Meet the team
Serving and nurturing a clay community is a team effort. We could not do this without the numerous dedicated, talented members of our community who collectively get things done. Knowing this, we celebrate and say thank you to everyone who does their part to make Clay Space work. Your ability to juggle multiple responsibilities, handle delicate, breakable work, move hundreds of ceramic pieces through each process, answer a million questions daily, and do so with a positive and friendly attitude is outstanding. We love you and want to show you off a little!
Are you interested in working with us? Apply for Studio Tech or Instructor roles!
Admin Team
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Janine Sopp is a Brooklyn based ceramic artist, entrepreneur, and mother who started her clay journey in 1990 and opened the original Clay Space (1205) membership studio in 2006. Her work is influenced by her former career in fashion and textiles and continues to evolve with themes of texture, multiple parts to create installations, organic shapes and finishes that evoke timeless qualities of ancient and mystical times. She opened the new membership and teaching studio in the same neighborhood of Greenpoint and is thrilled that so many adults and children find their inspiration with clay inside this safe and creative haven in Brooklyn.
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What excites me about clay is that it can take whatever it is given, you can put your entire expression into it.
Olivia Hock she/her
Admin Assistant, Youth Coordinator, Social Media
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Mike has been working in clay since 2016. His work ranges between wheel and hand building, small to large, covering a range of items from functional to decorative. He loves chatting about glaze and firing schedules as well as music and cooking and whatever comes to mind. In a few former lives, he was a chef, musician, and performer in a weird puppet/theater group.
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Clay has a life of its own, making it a good dancing partner
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Gabrielle [she/they] is a ceramicist & educator from Lenapehoking / NYC. Gabrielle has been practicing the craft of ceramics — both wheel-throwing & handbuilding — since 2018, & loving it more each day.
They worked for over 12 years in the field of human rights & civil rights before transitioning to ceramics full time. Gabrielle continues to explore ways to integrate the values of abolition, justice, healing, & storytelling into their ceramics practice.
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The process of creating something beautiful or meaningful or just silly out of a mound of earth!
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Liam Kelly is a queer and trans artist based in Brooklyn whose work centers on accessibility, functionality, and good design. Both in and outside the studio they are committed to sharing knowledge within the ceramics community through teaching, collaboration, and open dialogue, helping to build a more inclusive and supportive creative space.
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What excites me most about clay is that it’s a constant process of learning and discovery.
Instructors
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Amanda Gale is a sculptor, installation artist, crafter, and parent based in Brooklyn, NY. She has a B.A. from Sarah Lawrence and an M.F.A. in sculpture from SUNY Purchase. She has over 25 years of experience teaching various art forms to both children and adults with the deeply held belief that art is vital to human existence and should be accessible to everyone.
Often lost in the weeds between creating functional products and art, Amanda works with many different materials including ceramic, fiber and metal — hand-making one-of-a-kind art product objects.
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One of the things that I find so incredible about clay is its amazing transformation from mud to vitrified functional and beautiful object.
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Atlas is a sculptor, ceramicist, and art historian. His focus is on multiple forms of craft, and the limitless possibilities of combining different practices. They draw inspiration from the histories and traditions of ceramics, glass, textiles, and woodwork to create art that is an extension of the individual craft. By combining different mediums and methods, he is creating a practice where boundaries are arbitrary and tradition can be rewritten.
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I love that it feels like a living thing that I have to commune with in order to build, shape, and transform in infinite ways.
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I'm a lifelong clay lover! Seriously, I've been at it off and on since high school (unless you count Play-Doh and Silly Putty before that). I've been teaching for about 13 yrs and it has made me a better potter. I didn't know what I didn't know until I needed to teach it.
I'm known for being mug-obsessed and can literally talk for hours about them. I work primarily in porcelain and loooove wood firing. before transitioning to ceramics full time. Gabrielle continues to explore ways to integrate the values of abolition, justice, healing, & storytelling into their ceramics practice.
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The challenge, since there's no end to a clay journey!
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I am a potter from New Jersey working in Brooklyn. I make pots about dogs and birds.
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Clay has so much to teach us about the world; chemistry, geology, history — most importantly where we fit in among all of it.
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Gabrielle [she/they] is a ceramicist & educator from Lenapehoking / NYC. Gabrielle has been practicing the craft of ceramics — both wheel-throwing & handbuilding — since 2018, & loving it more each day.
They worked for over 12 years in the field of human rights & civil rights before transitioning to ceramics full time. Gabrielle continues to explore ways to integrate the values of abolition, justice, healing, & storytelling into their ceramics practice.
