Thicc-ening the Narrative is an Online Invitational Exhibition celebrating Pride Month that asks the artists to reflect on their intersecting identities through ceramics. Guest curated by Deshun Peoples, the exhibition showcases the work of six ceramic artists in the Queer (LGBTQIA+) ceramics community. The work featured includes both sculptural and functional ceramics, informed by the artists’ intersecting identities of race, queerness, and body size. Participating Artists: Carletta Williams, Shaun Mallonga, V Walton, Haylie Jimenez, Grace (Gray) Gittelman and Gerald Brown.

“For this exhibition, I wanted to use the platform Clay Art Center provided to highlight intersectionality within the Queer (lgbtqia+) community. Navigating multiple marginalized identities and finding nourishing communities can be an arduous, trauma-latent process. I hope this exhibition serves as a place of refuge and rejuvenation for all of the Full[er]-Figured, Queer, and BIPOC communities as well as many others. I want this exhibition to not just celebrate fat, queer, BIPOC bodies, but also to reinvigorate a conversation on body size, politics of desirability, and fat justice as well as more fully imagine fatness as a social identity subject to structural oppression (particularly in medical, cosmetic/beauty, and dieting/fitness industries).

In trying to hold space in authentic and robust ways, I wanted to highlight the experiences of those most marginalized in queer communities. As I reflect on what queerness means to me, it has always been intricately linked to my Blackness, and I am increasingly sensitive to the ways in which my body size colors my experiences. Gone are the days when we have to choose the parts of us that get a seat at the table. I want the fullness of who we are as individuals and as an embodied community to enter this virtual exhibition and take up all the space necessary. Let us ponder these 3 centered identities and so many more whilst we expand the face of queer ceramics and humanize the folks who have made themselves so open and vulnerable in answering the call to participate in this exhibition.” Deshun Peoples

Guest Curator Deshun Peoples is a ceramic artist and designer from Chicago, IL who is currently studying clinical social work at the University of Chicago's Crown School of Social Work, working as an intern psychotherapist in a group private practice, and working as a Studio Manager at Firebird Community Arts in Chicago navigating the intersection of Community Mental Health and Creative Arts Practice. Peoples received his dual BA in Studio Art and Rhetoric from Bates College in 2017, MFA in Ceramics from RISD in 2021, and will receive his MSW from UChicago Crown School in 2024. Deshun has taught various courses at Rhode Island School of Design, the University of Arkansas, and Chicago State University.

Peoples has shown his work widely, including a solo exhibition at Bates College Olin Arts Center, and group exhibitions at Eutectic Gallery in Oregon, Worcester Center for Craft in Massachusetts, Abel Contemporary in Wisconsin, Crocker Art Museum in California, KOBO Gallery in Washington, and The Clay Studio in Pennsylvania. His honors include an apprenticeship with artist Theaster Gates, a Fulbright Student Research Grant to study in Jingdezhen, China, an Emerging Artist Chort Grant from the American Craft Council in 2022, and an Emerging Artist Fellowship from NCECA in 2023. Peoples is represented by Reynolds Gallery (Richmond, VA) in the state of Virginia.

Shop Deshun Peoples at Clay Art Center Shop. Learn more about Guest Curator Deshun Peoples here.

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The Mission of Clay Art Center Gallery is to provide a platform for emerging and established artists to explore a wide range of topics that address materials, processes and techniques, and to engage in critical dialogue through clay. We are committed to exhibiting a variety of work representing diverse backgrounds, and we support our artist and student communities through gallery programming opportunities.

Watch the Virtual Artist Panel Discussion from June 20th, 2024 at 7 pm EST. Moderated by Guest Curator Deshun Peoples, with guest participating artists Carletta Williams, Shaun Mallonga, Gerald Brown, and V Walton.