Free Art Workshop: Clay Tile Textures

A tile is the close-up, not the building

The connection to “Rael San Fratello: Prototypes and Provocations” is an invitation to think about material, not a promise to learn the studio’s construction or 3D-printing methods. YBCA describes this workshop as carving clay tiles; the exhibition follows a much broader body of work by the Oakland architecture and design studio, founded in 2002 by Ronald Rael and Virginia San Fratello.

The exhibition moves from early experiments combining clothing and construction to projects focused on the U.S.-Mexico border and work that joins 3D printing with traditional earthen materials. Its centerpiece, “Sanctuary,” is a cylindrical structure 3D printed onsite from soil, straw and water. A display of printed objects also explores materials that are sustainable, upcycled or recovered from waste, including salt, Chardonnay grape skins, coffee grounds, clay, sawdust and ash from California wildfires.

The studio’s 2019 “Teeter-Totter Wall,” a series of bright pink seesaws installed along the U.S.-Mexico border, brings a social and political dimension to the material questions. The project invited exchange across the border, while the exhibition considers how architecture can shape social life and express or challenge power. That context offers a larger point of comparison for a workshop focused on what hands can do to a piece of clay; it does not mean the tile activity takes up the same subject.

Further reading: Free Art Workshop: Clay Tile Textures - YBCA ↗ · Rael San Fratello: Prototypes and Provocations - YBCA ↗

Four teaching artists are listed

YBCA names Hitoshi Shigeta, Rea Lynn de Guzman, Gabby Severson and Brandi J Ynocencio as teaching artists, but does not identify which one will lead this session. Their biographies offer context about the artists, not a guarantee that their other practices will feature in the tile workshop.

Shigeta is an artist, art teacher and cartoonist whose teaching has reached visitors from school-age children to seniors. De Guzman is an interdisciplinary artist, curator and educator working in painting, print and sculpture; her work engages identity, cultural assimilation and the Filipinx diaspora, drawing on her experience as a Filipina immigrant. Severson, a mixed Indigenous visual artist and member of the Confederated Tribes of the Siletz Indians, works across photography, beadwork, basketry and sculpture, with themes including identity, memory and culture. Ynocencio is a printmaker and painter who teaches art.

Further reading: Free Art Workshop: Clay Tile Textures - YBCA ↗ · Hitoshi Shigeta - YBCA ↗ · Rea Lynn de Guzman - YBCA ↗ · Gabby Severson - YBCA ↗ · Brandi J Ynocencio - YBCA ↗