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The process of creating something beautiful or meaningful or just silly out of a mound of earth!
Carmen Cespedes she/her
Adult Instructor, Private Lessons, TryNights @clcesped
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My sculptural, functional, and wearable ceramic artworks are blended compositions of biomorphic inspirations and playful, colorful, abstract designs.
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Clay, a material that allows for endless experimentation, has the ability to bring imagination to life.
Jacob Reinstein he/him
Adult + Youth Instructor TryNights, Private Lessons @igmyg
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Growing up in Queens the way I’ve always processed the stimuli around me has been through art. What I enjoy most about sculpture is the ability to apply every discipline I’ve used before discovering clay into one practice. Pulling works from my sketchbook into the 3D world feels more like breathing life into the inanimate than leaving something constrained to a page ever has. Being able to guide others to that revelatory experience has given me a sense of purpose and meaning that has improved every aspect of my life considerably.
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I love the spontaneity, and collaborative element of allowing the clay to reveal what it wants to be just as often as I attempt to make
It into whatever I want it to be.
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My sculptural, functional, and wearable ceramic artworks are blended compositions of biomorphic inspirations and playful, colorful, abstract designs.
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Clay, a material that allows for endless experimentation, has the ability to bring imagination to life.
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Joanne Lee is a Brooklyn based ceramicist, designer, and instructor. She has been wheelthrowing and handbuilding since 2014. Her work is inspired by angular forms and symmetry with a sense of playfulness.
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The possibilities of clay are endless.
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Johnathan Huang is an illustrator, graphic designer, and ceramicist from Dallas, Texas now based in Brooklyn. His art taps into his own personal experiences and background as well as his ongoing search for answers as a means of existing in the world. Meaning manages to find itself during the process, in creating and also in life, and Johnathan’s practice honors the beauty of that magic.
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Clay remains exciting because it keeps you humble and on your toes and always learning!
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Mike has been working in clay since 2016. His work ranges between wheel and hand building, small to large, covering a range of items from functional to decorative. He loves chatting about glaze and firing schedules as well as music and cooking and whatever comes to mind. In a few former lives, he was a chef, musician, and performer in a weird puppet/theater group.
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Clay has a life of its own, making it a good dancing partner
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Ian Privett, is a New York born and based multidisciplinary artist with a primary focus in ceramics. His functional vessels, sculptures and lighting draw from pop-culture and traditional ceramics alike. With source material ranging from early animation to ancient pottery, his work oscillates between kitsch, everyday forms, characters and ritual objects. Heavily experimenting with color through slip, underglaze and glaze applications, his pots become paintings that explore the versatility of clay.
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After beginning to work with clay I soon discovered that there were endless rabbit holes to travel down, each process different from the next, enough to inspire a lifetime of exploration.
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Nina Berinstein is an American-Argentinian artist and educator in New York City. After completing her undergraduate studies in art education and ceramics at Bennington College, she continued her studio art studies in Buenos Aires and Barcelona, delving deeper into explorations in drawing and clay. Integral to her artistic practice is her teaching practice. Nina has worked as an educator in a variety of settings, from community art centers to public schools, with students of all ages. She is currently a teaching artist with Studio in a School, serving NYC elementary and middle school students, and is pursuing a masters in art education at City College. Her studio practice continues wherever she may be.
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I am excited by clay's ability to record my touch.
Olivia Hock she/her
Adult + Youth Instructor, Private Lessons
Shauna Fahley she/her
Adult Instructor
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Min Kyung Choi, born in Seoul, Korea, is a Brooklyn-based Ceramic artist.
She received her MFA in Ceramics from Kent State University, her BFA in Ceramics from the State University of New York at New Paltz, and a BA in Industrial design in Korea.
She received an Artist in Residency at the Greenwich House Pottery, has taught in many studios around, as an adjunct professor at the University of Akron, Hofstra University, Brookdale community college New School, BKLYN CLAY, Earthwork, and the Brick House Ceramic Center, Mouse Ceramics and she is currently teaching at 92NY and ClaySpace Ceramic Center.
Her ceramic work inspires functionality related to food, culture, and their artistic movement in our history and how we live our everyday lives. Her style of work is a collaboration of classic ceramics with a design background, throws, and altered surface decoration forms. She admires products made up of three things: water, clay, and fire, which gives fundamental similarities that connect functional pottery with everyday human life.
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Create unlimited images of the functionalities in art form.
Specialty Instructors, Private Lessons, TryNights
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Hannah is an illustrator and ceramicist, originally from The Gold Coast, Australia, she now finds her home in Brooklyn. She spent many years working in Film, Video Games and Architecture but now makes ceramics full time.
