Clay as Canvas 

with Rachel Niffenegger

CERAMICS [TK] 001
3 credits | $250 lab fee

In this class, students will explore the two-dimensional and pictorial possibilities in clay by working on slabs. Students will learn effective slab rolling techniques, drying strategies, and explore a variety of mark-marking processes including carving, printing, underglazing and other painterly and graphic applications to solve traditional painting considerations including figure, ground, composition, color, and mark making in clay. To glean inspiration, we will review the work of artists including Betty Woodman, Ruby Neri, Haylie Jimenez, and Manal Kara. Assignments will invite students to consider the interaction between form and surface by combining slab/hand building with painting techniques using underglazes and image transfer.  The course will culminate in a presentation of wall based works.

Winter Session runs from January 4 - 17, 2026. Classes are held every day during the session (including weekends) from 9:30 a.m.–5:00 p.m. EST

Rachel Niffenegger (she/her) utilizes curious and experimental media to conjure uncanny spirits. Pulled from the folds of psychedelic clay and spiraled through mirrored metal work her creations are preoccupied with fecundity and the macabre, at once psychedelic and mysterious. Rachel Niffenegger’s work has been included in museum shows at the Museum for Modern Art in Arnhem, the  Netherlands; the MCA in Chicago; and in gallery shows in New York, Berlin, Chicago, Liverpool,  Denver, and Milwaukee, among others. In 2012 she completed a residency at DE ATELIERS in  Amsterdam. Niffenegger, received her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and her  MFA from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. She is represented by Western Exhibitions in Chicago and  lives and works in Chicago.

Rachel Niffenegger, Opia installation view, 2022