Conduit Gallery is pleased to present a group exhibition of ceramic work including pieces by Jennifer Lee Datchuk, April Felipe, Nick Lenker and Yana Payusova, all recently exhibited at The Gallery at UTA.

This exhibition is comprised of a selection of four distinctly different approaches to ceramic art both in terms of material, treatment, and content. The works presented demonstrate the medium’s broad potential and the ongoing elastic concept of what sculpture can be.

Jennifer Ling Datchuk is an artist born in Warren, Ohio and raised in Brooklyn, New York. Her work is an exploration of her layered identity – as a woman, a Chinese woman, as an “American,” as a third culture kid. Trained in ceramics, Datchuk works with porcelain and other materials often associated with traditional women’s work, such as textiles and hair, to discuss fragility, beauty, femininity, intersectionality, identity, and personal history.

Datchuk holds an MFA in Artisanry from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and a BFA in Crafts from Kent State University. She is an Assistant Professor of art at Texas State University and lives and maintains a studio practice in San Antonio, Texas. She has received grants from the Artist Foundation of San Antonio, travel grant from Artpace, and the Linda Lighton International Artist Exchange Program to research the global migrations of porcelain and blue and white pattern decoration. She was awarded a residency through the Blue Star Contemporary Art Museum to conduct her studio practice at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin, Germany and has participated in residencies at the Pottery Workshop in Jingdezhen, China, Vermont Studio Center, European Ceramic Work Center in the Netherlands and Artpace in San Antonio, Texas. In 2017, she received the Emerging Voices award from the American Craft Council and in 2020 was named a United States Artist Fellow in Craft. She was named by the State of Texas as 3D Artist of the Year for 2021.

April Felipe was born in, Queens, New York. She received her B.F.A from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University and her M.F.A in Ceramics from Ohio University. April worked at Greenwich House Pottery, taught at Ohio State University and Ohio University. In 2017 she was named one of Ceramic Monthly’s Emerging Artist and began a ceramic jewelry line babyGrapes Designs that are carried in galleries though out the United States. She has participated in residencies at Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts and The Archie Bray Foundation. April is an organizer of The Color Network.org. She has set down roots in Albany, Ohio with a home studio.

Nick Lenker Lives and works in Philadelphia, PA. He earned an MFA from Tyler School of Art and a BFA from The University of the Arts with a ceramic focus. He recently completed a residency at The Clay Studio in Philadelphia from 2016 -2021. In 2019, Lenker completed the courtyard commission for Project Home’s most recent housing project, the Gloria Casarez Residence (an LGBT focused homelessness prevention project). He has been nominated for a Pew Fellowship, as well as a US Artists Fellowship. In 2019, he selected as one of the NCECA Emerging Artists. In 2020, Lenker had a solo exhibition at the Alfred Ceramic Art Museum. In 2021, he was included in the international exhibition of ceramic art for Art Macau, in Macau, China as well as in the Korean International Ceramics Biennale. Lenker is in collections at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and The Alfred Ceramic Art Museum as well as numerous private collections.

Yana Payusova was born in 1979 in Leningrad, USSR. Classically trained as a painter at the St. Petersburg Fine Art Lyceé, she later immigrated to the US and received an MFA from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Payusova’s paintings and sculptures blend the styles and symbols of folk art, Russian icons, graphic poster art, illustration, and comics, and reflect Payusova’s cultural heritage and her training in traditional Russian realist painting. Payusova exhibits both nationally and internationally, including recent venues at the Northern Clay Center, Howard Yezerski Gallery, and Tucson Museum of Art. Most recently Payusova was an Artist-in-Residence at the Guldagergaard International Ceramic Research Center in Denmark and a Visiting Artist at the Anderson Ranch Arts Center. Payusova is an Assistant Professor of Painting in the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Texas at Arlington.

Artists in this Exhibition

Artist Video