She is the mind and hands behind G’Day Thrillseekers. All her pieces are handmade on the wheel or with traditional hand building techniques, and then hand painted without stencils or transfers.
When she isn’t in her studio painting hundreds of tiny fish, she can be found teaching ceramics across NYC or flinging herself up a mountain somewhere with her husband and small dog.
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You can do everything right and still end up with nothing, or do everything wrong and have a piece that lasts a million years!
Kat Lee she/her
TryNights, Private Lessons
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I'm a Brooklyn-based ceramicist focusing on combining illustration with ceramics. Each piece is unique and both hand made and hand painted
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Clay all day son!!!!!!!!!!٩( ᐛ )و
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Liam Kelly is a queer and trans artist based in Brooklyn whose work centers on accessibility, functionality, and good design. Both in and outside the studio they are committed to sharing knowledge within the ceramics community through teaching, collaboration, and open dialogue, helping to build a more inclusive and supportive creative space.
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What excites me most about clay is that it’s a constant process of learning and discovery.
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Maya is a Brooklyn-based ceramic hobbyist focusing on functional pieces that bring small moments of joy into largely hectic days. Her work encourages you to slow down, sip your coffee, buy the flowers, and gather around a table with those you love the very most.
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I love that every ceramic artist starts with virtually the same material, but how that material is interpreted and expressed is completely unique - and has been for thousands of years!
Nikki Brown she/her
TryNights, Private Lessons
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I'm a Brooklyn-based ceramicist focusing on combining illustration with ceramics. Each piece is unique and both hand made and hand painted
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Clay all day son!!!!!!!!!!٩( ᐛ )و
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I'm a Brooklyn-based ceramicist focusing on combining illustration with ceramics. Each piece is unique and both hand made and hand painted
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Clay all day son!!!!!!!!!!٩( ᐛ )و
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Senia Cade is a Brooklyn-based artist. She sees vessels as living objects: carriers of memory, character, and history, much like people themselves. Her practice is an ongoing inquiry into how material form can speak to presence, identity, and the stories we hold within us.
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It keeps me on my toes--clay is both an artistic collaborator and a teacher.
Tech Team
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Caroline is a multidisciplinary artist based in Brooklyn NY. Her current ceramics practice focuses on wheel thrown functional everyday stoneware/porcelain pieces. She enjoys finding balance between soft edges and elements of metal work within her pieces.
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The ability of the clay to constantly change with or without the makers intention!
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Carmen is a Dominican American mixed media artist born and based in NYC. She works with ceramics, textiles, sculpting and illustration often influenced by her bi-lingual and bi-cultural experiences. As a ceramicist her work incorporates wheel throwing and handbuilding techniques to create involved shapes and designs.
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The process of creating something beautiful or meaningful or just silly out of a mound of earth!
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Ian Privett, is a New York born and based multidisciplinary artist with a primary focus in ceramics. His functional vessels, sculptures and lighting draw from pop-culture and traditional ceramics alike. With source material ranging from early animation to ancient pottery, his work oscillates between kitsch, everyday forms, characters and ritual objects. Heavily experimenting with color through slip, underglaze and glaze applications, his pots become paintings that explore the versatility of clay.
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After beginning to work with clay I soon discovered that there were endless rabbit holes to travel down, each process different from the next, enough to inspire a lifetime of exploration.
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I am a potter from New Jersey working in Brooklyn. I make pots about dogs and birds.
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Clay has so much to teach us about the world; chemistry, geology, history — most importantly where we fit in among all of it.
Haley Kay
she/her
Assistant Studio Manager
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Gabrielle [she/they] is a ceramicist & educator from Lenapehoking / NYC. Gabrielle has been practicing the craft of ceramics — both wheel-throwing & handbuilding — since 2018, & loving it more each day.
They worked for over 12 years in the field of human rights & civil rights before transitioning to ceramics full time. Gabrielle continues to explore ways to integrate the values of abolition, justice, healing, & storytelling into their ceramics practice.
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The process of creating something beautiful or meaningful or just silly out of a mound of earth!
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Maker/scientist/dreamer
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I can produce ideas into reality
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I'm a Brooklyn-based ceramicist focusing on combining illustration with ceramics. Each piece is unique and both hand made and hand painted
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Clay all day son!!!!!!!!!!٩( ᐛ )و
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Siri Burt is a visual artist based in NYC, with her BFA in Photography and Video from the School of Visual Arts and has recently received her MA in Contemporary Art Practice awarded with Distinction from the University of Edinburgh. She has received notable grants and residencies, including from the Royal Scottish Academy and New York Foundation for the Arts. She is currently researching her own familial myths and combining them with collective memories, focusing on the symbolism behind the human body.
