Ceramics Now

NEW YORK – The Jane Hartsook Gallery is pleased to present work by our 2025 artists in residence: Lizzy Chemel, Amir Hariri, and Melissa Joseph. Greenwich House Pottery’s Artist Residency Program fosters artistic growth by providing makers time, space, materials, and a creative community to explore and generate new bodies of work in ceramics in vibrant New York City.

Lizzy Chemel is a New York City-based artist who makes sculptures in ceramic, found materials, wax, bronze, and cement. She uses mold-making to combine unlike objects that draw from her curiosity about undocumented ancestry. Adopted from Southern China and raised in California, Chemel’s works are influenced by ancient Chinese artifacts, translations, and folklore, as well as memories and iconography of her American upbringing. During her residency, Chemel continued developing a series of plaster molds that drew inspiration from the intersection of traditional Chinese culture and Hollywood kitsch.

Amir Hariri is a New York City-based artist and engineer who deconstructs the world around him to create abstract artwork and interventions that respond to contemporary challenges such as the pandemic and climate change. Inspired by individual and collective memories, and a childhood of exploring abandoned buildings, Hariri uses the language of decomposition and decay to transform the familiar and question our experiences and sense of history. Hariri used the residency as a space for experimentation, combining ceramic, wood scaffolding, and cement to create a site-responsive multimedia sculpture.

Melissa Joseph is a New York City-based interdisciplinary artist whose art practice in craft-based media—especially ceramics and textiles—addresses themes of diaspora, family history, and the politics of how we occupy spaces. Joseph is particularly interested in connecting people through collective memory and shared experiences. During her residency, Joseph created ceramic inlay paintings that are an interpretation of the visual languages she uses in felt and paper and created felt/ceramic hybrid works.