portrait of a Kiln: 2026. This exhibition brings together eight ceramic artists from across North America and provides viewers an intimate glimpse into the working lives of each artist through the lens of their relationship with their kilns. To those who work in clay, the kiln is central to their creative practice. Each of the kilns featured in this exhibition are as unique as the artists’ work that emerges from them.
This exhibition celebrates the flame, time and fortitude that these artists harness, framing their work in the warm light of the firing process and presenting the objects that they create as an extension of the lives and lifestyles that they have grown into as working artists.
Curated and organized by Richard Munster and featuring work from Josh Copus, Emma Smith, David Banga, Josh Scott, Katie Wargo, Will Dickert, Candice Hensley and Herrick Smith, Portrait of a Kiln: 2026 will run from April 3 - June 6 with an opening reception on April 3 & 4 from 5 - 9 pm. This event is funded by a United Arts of Central Florida grant and is free and open to the public.
We will also host receptions on May 1 & 2 and June 5 & 6. Private viewings for groups or individuals can be scheduled with the gallery via our contact form.
TAKE WARNING!: Folk Resistance Paintings by Nancy Jay (L.B.)
The tradition of resistance to structures and systems of power runs deep through the history of American folk painting. This collection of works by Orlando artist Nancy Jay (L.B.) extends directly from that lineage and actively exists today as critical commentary; cardboard, collage, crude paint and bold print lettering scream in visual response to the current state of the nation and leave no ambiguity about their intention.
This form of reactionary work is important now more than ever, especially so in the state of Florida, where voices of dissent are criminalized and a culture of fear cast from the shadow of power curbs the very institutions and individuals within communities whose role it has traditionally been to stand against the tide of top-down control over culture, community and personhood.
Join hands and celebrate the voices of dissent. Let us Not Be Quiet together.
Held in the Body: Clay as Witness // Jeff Rogers
Held in the Body : Clay as Witness considers clay as a material shaped by pressure, fire, and time—much like the histories and inheritances we carry in our bodies. Throughout the exhibition, gun-shaped handles appear on functional ceramic forms, referencing the inheritance of colonial and patriarchal violence and the ways such histories become normalized through use, beauty, and tradition. Rather than offering conclusions, the work asks for reflection, presence, and a willingness to sit with contradiction. The exhibition expands on work previously shown at the Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art in Biloxi MS.
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The opening night on January 2, Rogers will engage in a four-hour durational performance that will animate the exhibition. During the performance, he will work inside a rusted metal cage with a small potter’s wheel, making very small ceramic objects over the course of the evening. The action is restrained and repetitive, inviting audience interventions that will help shape the nature of the performance. A related live performance will take place during the closing event on February 7.
BREAKING FORM
A celebration of outstanding local and regional work co-curated by Scott White of SoWhat! Arts and Richard Munster of Crossdraft Gallery.
LeAnn Siefferman: Making Conversations
Join us for the closing reception of ‘Making Conversations’ This event will be held on Friday, August 1st & Saturday, August 2nd from 5-9pm.
Flower // Vessel: Ikebana by Stevie D’Ercole
Flower // Vessel: Ikebana by Stevie D’Ercole
In the time honored traditions of Sōgetsu-ryū Ikebana, Stevie D’Ercole is gracing the gallery with a collection of floral arrangements that embrace and push the boundaries of the vessel as an integral and essential component of floral arrangement and design. Using containers ranging from the handmade to the found object, she weaves a gracious and fleeting visual language from her pairing and handling of materials drawn from the natural and made world. This is a one weekend only event, so be sure to mark your calendars.
Katie Wargo
Katie Wargo:
Pots with Purpose
Katie Wargo produces functional forms designed with intention and meant for use. Her forms have strength and grace, but are subtle and subdued, asking only to play their role in the service of utility. Her work places food at it center, allowing and supporting a collaborative joy between chef, artist and patron. This exhibition of Wargo’s work is her first time taking her pots out of the kitchen or off of the table and into a gallery space.
