Creativity Explored is honored to present Main characters, a group exhibition of ceramic works by our studio artists past and present.

Main characters brings together a diverse cast of protagonists with intertwined storylines. As an artist community with over 40 years of history, our studio is overflowing with stories, personalities, narratives and lived experiences.

Access to the ceramic medium has given our artists the opportunity to tell their own stories in three dimensions. Although ceramics have been part of our program for some time, in 2023 we received a Helper’s Community grant to purchase a new kiln. This addition infused an already vibrant ceramics tradition with new energy and capabilities, producing work with complex iconography and meaning.

This exhibition aims to highlight sculptural, figurative and representational work. By placing these unique characters, animals, objects and figures together in the exhibition’s unique platform installation, we’re able to project new narratives with new configurations, each played out on an ever-changing stage. We are the audience as these ceramic characters act out layered stories from our artists’ imagination, giving us a larger understanding of their–and our–lived experiences.

Artists include but are not limited to: Andrew Bixler, Andrew Wong, Alan Ku, Cam Quach, Hector Lopez, Joseph "JayD" Green, Miyuki Tsurukawa, Nubia Ortega, Paul Gee, Ricardo Estella, Walter Kresnik, Andrew Li, Ian Adams, Gerald Wiggins, Selene Perez, and DeAndre Smith-King.

Creativity Explored is an internationally celebrated nonprofit artist community and working studio where over 130 adult artists with developmental disabilities create, exhibit, and sell art. Founded in 1983 by art and disability pioneers Florence Ludins-Katz and Dr. Elias Katz, Creativity Explored’s programs and person-centered culture serve as an organizational model worldwide.

Located in the Mission District of San Francisco, Creativity Explored advocates for our artists’ work as a valid and increasingly important contribution to the contemporary art world. As a result, studio artists have seen their work exhibited in museums, galleries, and art fairs in over 14 countries and have directly earned over $2.3 million from their art. The recent acquisition by SFMoMA and OMCA included several artists from Creativity Explored and our sister organizations, NIAD and Creative Growth, illustrates the long-awaited cultural expansion of who is collected, who is discussed and who is represented.