Press Releases

ELEMENTAL
Featuring Carol Dalton and Kris Marubayashi.

August 5th Extended through October 23rd. Opening Reception: August 6, 4-6pm.
The gallery is open from 11am to 6pm, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Carol Dalton and Kris Marubayashi are each inspired by the natural world, the light, patterns and textures that surround us. Through the mediums of Mixed Media and Clay they bring their keen observational skills and honed sensibilities to manifest in a quiet sophistication.

Yana Payusova.
May 6 through July 31. Opening Reception: May 14th, 4-6pm.
The gallery is open from 11am to 6pm, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Yana Payusova’s paintings and sculptures blend the styles and symbols of folk art, Russian icons, graphic poster art, illustration, and comics, and reect Payusova’s cultural heritage and her training in traditional Russian realist painting. Payusova exhibits both nationally and internationally. Payusova is an Assistant Professor and Painting Area Coordinator in the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Texas at Arlington.

Tap Roots: Ceramic Artist Educators of Northern California.

March 11 to April 10, 2022. 
Opening reception: March 12. 4pm to 6pm.
The gallery is open from 11am to 6pm, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Epperson Gallery and Arts Benicia join forces in an extensive exhibition of over 60 Ceramic Artist Faculty from Northern California Colleges and Universities. Organized by Suzanne M Long, Celeste Smeland, Lisa Reinertson, and Lordy Rodriguez.

Featuring: Clayton Bailey, Ian Bassett, Mary Catherine Bassett, Mark Boguski, Doug Browe, Jennifer Brazelton, Cameron Crawford, Shenny Cruces, Tom Decker, Jeff Downing, Ianna Frisby,  Anthony Maki Gill, Arthur Gonzalez, Michelle Gregor, Susannah Israel, Kathy Kearns, Marc Lancet, Kari Marboe, Mark Messenger, Michael Murphy, Richard Notkin, Sheri Leigh O’Connor, Maria Porges, Lisa Reinertson, Eric Scollon, Keith Schneider, Nancy Selvin, Yoshi Taylor, Ehren Tool, Peter VandenBerge, Stan Welsh, Sue Whitmore and Wanxin Zhang.

Groundswell: the next wave.

March 11 to April 10, 2022. 
Opening reception: March 12. 4pm to 6pm.
The gallery is open from 11am to 6pm, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Featuring Julie Clements, Malia Landis, Francoise LeClerc, Vince Montague, Yana Payusova, Margaret Realica, Maryann Steinert Foley, Daniel Stingle, Monica Van den Dool and Wesley T Wright.

Waking is Dreaming.

March 11 to April 10, 2022. 
Opening reception: March 12. 4pm to 6pm.
The gallery is open from 11am to 6pm, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Featuring Margaret Keelan and Suzanne M Long.

We invite the viewer on a journey of self-reflection and discovery that investigates mortality, melancholy, and issues of innocence, beauty, aging, and decay.

New Day, at the Epperson Gallery, featuring Chuck Potter, Margaret Realica, and Diane Williams.
Suzanne M. Long, Curator.

January 21st, 2022 - February 27th, 2022. Gallery is open Friday through Sunday, 11am to 6pm.
Opening Reception: January 29, 4 to 6pm

The Epperson Gallery of Ceramic Arts is now simply Epperson Gallery. The show title refers to the new direction of the Gallery. We will be showing work of all mediums. Chuck Potter, Margaret Realica and Diane Williams are also Studio Artists in the Epperson Building. And lastly New Day refers to the New Year, may it be better than the last and the one before that!

Chuck Potter: “My intention is to create a space where the viewer is encouraged to pause so they can tune into the spirit that dwells inside. I use nature as a catalyst to spur deep self-listening so that viewers can connect with a force larger than themselves to discover their purpose.”

Margaret Realica: ” Combining high and low tech. The contemporary and traditional. Organic with industrial. Stark contrasts are intermingled through deconstruction and reconstruction, pushing and overlapping boundaries, leading to new abstractions
and concepts.”

Diane Williams: “I use intuitive color, bold mark making and monumental scale as a vehicle for the voice of the strong feminine to weave nature’s story across time.”

REAP, at the Epperson Gallery.
Suzanne M. Long, Curator.

January 21, 2022- February 27, 2022.
Gallery is open Friday through Sunday, 11am to 6pm.
Opening Reception: January 29, 4 to 6pm.

REAP: The Bay Area has a bounty of talent, an abundance of artists, a cacophony of voices. This show combines work that explores the themes of mortality, memory, decadence, excess, and joy. It challenges your sense of reality, and ponders the question, how did we get to this moment in time?