We are honored and excited to share her pots with you.
We're All Friends Here
We’re All Friends Here: Ian Jones & Co.
“Make new friends, but keep the old / One is silver and the other’s gold”
This exhibition is a celebration of friendships forged through a life in clay. Organized by Ian Paul Jones, this collection of paintings, ceramics and fiber works is an homage to kindred spirits that we meet along the path of a life that places craft, kinship and collective engagement at its core.
Featuring the work of nine artists from the Pacific Northwest, this exhibition is a costal exchange; a connection through objects that shares the work of friends made along the west coast with friends long established on the east.
Meet the Artists:
Ian Jones
Born and raised in the heat and heart of central Floridas last hub of agricultural production, Ian Jones discovered his passion for creating and connecting through the local music scene. Wielding the power of borrowed and bruised instruments and forging friendships and fury through the greater Orlando punk scene, he has carried that same energy into his paintings, pots, sculptures or whatever expressive enterprise he encounters.
Joey Rose Cardoso
Wearable objects crafted by hand, made in the Hood River Valley.
Joey Rose creates stunning works from secondary and recycled materials. Objects that are designed to celebrate & adorn the human body, but that hold presence, intrigue and strength all their own.
A practice rooted in sustainable sourcing fro the production of her work calls on seeking out and reusing waste and off cut; dead-stock leather and textiles, recycled wool scrap and ethically sourced bone.
Nick Kesler
Originally hailing from Knoxville, Tennessee, Nick found his way to clay in high school, passed through Taylor University in Upland, Indiana and now resides in Lakewood, Washington.
His gritty and unapologetic approach to covering his hands in mud results in a flurry of forms: skulls, bones, barnacles and cups and jars alike. He is a regular presence at the East Creek Anagama, where the collective effort of firing clay with cords of wood and cadres of comrades render his objects with a skin of melted ash and the kissing blush of a passing flame.
Darah Lundberg
Darah Lundberg is an unconventionally taught ceramacist, an educator, and a lover of pots and the ceramic process.
Darah began revisiting ceramics in 2012 and had been fortunate to be a part of a vibrant and talented community of ceramacists in Minnesota and Wisconsin for almost 10 years. Darah started teaching in 2016 in a variety of locations and now offers private lessons to singles or groups, from beginners to advanced techniques.
Darah relocated to Portland, Oregon in the fall of 2021 where she has been warmly welcomed as an maker and a wood fire community member. Each hand made piece Darah makes is a one of a kind unique item that is created with thoughtfulness and years of experience in the ceramic field.
Lily Williams
Megan Burleson
Gloria Herman
Kate Lepore
Kate Lepore is the creative force behind Wild Thing Studio. She finds inspiration for her work in interesting creatures & plants, patterns & rhythms, life's funny little moments, and the joy of holding tiny objects and imagining the world from a different perspective. Kate brings her playful spirit to life through her handbuilt ceramic creations. After receiving her BFA from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University and working in clay for the last 13 years, Kate enjoys sharing her knowledge and expertise in handbuilding through lessons and workshops.
Hana Bolton
Stoneware for living with, from the Columbia River Gorge.
Trevor T. Dunn
Atmospheric Observations:
A solo exhibition of work by Trevor T. Dunn
June 7 - August 3, 2024
Learn more about Trevor's work
This exhibition of Trevor Dunn’s woodfired ceramic objects is the culmination of years of invested labor, learning and love for the craft and art of working with clay. Dunn’s methods of working in clay pair beautifully with an insightful approach to subject matter, resulting in an exhibition that carries itself with confidence, subtlety and an undeniable, quiet strength.
His work is rooted in the romance of imagined finds. Objects found and their plausible pasts: utility, ritual or circumstance and time.
These are not ethereal fancies; His work holds space. The force of his made-objects hold a visceral presence. They are defined not only by their form but by a hard earned and calculated approach to surface treatment.
