visiting artists

Kathy Erteman

Kathy Erteman, a New York based ceramic artist and designer, makes vessels and architectural wall pieces in her Manhattan studio. She received her BFA from California State University Long Beach, studied with Adrian Saxe at UCLA, and worked with Judy Chicago on the Dinner Party after graduation. Her work has been exhibited internationally and is included in private and public collections including Renwick Gallery/Smithsonian Institute, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Taipei Museum of Fine Arts and SC Johnson Collection. She is widely published in design books and periodicals that include The New York Times, Metropolitan Home, Art Forum, Elle Decor and Ceramics Monthly. A full time studio artist and part time teacher, Kathy has taught at Parsons School of Design and been a guest lecturer at The Brooklyn Museum, SUNY New Paltz, Bezalel Academy of Art, Jerusalem and currently teaches at Greenwich House Pottery. Kathy is the recipient of a NYFA Fellowship and EBAY artist technology grant. Recently she travelled to Yunnan China to work with Tibetan Potters as a Design Consultant for Aid To Artisans/ The Mountain Institute/USAID.

Denis Licul

Denis lives and works in New York since 1999, where she moved from her home country, Croatia. She is affiliated with the Clay Art Center in Port Chester as an artist member and a teacher. With a background in a printmaking, European aesthetics, and lifestyle rooted in a yoga practice, she brings a specific touch to her craft and teachings. Denis has an extensive, international, solo and group exhibition record.

Bill Shillalies

"I have been working in clay for 25 years. Working in woodfiring, pit firing, horse hair firing, soda firing and raku, my vessels take their influences from natural forces in our environment. I find physical impules are represented in the process of creating the work and the finished piece."

Julie Teresteman

I was born in 1959 in New York City. Growing up here, much of my childhood was spent in enclosed places – apartments, parks and museums. The Museum of Natural History and the Metropolitan Museum of Art were crucial places of refuge for me. In these spaces I felt both safe and expansive. This is where I first experienced the transformative power of objects.  They were for me doorways similar to what in Zen is called the ‘gateless gate’.  Upon entering, reality opens and shifts very intimately, becomes more fluid.  And so my love for and relationship with pottery began.  I started college as a religion major at the University of Vermont. Early on it became clear that I wanted to pursue pottery. For a short time I apprenticed in Ireland with someone who had studied under Bernard Leach. This led to my studying ceramics with Rick Hirsch and Chris Gustin at the Program in Artisanry, then part of Boston University, and to graduate school with Graham Marks at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan. After graduating, I moved back to NYC in 1989 and set up a studio in Jersey City. I share the studio with painter Paul Caranicas, an experience which has been invaluable in keeping my point of view fresh.  I have been teaching for many years at a variety of schools around the city; I am currently at Greenwich House Pottery, Kingsborough Community College, and the 63rd St. YMCA. Back in 1993 I discovered Zen Buddhism, which also provided me with a deep sense of refuge. Alongside my ongoing work in the studio, I devoted myself fully to Zen study and training with Roshi Enkyo O’Hara at the Village Zendo, a Zen temple in downtown NYC where I continue to practice in a variety of capacities.  In February of last year I received dharma transmission as a Zen teacher.  These activities feed and complement each other, with life now being an ongoing mix of making work and teaching ceramics and Zen.

Sheryl Zacharia

Sheryl Zacharia was born and raised in the New York area and has lived in Manhattan all of her adult life. At Southampton College, she majored in painting but spent many years pursuing a career as a singer-songwriter. She performed in the NYC club circuit for over 10 years and is a published songwriter. Missing her visual arts roots, she began working in clay, which started her on new artistic path. She studied and worked in various Potteries and has exhibited both locally and nationally. Her pieces have been published in magazines and books, most recently in 500 Vases a 2010 Lark Publication, and are in various private collections. She recently completed an eight month extended residency at The Museum Of Arts and Design in NYC. In 2009 she received a grant from NoMAA, (Northern Manhattan Artists Alliance) with the support of JPMorgan Chase Foundation and UMEZ, which started her on this current body of work. Having been a long time resident of Greenwich Village she now lives in Northern Manhattan which she fondly refers to as Upstate Manhattan. She has a studio in the Bronx and is currently creating work for upcoming Gallery Shows and Private Sales. She is on the Faculties of Greenwich House Pottery in NYC, The Art School at Old Church in Demarest NJ, The West Side Y in NYC, and has taught numerous workshops including Harvard Ceramics, Truro Center for the Arts, and The Clay Art Center in Port Chester NY.