Surface & Structure Artist Talk

Artist Talk with PJ Hargraves, Anna Kruse, Eva Kwong, and Seth Nagelberg

Saturday, February 28, 11 am – 12 pm, Free

The Sculpture Center, 12210 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44106

Free, parking on site

Join us for a conversation with several of the artists featured in the exhibition Surface & Structure: Contemporary Ceramics on the Edge of Form on view through March 28, 2026 at The Sculpture Center. Exhibiting artists PJ Hargraves, Anna Kruse, Eva Kwong, and Seth Nagelberg will discuss their processes and how their work explores the dynamic interplay of architectural form, surface, and glaze to reveal the expressive potential of contemporary ceramic sculpture.

PJ Harvgraves is currently the Ceramics Program Coordinator and 3D Technician at the Myers School of Art at the University of Akron. Originally from the Philadelphia area, Hargraves holds a BFA in Ceramics and Glass from the Tyler School of Art at Temple University. He holds an MFA from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Hargraves has exhibited his work both nationally and internationally, including in Reykjavik, Iceland during a residency. He has also been an Artist in Residence at the LUX Center for the Arts, Pocosin School of Fine Craft, and a visiting resident at the Archie Bray Foundation.

Anna Kruse is a ceramic sculptor and educator. She received her MFA at the State University of New York at New Paltz. In 2019 she completed a Post Baccalaureate at the Oregon College of Art and Craft and in 2016 she obtained her BA with honors in Psychology and Studio Art from the College of Wooster. In 2021, she was nominated and awarded the International Sculpture Center’s Outstanding Student Achievement Award in Contemporary Sculpture. Kruse has participated in residencies at Township 10, Arrowmont Pentaculum, and Peninsula College. She was also the Visiting Artist Scholar and Teacher at Southern Oregon University. In 2025, she was named a Ceramics Monthly emerging artist. Kruse has shown her work throughout the contiguous United States. She is an Assistant Professor of Art in Ceramics at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio.

Eva Kwong was born in Hong Kong and moved to New York City as a teenager. She received her BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and her MFA from Tyler School of Art. Her work-study job at the Nature Lab at RISD immersed her studies in the diversity and similarity of forms from nature. Her lifelong interest in the intersection of the art and science of the natural world provides the conceptual framework and visual vocabulary for her compelling, colorful organic forms in sculpture, installation, and vessels. Kwong has presented her work in lectures, workshops, and exhibitions throughout the U.S. and in China, Korea, Japan, Australia, and Finland. Her artwork has won awards from the Ohio Arts Council, National Endowment for the Arts, Arts Midwest, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, and the McKnight Foundation. Additionally, she has done public art projects for the Center for Disease Control, AsiaTownCleveland, and the Cleveland Clinic. 

Seth Nagelberg is an artist and designer working in clay in Cleveland, Ohio. He strives to close the gap between craft and design by combining the unique differences in handmade objects with the production methods utilized in industry. Nagelberg constructs objects inspired by how nature organizes itself, challenging himself to apply these principles to ceramic sculpture. He earned a BFA from the University of Hartford and MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art. In 2015 Nagelberg published his first book, Batch Manufacturing for Ceramics: Models and Molds, Process to Product. His work has been published in Ceramics: Art and Perception and American Craft magazine. Nagelberg is an Associate Professor at Cleveland Institute of Art.