Extending the traditions of John Neely and the origins of the train kiln, Trevor continues to work within the developments of wood fired kilns and reduction cooled firing cycles. He has honed his visual output with a low key / high result ratio that only a master of being a student can do.
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Trevor Dunn lives and works in Jacksonville, Florida teaching ceramics and sculpture at the University of North Florida.
Portrait of A Kiln
This exhibition of collected images, texts and objects is an effort to offer a unique insight into the character of each included artist. Through the combination of written reflection, photographs and representative objects from each of these artist’s unique kilns, a portrait is created. Not a biography or history, but an active and current lens through which we can maybe take a closer look into the inner workings of the artist.
A kiln, to a potter, is like a period to a sentence: it punctuates and defines all of the work that comes before its role is called. The decision that each artist makes, or is afforded, to engage with a kiln can be a personal and deeply defining part of their identity as it relates to their process, work and person.
The writings in this collection allow each artist to speak to that, their images lend a visual to that narrative, and the artworks are a celebration of their respective efforts and individual approaches to living a life in clay.
The sharing of stories and the exchange of ideas is central to family, community and growth. It is a human mechanism for teaching, inspiring, remembering and developing and it is my hope that the insights, images and objects provided by each of these artists can serve to be a small part of that tradition.
Clouds Like Mountains: Osa Atoe & Joey O’Mahoney
Clouds Like Mountains:
Osa Atoe & Joey O’Mahoney
An exhibition of ceramic vessels made by Osa Atoe & watercolor paintings by Joey O’Mahoney, this collection of works was produced in and inspired by their move to Florida and a celebration of their tenure here.
Joey’s plein air watercolor paintings document and celebrate their travels and explorations of the landscape they have called home since 2020. Palm trees, shorelines, parking lots, big skies and freshwater springs are all rendered in a lucid and soft homage to the diversity and abundance of beauty held with their traveled paths of our peninsula.
Osa’s work complemented this spirit of discovery and record through three distinct bodies of work. Her recognized and established line of stoneware vessels channel a relationship and deep connection to water and have been her primary studio output for years. Since her time settling in Sarasota, Atoe has broadened and adapted her practice, studying traditional methods of pottery making and diving into the world of wild clay, early ceramic practices and the geologic and cultural origins of handmade ceramic wares.
Together, these works are a celebration. Not only of landscapes, histories and relationships with and in those, but of shared, collective and individual relationships; with each other, with the landscape, and with histories: current and past and future.
Joey and Osa moved to Sarasota, Florida in August 2020 after living in Louisiana for many years. They met in the New Orleans punk scene and were both musicians before finding landscape architecture and ceramics, respectively.
They still play music, sometimes.
The couple’s union sparked a desire to explore nature together, starting with the woods and wetlands of southern Louisiana. They became enthralled with Florida after visiting a freshwater spring for the first time in 2019. This exhibition has given them the opportunity to share their passion, creativity and appreciation of nature in a way that is both interrelated and complementary while also reflecting their independent approaches and personality.
All underwater pottery photographs and video installation by Shoog McDaniel.
Joey O’Mahoney
Joey was born and raised in Houston, Texas. His creative journey began with music & skateboarding in the mid 90’s and later evolved into skatepark construction, landscape architecture and most recently, watercolor. His paintings serve as a way to relax, reflect and worship nature.
Osa Atoe
Osa, born in Blacksburg, Virginia to Nigerian immigrants, took her first pottery class at a community studio in 2013. She creates pottery for people to use daily such as mugs, cups, bowls and vases. Through her work with clay, Osa expresses her cultural heritage, admiration of historical pottery and her love for the natural environment. She hols a degree in sociology and her work has been featured in Ceramics Monthly, American Craft, and Southern Living magazines. Osa’s work can be purchased through her website. She welcomes studio visits and teaches workshops in person and virtually.