Artist Conversation: Radical Ceramicists in North Carolina

Join us for a lively artist conversation exploring themes of experimentation, materiality, and process in the work of North Carolina-based ceramic artists Jessica Dupuis (UNC-Pembroke; MFA ’10), Hitomi Shibata (Studio Touya, Seagrove, NC), and Isys Hennigar (BFA ’17) in the context of the innovative works by contemporary Japanese women artists on view in Radical Clay. The conversation will be moderated by the Ackland’s Head of Interpretive Resources Lillian Rodriguez, part of the Museum’s Education and Interpretation Team.

Space is limited; please register for a free ticket below!

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About Radical Clay: Contemporary Women Artists from Japan

Radical Clay celebrates thirty-six contemporary ceramic artists — all women — represented by works selected from the private collection of Carol and Jeffrey Horvitz. All have explored the technical and conceptual possibilities of clay. The works in this exhibition are inventive and expressive, at times mysterious or even shocking. The artists who created them are among the most technically accomplished contemporary ceramists. Some began their careers several decades ago while others started more recently — and over the past fifty years they have, each in her distinctive way, produced sculpture that pushes the physical limits of the medium. More about Radical Clay: https://ackland.org/exhibition/radical-clay-contemporary-women-artists-from-japan/. 

About the Artists

Jessica Dupuis received her MFA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and her BFA with a concentration in ceramics and print media from Alfred University. Dupuis exhibits her work regionally and nationally. She has been a resident artist at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft and Women’s Studio Workshop as well as a recipient of the International Sculpture Center’s Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award and an Ella Fountain Pratt Emerging Artists Grant from the Durham Arts Council. She is an Associate Professor of Art – Ceramics & A.D. Gallery Director at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke. More about Dupuis: https://www.jessicadupuis.com/. 

Isys Hennigar‘s work explores myth and narrative surrounding the body and the natural world. Referencing agricultural practice, mythology, and medicine, the work considers systems of sustenance and healing, cultural and ecological legacies of land cultivation, and dualities of the body. In dialogue with clay’s metaphorical relationship to the body, as well as with histories of metal adornment and objects of protection, her work invokes real and reimagined ecological encounters that underscore transformation and hybridity as tools of renewal. Hennigar received her BFA from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and her MFA from the University of Georgia. Exhibitions of her work include Signature Contemporary Craft (Atlanta, GA), Sow & Tailor Gallery (Los Angeles, CA), The American Museum of Ceramics (Pomona, CA), and the North Carolina Museum of Art (Raleigh, NC). She is currently in residence as the 2025 Brightwork Fellow at Anchorlight in Raleigh, NC. More about Hennigar: https://www.isyshennigar.com/.

Hitomi Shibata creates ceramic works from natural clays, using wood firing in her process, giving them a sustainable energy and life. Shibata started learning ceramic art in Okayama, Japan as a college student, and after graduation moved to Shigaraki which is one of the oldest Japanese pottery towns. She lived and established her skill and knowledge as a professional potter in Shigaraki. Shibata received a scholarship by Rotary International to come to the USA to learn American ceramics in 2001. Now living in Seagrove, North Carolina, which is the most active pottery communities in USA, she enjoys making pots in her studio. Shibata does wood firings with her husband, Takuro Shibata by their Anagama plus chamber kiln that they built in 2009. More about Shibata: https://www.studiotouya.com/hitomi-shibata.