The Jane Hartsook Gallery is pleased to present ceramic work by Maggie Finlayson and Tom Jaszczak. Finlayson and Jaszczak each skillfully generate an approach to creating functional ceramic ware that envelops an attention to form and consideration for modern craft. Delicate accents, gestural marks and minimal geometry can all be found in the details of their work. In Finlayson’s work, natural colors are muted, and quiet subtleties are highlighted in her earthenware basins, troughs and baskets. Influenced by her long love of textiles, she incorporates patterns and the repetition of line into surface treatments for each piece. For Jaszczak’s mugs, trays and jars, “form communicates a pots gesture; it speaks of utility.” He combines the motions of function with the aesthetics of line and abundance of shape.

Finlayson studied in Canada at Kootenay School of the Arts in Nelson, British Columbia and Alberta College of Art + Design in Calgary, Alberta. She received her MFA in Ceramics from the University of Minnesota in 2013. Finlayson has participated in ceramic residency programs at the New Taipei Ceramics Museum in New Taipei City, Taiwan, the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, MT, Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass, CO, and Medalta Potteries in Medicine Hat, Alberta. Jaszczak received a BA in Visual Art and a BS in Biology from Bemidji State University. He has been an assistant for Simon Levin and Tara Wilson, as well as a summer resident and long-term resident at the Archie Bray Foundation. Currently Finlayson and Jaszczak are Resident Artists at Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina.

Greenwich House Pottery is a school that supports artists and their projects with a commitment to teaching and promoting ceramics. Starting with clay modeling classes in the earliest days of Greenwich House as part of its Handicraft School, the Pottery flourished with the help of the community and philanthropic support from patrons like Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney. GHP remains a stalwart of innovation and art.

GHP is dedicated to expanding public awareness of the diversity and complexity of ceramics and fostering the development of artists through internships, residencies, exhibitions and classes. Extending our educational mission of making, exhibiting, and learning from contemporary ceramics, GHP operates “Ceramics Now,” an exhibition series in the Jane Hartsook Gallery committed to supporting emerging, underrepresented and established ceramists.

GHP raises awareness of the importance of creative engagement with art. Like so many nonprofit arts organizations, GHP plays a vital role in community building and providing access to the arts. Centers like GHP have become rare but are regaining popularity as society rediscovers the amazement in creating art by engaging physically with materials. GHP offers a chance to learn from clay in a direct way, particularly the pottery community of the West Village, and to foster connections between artists, material and the larger ceramics community.