Universal Narratives:
A Group Show Presented by Taylor Robenalt
Opening Reception: Saturday, July 11, from 5-9pm
On View: July 11 – September 5
Morean Center for Clay
420 22nd St. South
Art has long been a powerful medium for storytelling, preserving history, and expressing personal and collective experiences. Ceramics, with its tactile and transformative qualities, provides a unique avenue for artists to shape narratives in a tangible form. This exhibition brings together artists from various backgrounds to create ceramic works telling compelling stories.
Project Objectives
1. To foster a community of artists interested in storytelling through ceramics.
2. To create a body of work exploring diverse cultural, personal, and historical narratives.
3. To provide opportunities for skill-sharing, idea developing, and artistic exchange.
4. To showcase the final works to highlight the power of ceramics as a narrative medium.
Participating Artists:
Graduated from Carlow University with a BFA in 3D, emphasis on Ceramics. Obtained her MFA in Ceramics at Syracuse University.
Chelsey Albert is a Ceramist/Sculptor who focuses on functional sculptural objects, instillation work and figurative sculpture. She makes sculptures connecting with what she has experienced growing up in a large mixed ethnic Syrian, Lebanese, and Nordic family where stories, myth, and family history were emphasized. Her work contains a whimsical essence between western esthetic and world cultures with an appreciation towards memory, mythology and commonalities that occur between culture and how its appropriated.
María G. Albornoz is a ceramic artist based in Philadelphia. Born in Kansas and raised in Venezuela, her work reflects the layered experience of navigating multiple cultural identities. Drawing on memory, domestic spaces, and everyday rituals, she creates functional pottery for everyday use.
María holds an MFA in Ceramics from Tyler School of Art and a BFA from the University of South Florida. Her practice is grounded in handbuilding and wheelthrowing techniques, with a focus on surface imagery that evokes quiet, familiar moments. In addition to her studio practice, she is a dedicated educator, sharing her knowledge and passion for the medium. She teaches ceramics at The Clay Studio, Black Hound Clay South, and Moore College of Art and Design.
Through her work, María invites connection, reflection, and a deeper appreciation of the beauty found in daily life.
Pavel Amromin was born in Gomel, an industrial city in the former Soviet republic of Belarus. At age 13 he and his family immigrated to the United States and settled in Chicago. Pavel received his Bachelor of Fine Art with a concentration in sculpture from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and his Master of Fine Art in Ceramics from the University of Florida. Pavel is a recipient of the Florida Individual Artist Fellowship, and has exhibited his sculpture in juried and invitational exhibitions around the country. Currently he is Professor and Gallery Director at Gulf Coast State College.
https://www.kolhouse.com/
Leach is a studio ceramic artist and educator; whose sculptures address the social norms and of contemporary society for women. Her work has been exhibited, lectured, and collected at national and international venues. Currently a Professor of Art, Leach serves as the Department Chair and Director of the MFA in Visual Arts at Jacksonville University and is passionate about study abroad and engaged learning at all levels. She specializes in ceramic sculpture with figurative elements, that utilizes wheel thrown vessels as metaphorical references. As well as functional wares that address similar elements and themes.
Leach’s artwork, which consider the human experience, has been exhibited during Rome Art Week in Rome, Italy, selected as one of only 20 international ceramic artists to exhibit in the Du Bol exhibition in Lille, France, at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Jacksonville, and Boca Raton Art Museum. Leach has presented at regional and national conferences including SECAC and the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts, as well as, on the Mother/Artist Podcast series, the National Clay Week platform, and numerous universities and workshop venues. She was selected for an international artist residency at C.R.E.T.A. Rome in 2017, and her work has been featured in the Cummer Museum retail space. Most recently Leach was selected for an artists residency at the Skopelos Art Foundation in Skopelos, Greece. Leach’s work is in over 100 private collections, with acquisitions in Deloitte & Touche’, the Jacksonville Library, and University of North Florida: Art in the Library as one of the leading artists of Northeast Florida.
