From ancient Sumerian cuneiform tablets to the humble coffee mug at your local coffee shop, objects made of clay–cheap, easily acquired and easily worked clay—are synonymous with human civilization from its earliest days to the present. NCECA’s “Absence Takes Form,” a wide-ranging survey of contemporary ceramic art, on view from now until April 4 in Detroit, illustrates the almost limitless uses to which the medium can be put, from the ephemeral to the enduring. Unavoidably, the broad variety in technique, theme and concept from so many artists results in a collection that strains the audience’s ability to fully appreciate the work. The only solution, such as it is, is to slow down and try to appreciate each contribution on its own terms.

        A diverse juried overview of current trends in ceramics, with entries by 35 clay artists, is installed in the spacious galleries of Motown’s Wasserman Projects, alongside a smaller, more focused collection by five invited artists. This intimate show-within-a-show highlights specially selected ceramicists whose work centers specifically upon the interplay of their cultural origins with each artist’s personal art practice. Adrienne Spinozzi, an associate curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and organizer of “Absence Takes Form,” describes the smaller group’s selection as intended to honor each artist’s personal, idiosyncratic identity, even as each borrows from broader cultural traditions, creating a new synthesis of past and present in the ongoing art history of ceramics.

        Three of the invited artists, Adebunmi Gbadebo, David R. MacDonald and Anina Major, share roots in the African diaspora, though each takes from this boundless source in their own, highly personalized fashion. Adebunmi Gbadebo explores her familial connections in Nigeria as well as the trauma of her ancestors’ arrival in America as slaves. Employing materials from the site of her family’s enslavement—soil, cotton, water, rice, bones and archival data—she creates artifacts that give physical form to her ancestral history. Her two entries, At the Bottom of the Atlantic Ocean There’s a Railroad Made of Human Bones, II and Anna Eliza Clay William, Died Oct. 29, 1918, Age 24 years, are accompanied by a video documenting her process, Watch Out for the Ghosts (dir. Yvonne Michelle Shirley.) David R. MacDonald’s work, in contrast, emphasizes the timelessness and universality of the vessel as symbol and archetype. He explains, “The principal concern of my art is the articulation of the magnificence and nobility of the human spirit, and a celebration of my African heritage. The material I use is clay. The primary vehicle for expression, the vessel.” His two similar pedestal bowls in the exhibition, Ceremonial Bowl I and II, delicately balance the decorative with the monumental. Anina Major transmutes memories of her Bahamian grandmother’s basketweaving techniques into emotionally resonant clay artworks, her present honoring her family’s past. Her clay weavings, Silent Sentinel I and II, flank a video featuring the artist’s hands in the act of making, Handwaves.

        Two other invited artists bring equally profound clay traditions from further afield. Egyptian ceramicist Ibrahim Said describes the philosophy that guides his art practice, “My interests lie in expanding on forms and principles rooted in my culture: namely ancient Egyptian pottery and Islamic arts.” Indeed, his two entries, the elegant vessel Gold Rings and the installation piece 99 Names of God, effectively express the refined geometry and deep spirituality of his native culture. Yaesookyung, of South Korea, creates broken vessels, elaborately mended in gold, that emphasize the fragility and ephemerality of all existence. She explains, “I have no intention of healing or fixing the objects. Rather, my work can be seen as glorification of the fateful weakness of being[s], including myself.” Her single entry in the exhibition, Translated Vase, glories in the golden, almost baroque, excrescence of the mended material. Its highly wrought intensity is quite different from the relative austerity of traditional Japanese Kintsugi ware to which her work is sometimes compared. Collectively, these artists demonstrate a diverse range of aesthetic approaches and illustrate the endless potentialities inherent in their shared medium.

        The juried portion of “Absence Takes Form” (also curated by Adrienne Spinozzi) adopts an entirely different approach. Variety and virtuosity characterize the artworks. Excellence in craft and concept seem to be the shared theme here, and the artists deliver handsomely.

