Exhibition Opening: Body Vessel Clay: Black Women, Ceramics & Contemporary Art

The Ford Foundation Gallery is pleased to present Body Vessel Clay: Black Women, Ceramics & Contemporary Art curated by Dr. Jareh Das on view September 10 – December 6, 2025.

Please join us for the opening celebration on Wednesday, September 10th, from 5 – 7pm.

Body Vessel Clay: Black Women, Ceramics & Contemporary Art brings together three generations of groundbreaking Black women artists whose work with clay explores the medium’s multilayered cultural and political significance. Featuring over fifty works across ceramics, film, photography, and archives, the exhibition draws connections between the legacy of renowned Nigerian potter Ladi Dosei Kwali (1925-1984) and contemporary artistic practice. Through these lines of influence and innovation, the show traces how Black women artists have transformed the field of ceramics over the past seventy years—disrupting conventions, challenging hierarchies, and expanding the possibilities of clay as a medium.

The exhibition features work by artists including Halima Audu, Phoebe Collings-James, Jade de Montserrat, Chinasa Vivian Ezugha, Adebunmi Gbadebo, Ladi Kwali, Simone Leigh, Anina Major, Bisila Noha, Magdalene Odundo, and Julia Phillips. It also includes a rich selection of Abuja Pottery ceramics (Michael Cardew, Asibi Ido, and George Sempagala), and archival material—correspondence, press clippings, and photographic documentation—related to the Pottery Training Centre in Abuja, drawn from the collections of Doig Simmonds, the Crafts Study Centre, and the W.A. Ismay Archive at York Museums Trust. Exquisite, research-led exhibition design by Ayo Design and graphic design by NMutiti Studio invite visitors into a dynamic, contemplative journey across the show’s layered themes and interconnections.