Hudson River Museum: Clay Conversations

Clay Conversations: Ceramics from the Gilded to the Digital Age

October 11, 2024–March 9, 2025

Hudson River Museum

511 Warburton Avenue
Yonkers, NY 10701

From antique porcelain vases to contemporary dishware generated by AI technology, Clay Conversations illuminates the power of ceramics to serve as vessels for personal and political expression. Juxtaposing selections from the HRM’s Chinese porcelain collection with the work of seven New York–based artists, the exhibition spotlights how contemporary ceramicists reference and critique the medium’s longstanding ties to themes of exclusivity and exoticism.

Perched atop bookshelves and tabletops, an assortment of porcelain vessels adorn the period rooms in the Museum’s 1877 Gilded Age home, Glenview. These seemingly quotidian ceramic forms—such as vases, jars, and plates—reflect a booming global marketplace. During the late nineteenth century, wealthy Americans went to great lengths to acquire antique Chinese ceramics, especially blue-and-white porcelain from the Kangxi period of the Qing dynasty (1662–1722). Created for both domestic and export markets, Kangxi porcelain was remarkably durable and technically innovative, often featuring elaborately rendered vignettes from Chinese folklore and literature. For Gilded Age collectors, possessing such precious vessels signaled their elite status and cosmopolitan worldview.

Clay Conversations explores the resonance of this history for our times. Contemporary ceramicists Adam Chau, Patricia Encarnación, Evelyn Mtika, Karen Jaimes, and Yage Wang utilize archival research, digital technologies, and literary allusions to create narratively driven and functional ceramic forms. Through intricate designs and experimental shapes, the artists craft vessels that express the histories and experiences of communities often relegated to the margins of the art world.

The exhibition also features a large-scale mixed-media installation, especially commissioned for Clay Conversations, by Yonkers-based artist Rachel Sydlowski. Drawing inspiration from the porcelain collection, Sydlowski translates their decorations into an immersive space that evokes the beauty and excess of the Gilded Age. Alongside paintings by George Henry Hall and Ellen Lanyon, the installation examines the potential for apparently everyday ceramic forms to generate narratives of personal and global significance.

Clay Conversations is curated by Karintha Lowe, HRM’s Mellon Public Humanities Fellow.

Exhibitions are made possible by assistance provided by the County of Westchester.

This exhibition is made possible by Sarah Lawrence College through a generous grant from the Mellon Foundation, and by support from the Nancy Lin and George Farmer Family.

Featured Artists

Adam Chau • Patricia Encarnación • George Henry Hall • Karen Jaimes • Ellen Lanyon • Evelyn Mtika • Rachel Sydlowski • Yage Wang

Photo: Max Yawney