Studio owner and curator in Jacksonville, Leach holds an M.F.A. degree from the University of Georgia and a B.F.A. degree from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
Tammy grew up in Wallingford, Connecticut. She earned her undergraduate degree from The University of New Mexico and received her Master of Fine Arts Degree from the University of Florida. Currently, she is a Professor of Art at Gulf Coast State College. She has also taught at the University of Florida, abroad at Golden Bridge Pottery in Pondicherry India, and at the Skopart Foundation in Greece. In addition to maintaining an active teaching schedule, Tammy is a working studio potter. Her works can be seen throughout the United States and Europe and can be found in numerous galleries across the country. Tammy currently resides in Panama City, FL with her partner Pavel Amromin and their two children Ari & Pearl.
Casey McDonough received a BS in Marine Science and a BA in Studio Art from Eckerd College in 2003 and an MFA from Rhode Island School of Design in 2007. He has been a resident artist at the Morean Center for Clay, Red Lodge Clay Center and the Hjorring Kunstmuseum in Denmark, as well as apprentice to Don Reitz. Casey currently lives in St. Petersburg, Florida, where he maintains a studio practice as well as a design collaborative with his wife and creative partner, photographer Laura Dante. Since 2018, Casey has taught 3D Design at Shorecrest Preparatory School in St. Petersburg.
Taylor Robenalt is an artist and educator whose practice is grounded in material exploration and craft. She earned her BFA from Southern Methodist University with a focus on bronze casting and stone carving, and later received her MFA in Ceramics from the University of Georgia in 2011 on a full-tuition scholarship.
Robenalt is a full-time professor at Ringling College of Art and Design, where she balances teaching with an active studio practice. Her work has taken her internationally through residencies at A.I.R. Vallauris in France, SkopArt in Greece, and Tokoname in Japan, as well as nationally at institutions including The Art Ovation Hotel, Odyssey ClayWorks (NC), and others. She has exhibited widely in both national and international venues, including Grovewood Gallery, Abmeyer + Wood Fine Art, River Gallery, Companion Gallery, and Vision West Contemporary.
Her work and research have been recognized with numerous honors, including the NCECA International Residency Award, the Halo Fellowship Award, and multiple Ringling College Professional Development Grants. In addition to her studio practice, Robenalt has curated exhibitions for institutions such as Blue Spiral Gallery, Florida CraftArt, The Art Ovation Hotel, the Canton Museum of Art, Rocky River Gallery, and the Morean Clay Center. She has also served as a primary presenter at the Alabama Clay Conference and The Bascom’s Animal Symposium.
In 2026, Robenalt is preparing for a solo exhibition at the Museum of Art–DeLand in April, followed by a solo exhibition at Govewood Gallery in October, and is scheduled to teach two workshops at The Bascom.
Keith Wallace Smith is a figurative sculptor and educator working primarily in ceramics and cast metal. He received a bachelor of science in art education at Morgan State University and went on to attend graduate school at The University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, where he received a MFA in 1999. He is currently the head of the ceramics department at Kennesaw State University.
Prior to his tenure at Kennesaw State University Smith’s teaching and administrative experience has included positions as associate educator for the Baltimore Museum of Art, program coordinator of Art in State Buildings and teaching lab specialist at The University of Florida. He also received positions as visiting assistant professor at Georgia Southern University and lecturer/technician at Northern Kentucky University.
Smith’s work employs the use of varied scale, fragmentation and gesture to approach the figure; he shares his process and handbuilding techniques with students and the general pubic through teaching and workshops. His work is included in the collection of the Montgomery Museum of Art, Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, and in several teaching collections throughout the southeast such as Florida Atlantic University, Georgia Southern University and Appalachian State University.
Smith continues to exhibit regionally and nationally, his work has been published in Confrontational Clay by Judith Shwartz, The Figure in Clay by Suzanne Tourtillottt, 500 Figures in Clay: Ceramic Artists celebrate the Human Form by Veronika Gunter, “Poetic Expressions of Morality: Figurative Ceramics From The Porter/Price Collection” and Clay and Glazes for the Potter by Daniel Rhodes.
Meghan Sullivan is originally from Boston, Massachusetts. She received her MFA from the University of Nebraska – Lincoln, a post-baccalaureate from the University of Florida – Gainesville and her BFA from the Massachusetts College of Art. She has been an artist in residence both nationally and internationally. Meghan is an Assistant Professor of art at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin.
