Students

Mal Gossett (b. 2001 Terre Haute, Indiana) is a second year ceramics candidate at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. They received their BFA in intermedia with a focus in ceramics and painting from Indiana State University. In their work, Mal relates clay to the body. They see the material as something soft and malleable—able to take on many forms before ultimately becoming more fragile in the end. The clay itself becomes a mode of transformation and fluidity, enveloping a sense of queerness. Calling on mystical creatures and the distorted human form to represent the fluid self, Mal's work delves into the polarizing experiences of plus size and queer individuals living in the rural midwest. 

Janiece Maddox (she/her) (b. 1998, Davenport, IA) is an interdisciplinary artist who earned her BFA in ceramics from the University of Iowa in 2022. She is currently based in Chicago, IL where she keeps a studio practice as well as works as a ceramics educator throughout the Chicago area. Her work addresses concepts of her identity and reality by contemplating the influence societal institutions have on the way we think about race, culture, and humor. 

I work across ceramics, painting, textile, and machinery to explore the complex layers of an era defined by deep conflict and historical residue. Driven by an ethical over-empathy with the world, my practice blurs the boundaries between self and other, human and object, past and present. I weave universal narrative archetypes and collective folklore into surreal, multi-dimensional installations that physically overlay traditional Korean materials with modern industrial elements. My work actively embodies flux, offering a site of persistent life, memory, and transformation.

Avery Dixon (she/her) is a midwest pastor’s daughter from Missouri. This background, combined with her own doubts about/struggles with faith, allows her to approach the subject of Christianity from a place of both intimacy and distance. Her work has held focus on religion, and over time the lens has shifted. Her current exploration centers Christian Nationalism, as her research has taken the forms of text, articles, podcasts, and especially the social media presence of this movement. The materiality of the work holds a deeply important role in relaying these concepts. Dixon primarily uses clay as a flexible medium and a through-line in her work, mirroring the fluctuation she experiences in her relationship with faith and the matters she studies. In addition to clay she has brought in other techniques and materials such as growing SCOBY leather, tattooing, found objects, bones, and more. Each new material allows her to further manifest the research into physical, tangible objects. She hopes to offer connection within the works, whether that be through the viewer’s childhood memories of faith, from experiences in the church as an adult, or even just from witnessing the various forms of Christianity in the media.

Alex Gailey (b. 1999, San Francisco, CA) is an artist and writer who explores outlaw myth and tales of adventure through representations of character. Working across media with his signature figurative style, Gailey’s work reimagines wildness and freedom in reaction to a world that is ever increasingly surveilled, policed, and polished. Gailey earned a BA in creative writing from Bates College in 2022 and is currently a ceramics MFA candidate at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

I work with ceramics, painting, and assorted printmaking methods to express my perspective on what delights or troubles me as we continue on the path of post-industrial society. My work aims to highlight contemporary issues such as the decay of modern infrastructure and class divisions, providing insight into why they occur. This approach is achieved through a deep connection with world history, art history, and materiality, as well as a keen eye for the workings of modern sociopolitical movements. It is my belief as an artist and a human being that the path we are on as a society can be illuminated by the melding of accurate historical context and how it relates to modern topics; in doing so, making the road forward less treacherous.

Mathilda Heim (she/her) is a France- and USA-based artist. She holds a BA in industrial design from the Paris ENSAAMA School of Art & Design and has worked in New York as an assistant interior designer alongside the development of her ceramic practice.

My practice stems from connections and confluences. It is guided by questions surrounding womanhood, rituals, nature, and territory while being shaped by the complexity of a bicultural background. How can art bear witness to individual and collective tensions? In search of peace of mind, I rely on intuition to guide my hands. I use multiple media, such as wood and textiles, and primarily work with clay.

Katie Sieker (she/her) is a ceramic artist who earned her BFA in ceramics from the University of Colorado Boulder in 2024. She is now pursuing her MFA in ceramics at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago to further her studio practice and education. Her work explores the body as a vessel for time. Utilizing themes of accumulation, belongings, womanhood, and home, she blends our internal and external worlds through the medium of clay. Bridging the gaps between fabric, clay, and the body, the slabs of stoneware she delicately “sews” together sit and slump, creating folds; the clay becomes a bodily object. She refers to these creations as “memory objects,” carriers of time. As we live, we gather things that often go unseen. Through her work, she aims to draw attention to the invisible weight we carry.