SFclayworks recently hosted a community exhibit in the front office gallery on July 10th.
Every year, sfclayworks, the cooperative ceramics studio tucked into San Francisco’s Bayview neighborhood, throws open its gallery doors for its Annual Student and Community Member Exhibition. One standout edition carried the theme “Drawn to Clay,” inviting studio members to interpret, in their own way, what pulls them back to the wheel and the wedging table again and again.
The show gave both longtime studio artists and newer members a rare chance to display what they’d been quietly shaping in the studio all year, from thrown vessels to hand-built sculptural work. True to sfclayworks’ cooperative spirit, the exhibition was open to studio holders who wanted to participate, turning the gallery into a genuine snapshot of the community’s range and personality.
“Drawn to Clay” was staged alongside SF Open Studios, the city’s oldest and largest open-studio event, which each fall invites the public into working artist spaces across San Francisco’s neighborhoods.
For a studio built on the idea that clay is best explored alongside others, the exhibition was less a formal art show and more a group portrait, this was proof that what draws people to clay is as varied as the members themselves.