The Philadelphia Inquirer
by Edith Newhall, Posted: July 25, 2018
Cultural connections in clay
Clay artists with roots in and connections to the Middle East have come together for the exhibition “Garden (Feast) of Paradise,” hoping their art might help to build a cultural bridge between the United States and that region. The show, which fills two galleries at the Clay Studio, includes works by Sanam Emami, Anat Shiftan, Dominique Ellis, Julia Galloway, Sarah Heitmeyer, and Ibrahim Said.
Among the standouts are Emami’s floral and geometric dishes, inspired by a garden design for a mosque in Iran that has been under construction for centuries and is still not complete. Also noteworthy are Shiftan’s platters, decorated with historic Islamic calligraphy, and Said’s large sculptures, inspired by ancient Egyptian works.