2024 Juror: Shikha Joshi

Shikha Joshi is a studio potter based in Round Rock, Texas. Born and raised in New Delhi, India, Joshi learned ceramics through community classes and workshops in the US. Her work has been featured at prominent galleries like Companion, Charlie Cummings Gallery and Clayakar. She has exhibited at the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts where her work is part of their permanent collection. Joshi has been published in Ceramic Monthly, Surface Design for Ceramics, and 500 Platters. She has taught numerous workshops nationally as well as online, sharing her passion for creating surface variation in an electric kiln.

My creative process results from an interplay between form and function. I like to explore form, to create pots with strong shapes, with the underlying guiding factor being, achievement of good functionality. The rich earthy hues strongly appeal to the artist in me, which in turn dictate the choice of my clay and glazes.

I find myself being drawn to the Japanese aesthetic of “Wabi Sabi”. Loosely translated, it means beauty in imperfection. Consequently, the surfaces of my pots have slowly transitioned from intricately carved to being rustic, earthy and organic. I hope my pots echo the silent austere beauty and simplicity of the natural world and infuse the user with a feeling of meditative peace.

Colors and textures of rocks, tree bark, algae are some of the things that inspire me and I am constantly experimenting with slips, glazes, colorants and inclusions to recreate that look. The desire to emulate the rustic surface of wood fired ceramics within the constraints of an oxidation kiln continues to guide me on my evolutionary journey as a potter.


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Past jurors:

2023 - Danny Meisinger

2022 - Hitomi and Takuro Shibata

2021 - Erica Iman

2020 - Sam Chung

2019 - Pete Pinnell

2018 - Kevin Snipes

2017 - Chandra DeBuse

2016 - Jack Troy

2015 - Lisa Orr

2014 - Delores Fortuna and Bill Farrell

2013 - Doug Jeppeson

2012 - Bede Clarke

2011 - Steven Hill

2010 - Pete Pinnell




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