Art spotlight: Three Jerome Artists

Clay is sculpture's most malleable medium, readily shaped into animal or human likenesses, molded into abstract designs or spun into utilitarian platters. It takes all those forms in the capable hands of three Jerome Foundation grant winners whose recent work is featured in a new Northern Clay Center show. Felice Amato, best known for her murals at the Minnesota Children's Museum, has turned out a group of figurative sculptures that invite storytelling, including the fetching girl shown here in "Mercerized Hope." The bulging, biomorphic abstractions of Casey Hochhalter suggest colorful undersea creatures or imaginative flora and fauna in vivid tropical hues. Tom Jaszczak sticks closer to the functional tradition with wood-fired designs shaped on a pottery wheel. A second show features new work by Adam Gruetzmacher, Matthew Krousey, Matthew Jorgensen and J.D. Jorgenson, who were the Clay Center's recent artists in residence. Opening reception, 6-8 p.m. Fri 1/13.