A new exhibition at the June Steingart Gallery is bringing attention to the transformative medium of wood-fired ceramics.
STOKED brings together 36 nationally recognized artists from around the country to celebrate a new wood-fired kiln at Laney College, which was constructed entirely by Laney students.
At the Sept. 6 reception, celebrated artists and professional makers mingled with students and curious onlookers over grapes, sparkling water, and the soft tones of piano music.
The featured works come in a variety of sizes, themes, and textures – Scott Parady’s After Math, a massive block of clay riddled with holes and charred by flame, leans against one side of the gallery. On the opposite side the bewildered, bucket-topped face of Missile Defense, by sculptor Marc Lancet, stares past Dan Molyneux’s Aria, an intricate multilayered vessel of glazed red clay with an ornate outer lattice.
The diverse array of pieces displayed in STOKED each have one thing in common: they are all products of wood-firing. Wood-fired ceramics are hardened and finished with raw flame produced by burning wood, as opposed to more common gas or electric heating. This ancient technique has now found a new home at Laney College.
On the morning of Sept. 6, before the reception, onlookers gathered around Laney’s new wood-fired kiln at the college Art Center. Students and instructors celebrated as they pulled each inaugural piece from the firing chamber.
Hilda Wang, one of the students who built the kiln over the course of a June workshop, said “having a wood-fired kiln is very special. There aren’t many around. For Laney to have one is just a great opportunity for the students.”
“We couldn’t have done it without the department chair,” Wang added. “She was involved in every step of the process.”
Mary Catherine Bassett, the chair of the art department at Laney, organized the construction of the kiln and scheduled its first firing to coincide with the reception for STOKED.
Bassett wrote in an email to The Citizen that the name of the exhibition is “a play on how you fire the wood kiln, as well as the excitement everyone has when they experience the process.”
“This new kiln offers our students a way to fire that most would not have the opportunity to do,” Bassett wrote.
According to Bassett, the kiln is one of only three wood-fired train kilns in US cities. “This kiln will put our program on the map on a national level,” she wrote.
Featured artist Parady is the director of the Cobb Mountain Art and Ecology Project, and a professor in the art department at CSU Sacramento. He selected the pieces for the STOKED exhibition.
“I wanted to see the voices of the artists in the work,” Parady said. “I was really interested in, aside from just high quality work, seeing a wide range of wood-fired effects.”
There are “a variety of different ways that the work can be influenced by the process,” said Parady. Wood-firing affects clay, glazes, and other pottery materials differently than gas or electric firing. Ash can mix with the pieces, creating unique textures and often unpredictable effects.
The kiln, dubbed “Bernadette ‘Kilny McKilnface’ Calcifer,” will be used for a 12-week, non-credited course focused on wood-firing taught by Laney instructor Ian Bassett.
STOKED artwork is currently on display at the June Steingart Gallery on the first floor of the Laney tower, until Dec. 5, 2025. The gallery is open Mondays and Wednesdays from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., and on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m.
