Earthen Clay (he/him) works across disciplines including collage, painting, sculpture and site-responsive installation.
Clay was born in 1988 in Anchorage, Alaska. He received his BFA from Watkins College of Art in Nashville in 2013 and his MFA from Yale School of Art in Painting and Printmaking in 2024. He was awarded a Skowhegan residency in 2018 and was a 2025 teaching fellow at Norfolk Yale Summer School in Norfolk, CT. His work has been shown at The Box and North Loop West in Los Angeles, Yossi Milo in New York, David Castillo in Miami, FL. Clay’s first solo, As The Apple Disappears into water and sweetness in our bodies was exhibited in 2025 at Montserrat College of Art in Beverly, MA. His work has been covered in The Brooklyn Rail and Burnaway Magazine. Clay lives and works in Connecticut.
CV
Education
2024 MFA, Painting and Printmaking, Yale University
2018 Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture, Skowhegan, ME
2013 BFA, Watkins College of Art, Design, & Film
Solo Exhibitions
2025 As The Apple Disappears Into Water And Sweetness In Our Bodies, Montserrat Gallery, Montserrat College of Art, Beverly, MA
2022 Nothing Has An Edge, Chinkapin, Woodbury TN
2019 I Knew You Saw It Too, Electric Shed, Nashville, TN
2018 Into The Watershed, Bijan Fedowski, Nashville, TN
Please Leave These Two Large Logs, organized by Mika Agari, Nashville, TN
2014 507 Hagan Street, The Packing Plant, Nashville, TN
2013 My House Has 351 Beds, BFA thesis exhibition, Watkins Gallery, Nashville, TN
Group Exhibitions
2026 Triangle Projects Presents, Triangle Projects, Los Angeles, CA
2025 Phallus:Fascinum:Facism, The Box, Los Angeles, CA
Repeat, Space Petrel, New York, NY
Eden V, Last Projects, Los Angeles, CA
2024 They Stole the Sweet Away: MFA Thesis Yale Painting and Printmaking, SPURS Gallery, Beijing, China
And The Dogs Were Silent, David Castillo Gallery, Miami, FL
Surface Trouble, Yossi Milo, New York, NY
the sounds that linger, humming in our ears, Green Hall Gallery, Yale University, New Haven, CT
2023 Second Thoughts 2nd Year MFA Show, Green Hall Gallery, Yale University, New Haven, CT
Bedroom/Bathroom, Triangle Projects, Miami, FL
2022 Blanket Statement 1st Year MFA Show, Green Hall Gallery, Yale University, New Haven, CT
2019 Seen When Spoken, Skylab Gallery, Columbus, OH
2017 As We Dig We Bury, The Mausoleum at ZieherSmith Gallery, New York, NY
2016 Dream A Reality, WAG, Nashville, TN
Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner, Atlanta Contemporary, Atlanta, GA
2012 A Line In Between, Lowe Mill Arts Center, Huntsville, AL
Teaching
2025 Teaching Fellow-Making Do: Alternative Ways and Means- Summer ‘25, Yale Norfolk School of Art, Norfolk, CT
2024 Teaching Assistant- Advanced Drawing, Spring 24’, Yale University, New Haven, CT
2023 Teaching Assistant- Basic Drawing, Fall ‘23, Yale University, New Haven, CT
2013 Community Education Teacher- Soft Sculpture, Summer ‘13, Watkins College of Art, Nashville, TN
Grants + Awards
2024 Yale School of Art Dean’s Prize
Residencies
2023 Yale x Pasanella Program, Camaiore, Italy
2021 Chinkapin Art Residency, Chinkapin Craftstead, Woodbury, TN
Projects
2015-2018 Co-Director and Curator at Mild Climate, Nashville, TN
2013 Unit 2 with Watkins College of Art, Design & Film and Riverbend Max Security Prison, Nashville, TN
2011-13 Editor, Fulcrum, student-run magazine at Watkins College of Art, Nashville, TN
Visiting Artist and Presentations
2025 Visiting Artist and artist presentation, As the apple disappears, Montserrat College of Art, Beverly, MA
2024 Presentation, Jennifer Pranolo’s Seminar, Form As Feeling, Yale School of Art, New Haven, CT
2019 Presentation, Department of Art and Design, Austin Peay State University, Clarksville, TN
2018 Invited Speaker, Symposium, Fire On The Horizon: Artist-Run Spaces and Alternative Exhibition Platforms organized by Lee Pivnik, RISD Museum, Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence, RI
2017 Exhibition and Graduate Critiques, with Mild Climate, Ernest G. Welch School of Art and Design, Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia
Institutional Service
2024 Student Representative, Yale Painting and Printmaking Admissions Committee
Selected Press
Earthen Clay: As the apple disappears into water and sweetness in our bodies
by Tony Bluestone for ArtSeen, Brooklyn Rail, September 2025
https://brooklynrail.org/2025/09/artseen/earthen-clay-as-the-apple-disappears-into-water-and-sweetness-in-our-bodies/
In Conversation with Earthen Clay by Blair Leblanc for Burnaway Magazine November 9, 2023
https://burnaway.org/magazine/in-conversation-with-earthen-clay/
Publication/Writing
Press Release for Em Rooney’s exhibition Imagined Beauty Begins Now,
May 2- June 22, 2024 at Derosia, NYC
https://derosia.nyc/exhibitions/imagined-beauty-begins-now