Featured Artists:
Emmanuela Sintamarian, Jules Campbell, Oona Nelson, Thomas Wojak, Françoise LeClerc, Maryann Steinert Foley, and Daniel Stingle.

still life, at the Epperson Gallery, featuring Monica Van den Dool.
Suzanne M Long, Curator.

November 26, 2021 through January 16, 2022.

Monica Van den Dool is a ceramic sculptor residing in beautiful Oakland CA. She received an MFA from Montana State University, Bozeman in 1995 and a BA in English from Santa Clara University in 1990. Named a NCECA Emerging Artist in 2002, her work has been exhibited at various national venues, including the San Jose Museum of Art, the DeSaisset Museum at Santa Clara University, and the Arizona State University Art Museum Ceramics Research Center. Her work is included in the collections of the Archie Bray Foundation (MT), the DiRosa Preserve (CA), and the Arizona State University Ceramic Research Center, and her artist residencies include the Archie Bray Foundation, Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, and the LH Project. She has taught ceramics at several Bay Area universities, including San Jose State, California College of the Arts, and the University of California, Berkeley.

Reclamation, at the Epperson Gallery, featuring tin artworks by David Yoas.
Suzanne M Long, Curator.

September 24 - January 9, 2022.

"My inspiration can come from almost anything. Over the years I have been inspired to create my narrative pieces by a tin image I’ve seen or by a phrase I might hear. The thrill I get from my work is from seeing my idea realized. I come up with an idea, collect the tin from various sources, and then realize my idea through planning, cutting, and reassembling the images I’ve collected or created.

I use visual hooks to capture the attention of the viewer. These hooks include colors, subject matter, and small surprises for the viewer to discover. My highest hope is that when people view my work, they will find some element that engages and affects them." -David Yoas

Sentience at the Epperson Gallery, featuring Francoise LeClerc and Lisa Reinertson.
Suzanne M Long, Curator.

September 24 - January 9, 2022. 

Sentience: (noun) The capacity to be aware of feelings and sensations.

Francoise LeClerc is a sculptor working in ceramics and found objects. Often depicting horses, her work evokes themes of emergence and transformation, sensitivity and trust. Expressing both boldness and vulnerability, her work can be simultaneously vigorous and quiet.

Lisa Reinertson: "I care about justice, about civil rights, about compassion and peace, and protecting the earth and all living creatures from extinction. It is my intent that through beauty and nuance, my artwork stand as a subversive act."

Lumiere, featuring Ariel Bowman, at the Epperson Gallery.
Suzanne M Long, Curator.

July 32 to November 21, 2021.
Gallery is open Friday through Sunday, 11am to 6pm.

"I make sculptures of prehistoric animals that represent the wonder to be found in natural history. I am intrigued by animals that evolved with distinct features, such as unfamiliar tusks, strange elongated limbs, and unusual proportions. I use clay to bring these extinct creatures back to life, sculpting folds of flesh and filling their bellies with air. 

The picturesque aesthetic of the eighteenth century refers to a time when our relationship to nature was being expanded by scientific discoveries, yet separated by the disappearance of wild places. Each scene that I create is a fantasy inspiring curiosity about the unknown animal, while nourishing the imagination of the viewer with intricate details. Mysterious giants wander through palatial ruins, discovering the overgrown remains of monuments to human greatness. Moss and vines cover the fossils of civilization, and show the effects of time in their decay.

My work uses reflective nostalgia to present these extinct animals in the context of human history. The unexpected combination of such contrasting timelines questions reality, and rekindles a childlike fascination with the animal world." -Ariel Bowman

Menagerie, a National Clay Competition at the Epperson Gallery of Ceramic Arts.
July 23 - Sept 12, 2021.
Gallery is open Friday through Sunday, 11am to 7pm.
Opening reception: July 31, 5-7 pm.

Ariel Bowman, Juror.

Epperson Gallery of Ceramic Arts is honored to present Menagerie, a juried National Clay Competition celebrating Animals. 36 Ceramic Artists who create, interpret and explore the wonder of Animals real, surreal or imagined.

Participating Artists: Bill Abright, Erin Allice, Michael Blair, Tristyn Bustamante, Jo Clarke, Julie Clements, Naomi Stein Cooper, Sue DeWulf, Mari Emori, Julia Feld, Maryann Steinert-Foley, Ashley Garcia, Diana Greenleaf, Vicki Gunter, Rose Hardesty, Maru Hoeber, Susan Hontalas, Marnia Johnston, Malia Landis, Francoise LeClerc, Jaimie Lohman, Rene Martucci, Claire McArdle, Laminda Miller, Cathi Newlin, Jeanine Pennell, Barbara Prodaniuk, Tyler Quintin, Danny Rosales, Kelly Shipp, Lucy Snow, Rebecca Spilecki, Eliza Thomas, Wesley Wright, Melissa Woodburn, Fred Yokel, Jordan Young.

