BLACK CLAY December 3, 2025 - February 22, 2025 Presented by ARTE NOIR in Partnership with Pottery Northwest

Featuring a new lineage of Pacific Northwest artists alongside nationally recognized contemporary ceramicists.

Seattle, WA (December 3, 2025) –  ARTE NOIR, in partnership with Pottery Northwest, presents Black Clay, an exhibition featuring over 20 ceramic artists shaping clay into narrative, memory, and resistance.

The exhibition exists in conversation with a continuum of makers: from the unknown creators of Afro-Colonoware and the iconic Southern Face Jugs, to David Drake (c. 1800–1870s), the enslaved potter who inscribed poetry into vessels as an act of resistance and record. It honors the trailblazers of the Harlem Renaissance—Sargent Johnson, Augusta Savage, Selma Burke, William E. Artis—who elevated sculpture into cultural memory, and acknowledges contemporary voices such as Andile Dyalvane, Earline M. Green, Kehinde Wiley, Kimmy Cantrell, and Wesley T. Brown. Together, they embody a legacy of hand-building and carving, glaze alchemy, wheel mastery, and material experimentation that continues to educate the world.

Black Clay amplifies this legacy by showcasing artists such as Sierra Bundy, Willow Vergara-Agyakwa, Esther Ervin, Deshun Peoples, Pottery Northwest guest artist Tammie Rubin, and others whose work shapes narrative into material. Their practices speak to folklore, surrealism, spirituality, femininity, Afrofuturism, and the lived tensions between racism and liberation. These artists inhabit the role of educator, researcher, and provocateur—challenging form to expand meaning and push ceramics beyond utility into cultural declaration.

Despite the inherent challenges of working with clay—its fragility, labor, and time—the medium remains one of humanity’s oldest artistic and functional technologies. Black Clay honors that lineage and affirms the critical contributions of Black ceramicists today. It is an invitation to engage with the journey of earth into form, to witness how makers transform material into memory, and to recognize the enduring creativity of African and African American communities.

The Artists 

Sasa Akil

Imani Anderson

Kouassi Aragao-Romero

Michaela Ayers

Tay Baker-Johnson

Del Bey

Ronda Brown

Sierra Bundy

Japera Burres

Lea Cook

Myia Crawford

Esther Ervin

Sally Gibson

Joanna Henry

Shirley Jackson

Bianca McPherson

Vina Nweke

Angel Ohome

Deshun Peoples

Perri Rhoden

Tammie Rubin

Darius Scott

Veronica Smith

Ieisha Sweatmon

Willow Vergara-Agyakwa

Dates + Times 

December 3, 2025 - February 22, 2026 | Exhibit Run

Friday, December 12, 2025, from  5:30 PM to 7 PM | Opening Reception 

Date + time TBD | February Closing Celebration 

Exhibit Related Workshops Hosted in the ARTE NOIR Maker Space:

January 10, 2026, from 1 PM to 3 PM | Wheel Throwing Demo with Ryan McDonald

January 17, 2025, from 1 PM to 4 PM | Mask Making Workshop with Sierra Bundy

January 24, 2026, from 1 PM to 4 PM | Making Faces: Rendering Human Features in Clay with Aisha Harrison

Black Clay is open for viewing during ARTE NOIR’s regular business hours: 

Wednesday - Saturday from 11 AM to 7 PM

Sunday from 12 PM to 6 PM

Monday + Tuesday - Closed

About ARTE NOIR

ARTE NOIR celebrates and sustains Black art, artists, and culture by cultivating inclusive spaces, fostering opportunities, and honoring community alongside the diversity and vitality of Black creativity. ARTE NOIR encompasses an online publication, fine art gallery, museum-style gift shop, the Barbara Earl Thomas Maker Space, and the Source of Labor Recording Studio. Located in the heart of the historic Central District, ARTE NOIR carries products and items in the gift shop made by Black creatives who receive 100% of net product sales proceeds. ARTE NOIR programs additional community-focused events and activities throughout the year in the Midtown Public Square adjacent to the gallery.  

About Pottery Northwest

Founded in 1966, Pottery Northwest is Seattle’s preeminent non-profit ceramics organization that promotes innovation, arts excellence, and education with a mission of fostering an inclusive community around clay. Their nationally renowned ceramics studio offers vibrant programming to over 2,000 students each year. Artists from around the world come to Pottery Northwest in the spirit of artistic dialogue and as a formative step in their careers. Pottery Northwest believes clay is for everyone and is committed to creating intentional space for people to explore their creativity and personal growth, regardless of the many socio-economic obstacles they may face. They offer need-based/sliding scale scholarships and a BIPOC community scholarship fund to lower the barrier of access to ceramics programs.