        A few entries are created through the aggregation of small objects into large-scale installations, from the frolicsome figurative sculptures in Lisa Marie Barber’s Playground grouping to the more restrained collection of ghostly white porcelain artifacts in Things Fall Away by Pattie Chalmers. Particularly appealing is the stitched-together tile wall hanging by Karina Yanes. The images on each tile, painted in bright colors and outlined in black, along with the grid format, deliver a comic book appeal. Tiles II, by Ari Zuaro, brings to mind a particularly solid version of traditional Japanese Noren curtains. Like several other pieces in the exhibition, this artwork demonstrates clay’s protean ability to mimic other materials and uses.

        Perhaps in a nod to Detroit as the site of this year’s NCECA conference, Tim Keenan has contributed Modernist Ceramic Sculpture of Contemporary Auto Worker, ironically offering the image of a robotic arm. Crucible with Exterior Spigot by Steven Montgomery continues the industrial theme.

        Classic forms and traditional techniques are not overlooked; Robert King’s stately Matriarch is a dignified presence and Yael Braha’s shigaraki vessel, Topography of Becoming, continues the venerable ceramic practice often linked with the Japanese tea ceremony.An entirely different tradition is referenced in Yana Payusova’s charming pair of elaborately painted porcelain cats, Pussy I and II. Other artworks, like Hirotsune Yashima’s Statue of Yellow Monkey II and De la Tierra al Esperitu by Natalia Arbelaez, are potent exemplars of clay as material for figurative sculpture.

        Based on the work included in “Absence Takes Form,” it’s clear that the ever-malleable medium of clay can express nearly any idea or image that an artist may imagine. Ceramics are ubiquitous to the point of invisibility, yet creatives who work in clay continually discover new, expressive ways that this simple, useful material can speak eloquently of us and to us. Inert yet mutable, permanent yet fragile, clay objects have defined the human story from neolithic prehistory to the present day. In these two complementary exhibitions we find a revelatory lens through which to view the past and present of ceramic art.

K.A. Letts is the Great Lakes Region editor of the New Art Examiner, a working artist (kalettsart.com) and art blogger (rustbeltarts.com). She has shown her paintings and drawings in galleries and museums in Toledo, Detroit, Chicago, and New York. She writes frequently about art in the Detroit area.

“Absence Takes Form” is the flagship exhibition of the upcoming 60^th Annual 2026 NCECA Conference (National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts,) held in Detroit from March 25-28, but it is far from the only collection of clay artworks that will be on view. This hybrid academic convention/art fair features over 50 exhibitions of ceramic art in venues scattered throughout Metro Detroit and from Toledo to Kalamazoo. With a membership of 4,500 members from 40 countries, attendance at the three-day event is expected to reach nearly 7,000. More information about this yearly conference can be found here.

Wasserman Projects is located at 3434 Russell St., #502, Detroit, MI 48207.

Invited Artists: Adebunmi Gbadebo, David R. MacDonald, Anina Major, Ibrahim Said, Yeesookyung

Juried Artists: Ivan Albreht, Natalia Arbelaez, Lisa Marie Barber, Malene Djenaba Barnett, Ron Baron, Yael Braha, Pattie Chalmers, Jonathan Christensen Caballero, Kaneez Zehra Hassan, Hongmi Kim Hoog, Quinn Alexandria Hunter, Roxanne Jackson, Tim Keenan, Wansoo Kim, Robert King, Josephine Larsen, Jae Won Lee, Kimberly LaVonne, Mahalexmi Mohan, Steven Montgomery, Janet Neuwalder, Joy Okokon, Ross Junior Owusu, Kyungmin Park, Yana Payusova, Tia Santana, Paul Scott, Stephanie Shih, Ellie Stanislav, Silvia Tagusagawa, Hirotsune Tashima, Iren Tete, Kwok-Pong (Bobby) Tso, Karina Yanes, Ari Zuaro.