At the Kaplan Gallery in Rockville, Maryland, a new exhibition is bridging centuries-old clay traditions with some of the most exciting tools of modern architecture. Vessels & Voids: Architects and Artists Explore Organic Spaces, curated by Rebecca Cross as part of the VisArts Center’s Emerging Curator Program, runs through September 28, and it’s worth a visit for anyone curious about how 3D printing is reshaping the way we think about buildings and sculpture.

Curator Rebecca Cross. Image courtesy of VisArts.

This year’s mentoring curator, Cross, is a longtime curator and gallery director with deep roots in ceramics. The Emerging Curator Program is designed to pair up-and-coming curators with mentors to develop unique new exhibitions, supported by a $25,000 budget from the Windgate Charitable Foundation.

In fact, this exhibition takes inspiration from some of the most iconic examples of organic architecture, like Zaha Hadid’s Heydar Aliyev Center in Baku, with its flowing, wave-like rooflines; or Studio Gang’s design for the Natural History Museum in New York, where glass and stone ripple like a natural landscape; and Bjarke Ingels Group’s hotel in Marfa, Texas, which merges luxury with sculptural desert-inspired forms.

Each of these works pushes architecture toward fluid, natural shapes that seem alive. But what’s remarkable here is how clay (one of our oldest building materials) finds new life in that future through 3D printing.

Prairie Cord was commissioned by the Olbrich Botanical Gardens in Madison, Wisconsin, and made of 3D printed ceramic blocks. Image courtesy of Brian Peters Studio.

Thanks to ceramic artist and architect Brian Peters, visitors can see 3D clay printing technology live in the gallery. Instead of shaping vessels by hand or stacking bricks one by one, Peters uses a specially designed additive construction 3D printer that extrudes clay. The machine builds walls, vessels, or sculptural forms using wet clay. Peters’ work also sits far beyond galleries and exhibits. He’s been commissioned to create large-scale pieces for Amazon’s headquarters and the Norwegian Cruise Line, among many others, showing how 3D printed clay can create a niche in major architectural projects.

Large screen wall at Amazon HQ, made with 3D printed terra cotta blocks. Image courtesy of Brian Peters Studio.

What visitors see in the gallery is only a glimpse of what 3D printers can do with clay. Builders around the world are already using locally sourced clay to construct entire houses. The method helps cut down on waste, speeds up construction, and makes possible the kinds of curves and openings that traditional building techniques can’t easily achieve.

Vessels & Voids brings together Peters’ 3D clay printing demonstrations along with sketches by leading D.C. architects, including Ankie Barnes, Janet Bloomberg, Michael Marshall, Mark McInturff, and Olivia Demetriou. Also featured are clay vessels and sculptures by ceramic artists Robert Devers, Marissa McInturff, Jon McMillan, Virginia Pates, and Paul DiPasquale. Together, these works create what Cross is calling “a dialogue between architects and ceramic artists and contribute to the ongoing conversation about organic and biomorphic architecture—and where it might be headed.”

Mentoring Curator Cross brings her own experience to the project. A MacDowell Fellow and graduate of Bennington College and the Royal College of Art, she has worked across painting, sculpture, and ceramics, and spent more than a decade running the Cross MacKenzie Gallery in D.C., where she presented nearly 300 artists in over 150 exhibitions across New York, Los Angeles, and Venice. Her past curatorial projects include Macho at DCAC and More Clay: The Power of Repetition at American University Museum. Her own ceramics have been sold at Barneys New York and Japan, and her work is held in the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery, the Washington Convention Center, and the U.S. State Department. She has also juried and lectured for the Smithsonian Craft Show, the American Institute of Architects in Virginia, and the nonprofit Washington Project for the Arts.

VisArts exhibition building. Image courtesy of VisArts.

Visitors can watch 3D clay printing in real time, take a guided tour of the gallery, or join special events, like the opening celebration on August 29, when Brian Peters will demonstrate 3D clay printing, or the closing reception on September 28, when artists will gather to celebrate the show’s run.