2025 Lightplay Exhibition

A vibrant new exhibition, "LIGHTPLAY," featuring artful ceramic lamps by highly regarded local ceramic artists Elliott Kayser and Kate Tremel will be on display at Yourist Studio Gallery from February 21 through April 5.

Exhibition hours:

• February 21, 2025 through April 5, 2025
• Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays
• 12:00-6:00 pm

Artists' reception:

• Friday, March 21, 2025
• 6:00-8:00 pm

Elliott Kayser's whimsical animal lamps include a whole host of dinosaurs, plus elephants and other animals you might see on safari in Africa. Kate Tremel's elegant pierced lamps cast a lovely contemplative play of light and shadow. For both artists, these works arise from and promote the joy of light and play.

Elliott Kayser is a full-time studio artist living in Ypsilanti, MI. Kayser "has always had a passion for sculpting animals, and the latest body of work is a playful exploration of zoomorphic pieces, often inspired by fatherhood." Kayser "likes to tell people that his five-year-old daughter, Lenora, is his product manager, soliciting suggestions for what the next big success will be: 'Dad, you should make another triceratops, people are gonna eat those up!'" Lenora, says Kayser, is "always right."

For Kayser, "The zoomorphic vessel is a playful balance between utility and decoration. I marvel at how many animal-shaped artifacts were buried with loved ones in cultures all across the world, and are now preserved and still cherished. These things mattered to the people in the past, and they still resonate with us today, and help us feel connected with our ancestors."

Kate Tremel is a full-time ceramic artist, who works and teaches in Ann Arbor, MI. Tremel's lamps are from her series "Breathe." Tremel uses a wooden paddle and round stone anvil to create the ceramic globes for her lamps, a technique she learned years ago in Peru.

Tremel's globes are "...slowly raised by beating, turning, and drying the clay repeatedly until the walls are thinly stretched and the form is filled with life. I pierce the fragile, unfired walls of the vessel with a tapered tool and then painstakingly carve the holes with a thin blade. The piercings give visual access to the interior of the form and create a tension with the fragility of the ceramic material. When the pot is illuminated the light fills the vessel and physically embodies the energy that it contains. The piercings allow this energy to flow beyond the walls of the form and into the surrounding space."

Visit our new exhibition and bask in the glow of these brilliant ceramic lamps.