Alva Calymayor, a visual artist from Mexico City now based in both New York and Mexico City, explores social issues, perceptions of safety, and patterns of mass consumption through her art. Her interdisciplinary approach emphasizes process-driven learning and play, reflecting her role as both an artist and the founder of Art Experimentos. Previously, Alva ran the artist-run space Eyelevel BQE, which was highlighted in Exit Art's "Alternative Histories," curated by Herb Tam - celebrating pioneering alternative art venues in New York. Her work has been featured in notable exhibitions such as Astral America, Chaos/Control, and Harvest the Night, and she has exhibited in both the U.S. and Mexico, including at Casa Maauad in Mexico City and the Spring Break Art Show in New York. Alva’s contributions extend to her role as a mentor in NYFA's Program Mentorship for Immigrants and her involvement in the Bronx Artists in the Marketplace program. Recognized for her non-commercial approach to art, she co-founded Eyelevel BQE in 2008 and has been acknowledged in publications like Interview Magazine and MIT Press. Her innovative printmaking earned her a grant from the Stephen Sprouse Scholarship Fund.

Alayna Wiley is a ceramicist and an art educator with a passion for cultivating self knowledge through creative expression. As a Teaching Artist for The Metropolitan Museum of Art as well as the Museum of Arts and Design, she identifies artistic concepts within the galleries and translates them into approaches for artmaking in the studio. In her own design practice Alayna focuses on the material languages of clay, paper, textiles, metals, and stone for her collection, ANIMATE OBJECTS. She welcomes you to center yourself as you center the clay!

Alina Patrick is a photographer, ceramicist, and arts educator living and working in Brooklyn, New York. Alina is a 2023 Risograph Print and Publication Resident at the Penumbra Foundation where she published her first book of photography and poetry in October, 2023. She is also a 2023 Artist in Residence with the Little x Little artist residency program where she collaborated with dancer/choreographer Ameeya Singh to produce a dance adaptation of her book, How to grow una flor en el desierto. Alina's work focuses on land, memory, and intergenerational stories which she explores through a variety of mediums from clay to poetry. Photo credit Shina Peng.

Elycia is our Annex studio manager, teaching artist for youth programs, and annual Woodfire class host. She is a ceramic artist whose works are inspired by her love of nature: from the forms to her surface design, all are pulling something from the earth.

Katie loves getting her hands in clay, and loves Artshack’s mission of making clay more accessible to all. As a ceramicist, she pays particular attention to the ways that working with clay is enlivening, healing, and full of lessons. She can’t get over this medium that is both so grounding, and expansive. Katie enjoys teaching people of all ages with clay, both on the pottery wheel and handbuilding, and thinks that a combo of the two makes really cool pieces. She finds inspiration in books, conversation, nature, the art of others, and by letting her own hands guide the way. If you see a small animal running around the studio or curled up in some clay, it’s her cat Eloise!