Utopian Pots at the Epperson Gallery of Ceramic Arts, featuring Vince Montague.
Suzanne M Long, Curator.

May 21-July 11, 2021.
Gallery is open Friday through Sunday, 11am to 6pm.

"I have wanted to make pots that feel closer to the place where I live and work in Northern CA. Before the revolution in technology, people moved to theWest coast to pursue their dreams “to find themselves” or to build the type of world they wanted to see. “ Back to the Land” wasn’t just a slogan but an actual choice. I feel a great debt to the many artists, designers, architects, composers, farmers, Utopians, iconoclasts and spiritual seekers who have settled out here since the 1950s, to manifest their own ideals of living peacefully and equitably either alone or in communities. That burst of energy surrounds me every day, and my new work strives to be part of that dream." 
-Vince Montague

FLOW at the Epperson Gallery of Ceramic Arts.
Suzanne M Long, Curator.

May 14-July 11, 2021.
Gallery is open Friday through Sunday, 11am to 6pm.

Artists: James Aarons, Jane B. Grimm and Nathan Lynch.

Flow: In positive psychology, a flow state, also known colloquially as "being in the zone," is the mental state in which a person performing some activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity. 

Epperson National Clay Competition at the Epperson Gallery of Ceramic Arts.

Scott A. Shields, Juror.
Scott is the associate director and chief curator at the Crocker Art Museum. He holds an MA and PhD in art history from the University of Kansas. He has twenty-five years of museum experience, including his employment since 2000 with the Crocker. During his tenure in Sacramento, he has curated more than seventy-five exhibitions. He has also authored numerous exhibition catalogs, including Artists at Continent’s End: The Monterey Peninsula ArtColony, 1875–1907; Echoes of the Earth: Ceramics by Toshiko Takaezu; Edgar Payne: TheScenic Journey; A Touch of Blue: Landscapes by Gregory Kondos; Armin Hansen: The Artful Voyage; E. Charlton Fortune: The Colorful Spirit; Richard Diebenkorn: Beginnings, 1942–1955; Granville Redmond: The Eloquent Palette; and the forthcoming Wayne Thiebaud 100: Paintings, Prints, and Drawings.

This exhibition showcases the best contemporary ceramic art being made Nationally and the Call for Entries was open to all Artists working in Clay: Sculptors, Functional Artists, Potters and Hand Builders.

What Lies Beneath at the Epperson Gallery of Ceramic Arts.
Suzanne M Long, Curator.

February 14 - March 15, 2020.
Opening Reception: February 16, 4-6pm.

Surreal: marked by the intense irrational reality of a dream, having the disorienting, hallucinatory quality of a dream; unreal; fantastic:

We are excited to present sculptural work in clay that fits the definition of Surreal. Work that is born in the subconscious space between dreams and consciousness. Where the unreal can manifest itself in a fantastical way. Work that provides insight into the world of the imagined and unreal.

Lisa Clague, Juror.
"My work evokes a place between the subconscious and the intangible. My masked figures are hybrid creatures, mistresses of ambiguity and disguise, of seduction and deception. These images like dreams are familiar but illusive. Dreams compress and heighten reality. They may bring delightful fantasy or feverish fear, fusion of overlaying images reflects desire, anxiety and the poetic lure of many inner worlds. Fairy tales, childhood games and masks, hallucinations, ghosts, insects, animals, bones and worms, are images in a passageway between what is dreamt what is lived, what is remembered and what is to come."   - Lisa Clague

Lisa Clague received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Cleveland Institute of Art and her Master of Fine Art degree from California College of Arts and Crafts.

Vessel at the Epperson Gallery of Ceramic Arts
Suzanne M Long, Curator.

January 10th - February 9th, 2020.
Opening Reception January 18th, 4:00 - 6:00pm.

Thousands of years ago, humans learned how to make earthenware vessels by kneading, forming and firing clay.
In the modern era the definition of ”Vessel” has evolved.

Vessel
A: a container for holding something.
B: a person into whom some quality, such as grace, is infused.
C: a watercraft bigger than a rowboat.
D: a tube or canal. such as an artery.

The Artists in this show pay homage to the past, while embracing the expanded definition of Vessel.

Participating Artists include Susana Arias, Clayton Bailey, Deborah Bridges, Maru Hoeber, Margaret Realica and Bryan Yerian.

