Clay Sustains: Vessels of Change Opens

This exhibition features 18 artists focusing an exceptional body of work on issues of environmental crisis and cultural sustainability. A diverse selection of clay materials, processes, and forms will engage viewers in meaningful inquiry into multiple ideas of “sustainability." Clay Sustains continues the Palo Alto Art Center’s Centering: Clay and Community series, here in the form of ceramic artwork, where creative vessels and forms (whose basic elements are earth, water, mineral) and their technologies of making (whose elements are fire and air) ask us to look more closely. How can earth itself be fashioned into art that serves as sustenance in our challenging contemporary world? If we consider ceramics as vessels of change, how can these works help us understand ideas of “sustainability” in the face of cultural and environmental change?

This exhibition is guest curated by independent curator Rina Faletti, Ph.D. and runs from January 17 - April 5, 2026.

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Palo Alto Art Center