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Clay has endless possibilities and I love learning new things every time I work with it!
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Senia Cade is a Brooklyn-based artist. She sees vessels as living objects: carriers of memory, character, and history, much like people themselves. Her practice is an ongoing inquiry into how material form can speak to presence, identity, and the stories we hold within us.
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It keeps me on my toes--clay is both an artistic collaborator and a teacher.
SUPPORT STAFF - CLAY OPERATIONS, STUDIO MONITORS, CLASSROOM ASSISTANTS
Elly Cimperman she/her
Kids’ Class Assistant
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Elly has been working in ceramics since elementary school and fell in love with clay! She's been a part of our Clay Play team for 2 years and has a wonderful way of bringing her passion for clay into the classroom with the children.
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I love clay because there are endless things to make with it!
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Elsa is a multimedia artist working across 2D and 3D media. Ceramics has long been at the heart of her practice. Drawn to processes that reveal the expressive qualities of making, often combining traditional craft with experimental fabrication.
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I love that clay never goes as planned; it’s a material that constantly teaches patience, humility, and trust in the process.
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Emily Brodrick is an interdisciplinary creative whose work has explored anthropology, cultural criticism, environmentalism, food systems, and more. She earned her bachelor’s degree in visual art from Hampshire College and holds certificates in social justice from Harvard Extension and sustainable agriculture from the University of Vermont. She received her Master's of Journalism from New York University’s Cultural Reporting and Criticism in 2024. Her works have been exhibited throughout New England and the Mid-Atlantic, and she has works in private collections in the United States, Europe, and the UAE.
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The duality that ceramics are fragile and can also last centuries.
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Ivonne Tejada Cruel (1988) is a Dominican multidisciplinary artist and educator whose work explores identity, culture, and nature. Trained in Communication Design, Product Design, and Art Education, she blends artistic expression with functional objects. Her work has been exhibited in the Dominican Republic and NYC, and her practice is rooted in storytelling, personal narrative, and a deep connection to the natural world.
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Clay is the medium that most closely reflects who I am and where I come from; It connects me to nature, to my essence as a creative, and gives me the freedom to express myself in everything I do.
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Melina is Brooklyn-based artist, originally from Dominican Republic. After studying Theater and Music in Illinois, she moved to Miami and began her journey with clay. She is very inspired by Greek, Moroccan, and modern architecture, and loves to incorporate lines and shapes from these styles into her work. Outside of the studio she loves to go climbing, write songs, and dance.
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What excited me most about clay is how I feel I can make anything I imagine from it.
Nazuk Kochhar she/her
Studio Monitor
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Nazuk Kochhar is a music industry professional, radio host, and aspiring ceramicist. She was part of the 2025 Public Ceramics Fellowship, which brought her to Clay Space! She has been taking classes and working with clay on and off again since spring of 2020, and is thrilled to be establishing a regular ceramics practice as a Clay Space student and to be learning more about clay/running a studio as a studio monitor. Her works are primarily handbuilt and functional, with the occasional shift to larger sculptural pieces.
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Forgiveness : )
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Nicky is a Thai-Chinese multimedia artist based in NYC. Her work explores emotions, identity, mental health, and femininity through shapes, forms, and performance. She’s currently developing her clay style while nurturing childlike wonder by creating playful Shiba ceramics—a joyful and grounding part of her artistic journey.
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Clay’s unpredictability helps me let go of perfectionism. Working with it calms me and grounds me in my body.
Odile Henriques she/her
Clay Operations
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I'm a Brooklyn-based ceramicist focusing on combining illustration with ceramics. Each piece is unique and both hand made and hand painted
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Clay all day son!!!!!!!!!!٩( ᐛ )و
Peter Carmine he/him
Studio Monitor
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Sahiba is a multidisciplinary craftsperson, currently working in mostly ceramics and silver jewelry. Her work is focused on unlocking the uninhibited joy in and appreciation of imperfect handmade objects.
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I love that truly anyone can make something exceptionally beautiful with clay, whether it's a wonky handbuilt figurine or a perfectly thrown bowl- the act of creating with this medium feels so essentially human!
Seyeon K Seon she/her
Clay Operations
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Spinks is a professional actor, ceramicist, director, and writer based in Brooklyn,
New York.
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Possibilities, possibilities, possibilities!