Where There’s Smoke... at the Epperson Gallery of Ceramic Arts
Gerald Epperson, Curator.

October 18th - November 24th, 2019. Opening Reception October 26th, 4:00 - 6:00pm

The Epperson Gallery of Ceramic Arts is pleased to present a group exhibition Where There‘s Smoke... Featuring the wood-fired works of five artists: Shawn Felts, Rod Guyer, Marc Lancet, Scott Parady, Nick Schwartz and Wesley T. Wright.

“Wood-Firing used to be the only means to fire clay. Today it is a choice that can lead to stunningly beautiful ceramics. The effort required for wood-firing now is voluntary. With electric and gas kilns offering the ceramic artist almost effortless firing, why opt for seemingly unending days and nights of labor? Why, in the face of modern convenience, are ceramic artists internationally electing to wood-fire ceramics? Beauty offers the answer. It’s not the”Oh that‘s lovely,” sort of beauty, but an extraordinary beauty--- a heart-achingly arresting beauty, an beauty of epic proportions, a beauty worth working for, a beauty only achievable by way of wood-firing.”

Marc Lancet
From his book Japanese Wood-Fired Ceramics

Dog Days of Summer at the Epperson Gallery of Ceramic Arts
Suzanne M Long, Curator.

August 30th - October 13th, 2019. Opening Reception September 7th, 4:00 - 6:00pm.
Closing Party with Rene’ Martuccis band According to Bazooka: Oct 12th, 4:00 - 6:00pm.

The Epperson Gallery of Ceramic Arts is pleased to present the group exhibition Dog Days of Summer featuring the works of five dog-loving artists: Paula Bellacera, Gary Dinnen, Jeff Downing, Steve Jones and Rene’ Martucci. Each artist explores the unique relationship humans share with our canine companions as we walk through life. Paula Bellacera's pups seem always to be asking a question and waiting patiently for the answer. Gary Dinnen's dogs are not afraid to be goofy, whimsical, and heroic at the same time, expressing the time honored trait of loyalty. Steve Jones‘ dogs are indicative of a mischievous partner in crime and best friend to share an inside joke with. Rene’ Martucci's companions are stoic and intelligent with stories to share, and Jeff Downing's cohorts are dreamers and adventurers and the protectors of memory.

The Epperson Gallery of Ceramic Arts is committed to the promotion of Artists working in Clay, especially those who make dogs.

New Day, at the Epperson Gallery, featuring Chuck Potter, Margaret Realica, and Diane Williams.
Suzanne M. Long, Curator.

January 21st, 2022 - February 27th, 2022. Gallery is open Friday through Sunday, 11am to 6pm.
Opening Reception: January 29, 4 to 6pm

The Epperson Gallery of Ceramic Arts is now simply Epperson Gallery. The show title refers to the new direction of the Gallery. We will be showing work of all mediums. Chuck Potter, Margaret Realica and Diane Williams are also Studio Artists in the Epperson Building. And lastly New Day refers to the New Year, may it be better than the last and the one before that!

Chuck Potter: “My intention is to create a space where the viewer is encouraged to pause so they can tune into the spirit that dwells inside. I use nature as a catalyst to spur deep self-listening so that viewers can connect with a force larger than themselves to discover their purpose.”

Margaret Realica: ” Combining high and low tech. The contemporary and traditional. Organic with industrial. Stark contrasts are intermingled through deconstruction and reconstruction, pushing and overlapping boundaries, leading to new abstractions
and concepts.”

Diane Williams: “I use intuitive color, bold mark making and monumental scale as a vehicle for the voice of the strong feminine to weave nature’s story across time.”

REAP, at the Epperson Gallery.
Suzanne M. Long, Curator.

January 21, 2022- February 27, 2022.
Gallery is open Friday through Sunday, 11am to 6pm.
Opening Reception: January 29, 4 to 6pm.

REAP: The Bay Area has a bounty of talent, an abundance of artists, a cacophony of voices. This show combines work that explores the themes of mortality, memory, decadence, excess, and joy. It challenges your sense of reality, and ponders the question, how did we get to this moment in time?

Featured Artists:
Emmanuela Sintamarian, Jules Campbell, Oona Nelson, Thomas Wojak, Françoise LeClerc, Maryann Steinert Foley, and Daniel Stingle.

Waking is Dreaming.

March 11 to April 10, 2022. 
Opening reception: March 12. 4pm to 6pm.
The gallery is open from 11am to 6pm, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Featuring Margaret Keelan and Suzanne M Long.

We invite the viewer on a journey of self-reflection and discovery that investigates mortality, melancholy, and issues of innocence, beauty, aging, and decay.