nceca at wasserman projects
Absence Takes Form
NCECA’s 60th conference, Volumes, takes place in Detroit, Michigan, March 25 - 28, 2026
“Volumes, the 60th conference of the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA), explores material-driven experimentation and conceptual frameworks that animate art created through clay. The essential energy of voices and sounds of the Detroit region catalyzes this conference’s theme.
The meaning of volumes most integrally embodied in the 2026 conference theme lies within unseeable spaces of our clay works and the firing chambers that transform them. Volumes are forces that give power and shape to the world we experience. Detroit is a place that embodies this sense of interior energy. A real and metaphorical foundry of creative ambition and craftsmanship shaped by waves of migration, industry, and resilience, Detroit has volumes to teach us.”
Within the 70+ participating spaces in this extraordinary presentation of the Ceramic Arts, there are 3 cornerstone exhibitions encompassing a dynamic display of craftsmanship and creativity in this medium: CCS, Wayne State University and Wasserman Projects.
In partnership with the National Council on Education for Ceramic Arts (NCECA), Wasserman Projects is proud to present Absence Takes Form. Curator Adrienne Spinozzi, Associate Curator in the American Wing at the Metropolitan Museum writes:
“Absence Takes Form explores how artists express their individual diasporic journeys in clay, taking its inspiration from Detroit, a place with a rich history shaped by the Great Migration. All diaspora and migrations are complex negotiations between gain and loss, defined by displacement, memory, and promise. These formative life experiences can offer fertile inspiration to artists, and the works in this exhibition give voice and physical space to ancestral memories by turning absence into a three-dimensional form. This reparative work is expressed in myriad ways, including acknowledging a life lived, embracing visual signifiers of one’s identity, honoring and preserving cultural techniques and traditions, and engaging in a conceptual practice that reconstructs the past anew. In this exhibition, artists engage in the act of processing their memory of an ancestral homeland through creation. Absence takes form.”
What registers as a visit to Mr. Rogers’ Land of Make Believe, this sculpture is aptly titled Playground. Crude yet whimsical flowers, ladders and non-descript characters are thoughtfully organized with consideration to height. Space between groupings offers a moment of reprieve from the visual cacophony. Glaze drips from roughly hewn circles and stars. The objects read so pliable the entire construction could conceivably be fashioned out of Play-Doh.
Minimalism generates meditative solace in its simplicity. Deep rose’s worn beveled edges softly curve balancing the anchoring black. A rogue fiber catches the white pyramid’s smoothed stars stacked in opposing directions creating delicate motion.
Clean and quiet, Braha’s Topography of Becoming is a modern take on the classic vessel. The carafe bends and pulls while scored and crackling glaze mix texture with opaque matte black. An ebony seam separates the sides indicating they were likely made independently. Drawings on the face are far more kinetic than those that adorn the back.
Anina Major The Guardians. Left: Silent Sentinel I. Right: Silent Sentinel II. Both glazed stoneware 14x8x8. Video: Handwaves
Backdrop strips of ochre, yellow and metallic gold evoke nostalgia of handmade baskets, blankets and all manner of earthly utility. The documentary isn’t your usual, tired demo. Layering ghosts of past movement onto present making it a film unto itself and highly watchable. The resulting stoneware pieces perch on metal stands rather than traditional white pedestals assigning an elevated status. Uniform plaits woven into irregular shapes grant a deceptively malleable appearance.
Bent unruly wire sews together ceramic tiles in an elaborate chime waiting for the wind to set them in motion. Discernible images are cast over irregular segments bequeathing the responsibility of depth and value to the intricate patterning. The freeform mosaic sets away from the wall casting mirrored shadows.
Like abandoned shells strewn on a sunny beach, forms arrange themselves into piles while some strike out on their own climbing to maximum heights in mindful compositions. Celadon blue glaze collects as rain or receding waves in the tender cups affording the only color.
Travel and Leisure recently ranked Detroit as one of the best places to visit. As the first and only city to be designated a UNESCO city of design, it’s become an art and cultural hub. Detroit was included in Lonely Planet’s 2025 Art Destinations Guide. It’s an incredible nod to host this year’s NCECA conference. The entire city has gotten involved offering days of events, discussions and exhibitions showcasing ceramics’ ability to communicate the beautiful and sublime as well as any medium. Anthony Bourdain famously said, “I’d love to be able to say I’m from Detroit. That would be like the coolest thing I could ever say.” He’s right.
The NCECA event occurs 3/25-3/28. Check the website for events, locations and participating artists
This exhibition is on view through April 4th at Wasserman Projects 3434 Russell Detroit
*images are mine
direct quote from gallery materials
**Special shoutout to longtime supporter of this publication Stephanie DeGroote. She’s been on board from the jump and has helped keep this publication going long enough to become an established journal of Detroit art. Thank you Steph!!
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