THE CLAY STUDIO PRESENTS FOUR NEW FALL EXHIBITIONS HIGHLIGHTING ALUMNI OF THE RESIDENT ARTIST PROGRAM

The Clay Studio (1425 N. American St), Philadelphia’s preeminent ceramic arts and resident artist’s center, has four thought-provoking new exhibitions from alums of their Resident Artist Program planned for the fall. Beginning October 13, The Clay Studio’s Jill Bonovitz Gallery will feature “Matter in a Floating World” by former Resident Artist Andrea Marquis, comprised of large, structured clay objects. Visitors can also look forward to “Urschrei,” featuring works from multi-media artists Layla Marcelle and Jacob Raeder, otherwise known as Better Lovers. Current Resident Artist Nate Willever’s exhibition utilizes local materials blended into clays and glazes to create new works that couldn’t have been made anywhere else. Finally, The Clay Studio will honor the late artist Leroy Johnson with a special post-humous exhibition celebrating his incredible life and work as a renowned mixed-media artist in Philadelphia’s arts community. 

Entry to The Clay Studio’s galleries and the shop is free to the public. Guests can view exhibitions or items in the shop in person or online. The Clay Studio is open for visitors Monday to Friday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturday to Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

“Urschrei” is a new exhibition featuring works by Better Lovers, the moniker for the evolving artistic practice of Layla Marcelle and Jacob Raeder. The duo launched Better Lovers in 2016 ass a design company that applies contemporary dance methodologies to object-making. “Urschrei” will be on display in the Jill Bonovitz Gallery from October 13 to December 31, 2022.

Marcelle is an American artist who engages with multiple artistic mediums, including ceramics, choreography, image-making, and object-making. Her education includes professional contemporary dance training with Modus Operandi, a BA and BFA from Alfred University, an MFA from Simon Fraser University, and a master’s in ceramics from Tyler School of Art. Raeder learned the discipline of craft while double-majoring at Alfred University in Art and Philosophy. He traced the trajectories of contemporary European designs as a Fulbright scholar in the Netherlands before earning his MFA in ceramics at the School of Art Institute Chicago. Raeder has exhibited, taught, and participated in artist residencies all over the world, sharing the view of an expanded field of ceramics that encompasses the 21st-century conception of a materially engaged maker not beholden to a single medium.