Now, you do the dishes! Clay@WCU

What does it mean to make and to maintain, to build and then clean up? Whether it is in the kitchen or the clay studio, home or community, work or play, it takes a shared commitment to create and care and respond successfully. Now, you do the dishes! at the Knauer Gallery at West Chester University is a reflection on labor, domesticity, and the uneasy tension of the current sociopolitical moment, told through clay and mixed-media artworks.

Now, you do the dishes! at Clay@WCU

This exhibition is the culmination of the 2025 Clay@WCU Summer Residency, featuring works from resident artists Mia Fabrizio and John Shea. Residency director Andrew Snyder was also convinced to participate with several of his own pieces and installations. “I love making work with the resident artists in the studio while they are working,” said Snyder, who has hosted the Clay@WCU Summer Residency since 2018.

Jugs by Andrew Snyder, Mia Fabrizio, and John Shea

Fabrizio has spent a lot of time touching clay recently. “After spending this past school year as the WCU Ceramic Studio Machinist/Tech, I was eager to spend some time getting my hands dirty and throwing some clay around,” she said. During May and June, she was able to work on her own projects rather than guiding students. “It was exactly the kind of artful play I needed! It was a fantastic learning experience and an all-around great time hanging in the studio with John and Andrew.”

Cups by John Shea

For Shea, this was an opportunity to get back into clay. “It’s always an amazing experience to get to collaborate with other artists,” he said. The artists not only worked together, but created pieces collaboratively. All three artists used mugs thrown by Snyder, putting their unique perspectives on the pieces. “I tend to overthink the things that I’m making instead of just enjoying the environment and the process,” Shea said. “I started off with a set-in-stone plan that totally changed just from being in that creative space. The mugs I made for the show are just fun, fun to make, fun to be around, fun to use, and hopefully fun to look at.”

Mug by John Shea

Inspiration came from unexpected places as well. “Before our residency began, I had an idea of creating an ‘anti-commemorative’ plate series that would bring focus to the dismantling of democracy and justice,” said Fabrizio. “The lyrics from Janelle Monáe’s ‘Turntables’ were on a loop in my mind, while I had flashes of the infomercials of the early ’90s, when a 1-800 number and a few easy installments could get you a collectible ‘treasure.’”

Real life factors heavily into the show in pieces from all three artists. “All my work is referencing current events,” said Snyder. “I think the piece that means the most to me is November 6th, 2024. It is a bowl I made on election day in 2024 then decorated the day after. I was hopeful when I made it, but was in a different state of mind the day after. The bowl is displayed on a soap box as a metaphor for our shared responsibility to continue standing up for underrepresented populations.”

No, first do harm by Andrew Snyder

Another of Snyder’s pieces in the show, No, first do harm, particularly impacted Fabrizio. In it, a large clay “bomb” is suspended by dozens of strings of red yarn over a delicate live plant. “This piece makes my palms sweat!” said Fabrizio. “It is a masterpiece of subversive materiality, gorgeous formal aesthetics, and exudes more anxious tension than a middle school dance.”

The show is a dance between highs and lows, despair and hope, pride and sadness. “There’s some imagery and some symbolism dealing with my issues with current political bullshit surrounding us, I think it’s inevitable,” said Shea. “But most of the things I’ve made are in a way just a reminder that I am human, I enjoy making things that are nice to be around.” Clay is inherently a medium in which the artwork is made to be used, for the most part. It is art, and it is also a mug to use for your morning coffee. “It’s nice to share that with other people,” Shea said. “Making functional things that can connect you to another person is just sweet.”

Cover Up by Mia Fabrizio

“Material choices can carry meaning,” Snyder added. “We are using the emotional and political weight of the objects we create to connect strong ties to process.” From “handmaid” jugs and shattered fragments that create new impacts from Fabrizio, powerful messages and imagery on dishware from Shea, and mixed-media installations throughout from Snyder, the  show asks visitors to think of ordinary objects outside of standard situations. “My hope is that viewers will be drawn in by the craft, then stay with the work long enough to uncover our motivation and the questions we’re asking ourselves about care, and the everyday,” said Snyder.

Shea’s passion flows into his hope for what people will take from the exhibition, as he colorfully noted, “Making artwork is a fucking blast, getting to share it with other people is incredibly sweet, and with everything that we are all going through finding opportunities to collect connections is good medicine.”

Or in the words of Fabrizio, borrowing a phrase from the late, great leader John Lewis: “I hope everyone takes every opportunity to resist, rebel, and make good trouble.”

Now, you do the dishes!

Knauer Art Gallery at West Chester University

817 S. High Street, West Chester

Reception: Sunday, August 10 from 12 to 2 pm