Ceramic
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Materials The Ceramic Program offers fabrication at a variety of scales and provides access to technical expertise and equipment. Specializing in sculpture utilizing techniques such as wheel-throwing, hand-building, slip casting, on-premise firing, 3D ceramic printing, bespoke glazes and finishes, among other processes, we offer cross-disciplinary applications with our other material shops, including services such as printmaking on clay.
Services

PROJECT MANAGEMENT
From design concept to project planning and management, we offer consultation services to artists at any stage. We are available to produce prototypes, small-run editions, and also to undertake installation work and large-scale sculptures.

SCULPTURE & HAND BUILDING
Our sculpture and hand-building technical expertise is wide ranging and adaptive. Our team applies expertise in classical sculpture, including anatomy and realism, technical proficiency in tiles, mosaics, and installations, as well as furniture, light fixtures, among other needs. We tailor our skillset to your particular artistic vision.

WHEEL THROWING

CERAMIC 3D PRINTING
Using a state-of-the-art Potter Bot we offer artists flexibility in designing and 3D printing with clay.

MOLD MAKING & SLIP CASTING
Mold making and slip casting can be applied to production of highly-detailed editions and also to the creation of unique sculptures. We are adaptive in our application of tools, processes, and techniques to suit the artistic vision of a given project. Should your project require specific slip casting or press mold needs, please include pertinent information in the Project Inquiry Form upon submission.

SURFACE DECORATION
Specialized techniques include sgraffito, terra sigillata, maiolica, inlay, decal, slip trailing, (precious metal) lustre, among others.

GLAZING
We offer professional glaze application by hand and via spray glazing, which is recommended for sculpture as it offers a smooth car paint finish. We offer over 20 proprietary and commercial glazes to choose from and can also formulate custom glazes tailored to your artistic vision.

GAS FIRING
Coming in 2021

ELECTRIC FIRING
Bisque & Oxidation | Up to Cone 10. With access to two kilns and a customized firing process that involves close collaboration with our clients, we offer flexibility and adaptive firing needs for projects of all types.

Pricing for independently fabricated work is available on the Firing Services page.

Our shops are currently preparing to move into our future facility. In preparation for the move, production will be paused from January 1st to July 1st. We understand that this hiatus may disrupt existing project timelines, so we encourage you to get in any project inquiries as soon as possible if you’d like to have work fabricated before the end of the year. Complete the Project Inquiry form here.

We offer contactless firing and glazing services as an added resource to artists and community studios that wish to fabricate artistic projects independently. If you are an artist and would like Powerhouse Arts to fire and/or glaze your work, please follow the link below.

About Our Firing & Glazing Services

Location

We are located at 60 Seabring Street in Red Hook, Brooklyn.

Our hours of operation are 9am - 5pm, by appointment only.

Accessibility

There are no stairs required to access our ground-floor (Wood, Metal, and Ceramic shops & offices) and there is one accessible bathroom without handrails. The Textile Shop is located on a second-floor that is only accessible by a steep flight of stairs with 17 steps (8" high and 9" deep), and one handrail on the right side when ascending.

For more details on directions click here.

Featured Project In Spring of 2021, Powerhouse Arts collaborated with artist Jenny Polak to fabricate a series entitled Wall Tiles, consisting of four different slip-cast ceramic bas-relief panels. The imagery within these works forms a frieze depicting prison walls looming large amidst banal golf course imagery, both of which are rendered rather unexpectedly in glazed ceramic tiles at a domestic scale. The tiles highlight the dangerous normalization of incarceration and border violence.
More about this project, All Featured Projects
Wall Tiles glazed in Robin’s Egg Blue Celadon by Jenny Polak. Images by Dread Scott
Featured Project In Spring of 2021, Powerhouse Arts collaborated with artist Jenny Polak to fabricate a series entitled Wall Tiles, consisting of four different slip-cast ceramic bas-relief panels. The imagery within these works forms a frieze depicting prison walls looming large amidst banal golf course imagery, both of which are rendered rather unexpectedly in glazed ceramic tiles at a domestic scale. The tiles highlight the dangerous normalization of incarceration and border violence.
More about this project, All Featured Projects
Featured Project Performa approached Powerhouse Arts in May of 2020 to create an edition of porcelain vases for Barbra Kruger as a follow up to her acclaimed Performa 17 Commission Untitled (Skate) where Kruger created a series of merchandise in the guise of a Supreme “drop”. The exhibition involved large text-based vinyl “pastings” as a site-specific installation at Coleman Skatepark in Manhattan’s Lower East Side.
More about this project, All Featured Projects
Untitled (Vase), Medium: Glazed porcelain, 10 inches tall x 4 inches wide. Edition of 100. Image by Alistair Matthews.
Featured Project Performa approached Powerhouse Arts in May of 2020 to create an edition of porcelain vases for Barbra Kruger as a follow up to her acclaimed Performa 17 Commission Untitled (Skate) where Kruger created a series of merchandise in the guise of a Supreme “drop”. The exhibition involved large text-based vinyl “pastings” as a site-specific installation at Coleman Skatepark in Manhattan’s Lower East Side.
More about this project, All Featured Projects
Featured Project Artist Bruce M. Sherman commissioned Powerhouse Arts to fabricate a series of ceramic sculptures for a new body of work entitled Infinite Columns. The works reference Brancusi’s Infinite Columns and assert a connection between the earth and the celestial realm in their prominent verticality.
More about this project, All Featured Projects
Bruce Sherman, Earth/Heaven Heaven/Earth, 2020. Installation view. Nicelle Beauchene Gallery, NY. Courtesy of the artist.
Featured Project Artist Bruce M. Sherman commissioned Powerhouse Arts to fabricate a series of ceramic sculptures for a new body of work entitled Infinite Columns. The works reference Brancusi’s Infinite Columns and assert a connection between the earth and the celestial realm in their prominent verticality.
More about this project, All Featured Projects
Featured Project Artist Leah Raintree approached Powerhouse Arts in 2020 to formulate a glaze and fire works for Clearing, a series of ceramic drawings using found materials from Raintree’s childhood home on a small farm in rural Virginia.
More about this project, All Featured Projects
Before Clearing, 2.2, 2020 4 ½ x 9”, iris ash, wood ash glaze, Virginia clay soil on porcelain
Featured Project Artist Leah Raintree approached Powerhouse Arts in 2020 to formulate a glaze and fire works for Clearing, a series of ceramic drawings using found materials from Raintree’s childhood home on a small farm in rural Virginia.
More about this project, All Featured Projects