Across Tribeca and Chelsea, Clay Got Political, Playful, and Poetic
By: MoCA/NY
May 11, 2025
Spring Studios 50 Varick Street New York, NY
Chelsea Industrial 535 W 28th Street New York, NY
From May 8 to 11, the sixteenth edition of Independent returned to Spring Studios in Tribeca, where eighty-five galleries convened for a discerning survey of contemporary art. Among the fair’s most compelling throughlines was the remarkable presence of ceramics—works that shifted between the grounded and the surreal, the conceptual and the narrative.
Among the most striking contributions was Michelle Grabner’s solo presentation with Abattoir Gallery. In a new body of work, the artist rendered quotidian cleaning tools—sinks, toilet paper rolls, plastic bottles—in clay, constructing a janitorial assemblage that recast symbols of institutional labor into sculptural form, highlighting the often-invisible workforce that maintains the spaces we inhabit.
Narrative figuration also played a prominent role. Shafei Xia (P420), Emma Hart (The Sunday Painter), and Mary Carlson (Kerry Schuss Gallery) each explored the stylized figure through a distinct lens, animating clay with wit, emotion, and whimsy. Abstraction, meanwhile, found footing in the glacially striking vessels of Jay Kvapil (Diane Rosenstein Gallery) and the earthy, transcendent forms of Toshiko Takaezu (Fleisher/Ollman).
Up north in Chelsea, Future Fair marked its fifth anniversary at Chelsea Industrial with sixty-seven exhibitors from across the country and abroad. Alexandra Levasseur (Galerie C.O.A) integrated clay into layered, mixed-media paintings that blurred the boundary between surface and relief, while Linda Sormin (United Contemporary) continued to test the limits of form through her labyrinthine, improvisational structures. Raina Lee (Laisun Keane) presented brilliantly witty ceramic tiles—imaginative, sprightly, and utterly charming—while her larger sculptural works carried a distinct, animated presence all their own.
Here, we spotlight eleven ceramic standouts from Independent—and six from Future Fair—that speak to the vitality and range of contemporary clay practice in 2025.
Vielmetter Los Angeles Installation at the Independent Art Fair 2025 | Photo Courtesy: Vielmetter Los Angeles
Shanna Waddell | Sheness Walks Home | 2025 | Ceramic, underglaze | 14.5 x 7 x 8 in | Photo Courtesy: Vielmetter Los Angeles
Shanna Waddell | Sheness Society Dreams in Clay | 2024-2025 | Ceramic, underglaze | 17 x 10 x 9.5 in | Photo Courtesy: Vielmetter Los Angeles
Shanna Waddell | Sheness Dreams of Fruits and Flowers | 2025 | Ceramic, underglaze | 15 x 12 x 12 in | Photo Courtesy: Vielmetter Los Angeles
Shanna Waddell | Sheness walks the lands of Sheness Society | 2025 | Ceramic, underglaze | 15.375 x 10.625 x 10.625 in | Photo Courtesy: Vielmetter Los Angeles
Galerie C.O.A. Installation at the Future Fair 2025
Galerie C.O.A. Installation at the Future Fair 2025
Alexandra Levasseur | La danse du maringouin | 2024 | Gouache, oil painting and enamelled stoneware on wood | 20 x 16 in | Photo Courtesy: Galerie C.O.A.
Alexandra Levasseur | Antenna Viriditas | 2025 | Enamelled stoneware and sand | 18.11 x 5.91 x 5.91 in| Photo Courtesy: Galerie C.O.A.
Alexandra Levasseur | Iris de Vulcain | 2025 | Enamelled stoneware and sand | 18.90 x 9.45 x 9.45 in | Photo Courtesy: Galerie C.O.A.
United Contemporary Installation at Future Fair 2025 | Photo Courtesy: United Contemporary
Linda Sormin | Sketch study (rogue wave) | 2022 | Glazed hand-built stoneware, found ceramic shards, hand-cut watercolour on paper, resin, epoxy, found objects and fibres, gold leaf | 8.5 x 14 x 10 in | Photo Courtesy: United Contemporary
Linda Sormin | Pane Na Bolon (scorpions) | 2025 | Hand-cut watercolour and ink on arches paper, resin, framed in maple with anti-reflective glass | 14 x 19 in & Linda Sormin | Little Tiger | 2025 | Hand-built glazed ceramic, cut glazed watercolour on paper | 10.5 x 16 x 15.5 in.
The Vestibule Installation at Future Fair 2025 | Photo Courtesy: The Vestibule
Kate Rusek | Relinquish Quadrant | 2025 | Porcelain, glaze, epoxy clay, foraged abalone and mahogany clam on wood panel | 18 x 18 x 4 in
Kate Rusek | Nothing is Required of You Here 14 | 2024 | Porcelain, glaze, the vestigage of bridal garments, safety mirror | 14 x 14 x 9 in | Photo Courtesy: The Vestibule
Kate Rusek | Home Grasses Diatom | 2024 | 24 x 10 x 8 in | Photo Courtesy: The Vestibule
Kate Rusek | Earth Shard | 2024 | Porcelain, glaze, (the vestige of textile offcuts) | 9 x 6 x 5 in | Photo Courtesy: The Vestibule
