curatorial projects

Shadow Piece(s): Chance-Based Responses in Clay
Curated by E.C. Comstock and Olive Comstock

January 17  – February 22, 2026
Opening Reception: Fri, January 16th, 6 – 8 pm
Northern Clay Center: Emily Galusha Gallery

Virtual Panel Discussion
Join Curators Olive & E.C. Comstock along with participating artists from Shadow Piece(s) in a virtual panel discussion about artworks created for this exhibition.
Wednesday, January 28, 6 pm CT

Maggie Adams, Alexis C. Brunkow, E.C. Comstock, Tomo Ingalls, Vanessa Romo, Jennifer Schumacher Waller, and Kurt Tomerlin respond to a single set of written instructions: Shadow Piece (1963) by Japanese Fluxus artist Meiko Shiomi. Originally conceived as a poetic performance score, Shadow Piece invites a meditation on the presence and movement of shadow in space and time. In this exhibition, clay becomes the medium through which each artist interprets and performs the score, translating ephemeral action into material form.
This exhibition draws inspiration from Fluxus, the 1960s–70s avant-garde network of artists across Japan, Europe, and the United States who challenged the boundaries between art and life. Like the Event Scores that defined much of Fluxus practice—short written instructions meant to provoke action—each ceramic work in Shadow Piece(s) is a record of performance, shaped by individual process and collective dialogue.
Rather than centering the object as a static, stand-alone form, the exhibition embraces ceramics as a medium of iteration and interpretation. Clay’s inherent unpredictability, shaped by the forces of touch, heat, and time, aligns seamlessly with the chance-based ethos of Shiomi’s score. The artists’ varied responses emerge through practices of repetition, experimentation, and intuitive making—gestures that echo across disciplines and histories.
While Fluxus often took place in public spaces or live performances, here the performance unfolds in the quiet interior of the studio. The resulting works are not representations, but traces—documents of embodied action and material thought. They invite viewers to consider ceramics not simply as craft or sculpture, but as a form of movement held in suspension.
Through this collaboration, Shadow Piece(s) honors Shiomi’s legacy while expanding the boundaries of both ceramics and performance. It offers a timely reflection on collectivity, responsiveness, and the poetic potential of instruction.

The CheLLF
Microgallery in Seward, Minneapolis
Next Show Opening Sat, January 10, 2025 (inquire for full details)

The CheLLF is an interdisciplinary art exhibition space supporting 2D, 3D, relational, and ephemeral work. We are situated in South Minneapolis on an ethos of empowering artists

Current exhibition:
Skye Hewitt, A Tentative Title by the Demuring Majority

Past exhibitions:
Lyd Wilkes, Found Localities
Lydia Gutowsky, Mindpaste
Wiggy Wiggans, Going Up, Going Down
Eleanor J. Struewing, Loops
Andrew Gramm, Please Handle
Dillon Sebastian & Zephyr Sheedy, On the River, Roughly




don’t be careful with me im normal
March 25 - 29, 2025 | public reception March 27  6-9pm | NCECA Clay Around Town
Signed & Numbered, 2320 S W Temple St, Salt Lake City, UT 84115
Organized and curated by E.C. Comstock

Featuring:
Ajmal Ahmad
Wesley Barnes
E .C. Comstock
Gabby Gawreluk
Olivia Gibb
Sean Lofton
Harry Malesovas
Heather Schroeder
Mayetta Steier
Ashley Bevington
Linda Christianson
Alysha Hill
Danny Price
Mary Rhein
Audra Smith
Em Spakoski
Brian Snapp
Janice Wallace
Kathryn Wingard




Care is a formative and (re)configuring force. As an essential means of navigating crisis and preparing for an uncertain future, care work is increasingly underscored in the present zeitgeist as a central tenet for community building and organizing. While navigating the delicate and messy process of introducing real gestures of tenderness into clay studio spaces, we ask, in what instances is care unable to be received? Does the clumsiness of caregiving undermine its power? How can the rawness of asking for care be mitigated? Emerging artists unite in this exhibition playfully titled, don’t be careful with me i’m normal.  Together, they consider the underexplored brittle, self-conscious, and abrasive vestiges of care[giving/taking] alongside the presence of tenderness in mentor and colleague relationships within the studio environment. The lines between community, colleague, friend, and family are unclear within a uniquely close-knit medium. Across these ambiguities, it requires both bravery and diligence to effectively nurture. As the tongue-in-cheek title implies, the included work explores stoicism and forbearance as much as it does the yielding and gentle valences of care and tenderness. Ceramic as a material is both fragile and enduring. Each of these emerging artists have been chosen for embodying the fortitude necessary to be a rising maker in the post-pandemic landscape, while generating sensitive and  playful sculptural work. Whether exploring the presence or absence of vulnerability, good humor abounds in work which speaks with as much discernment as levity. Each member of the show invites an artist who they’ve accepted tenderness from to present a piece alongside them. Rather than mapping lineage or influence, the pairing of work in this way investigates the lateral, reciprocal, and rhizomatic personal connections unfolding in clay. In doing so, we open up wells of emotional intimacy and gratitude, some of which have never been verbalized. Within these wells is a space to lay your head down, to receive affection, to be bolstered, formed, and to reflect on who has tended to you.