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José Manuel Flores Nava

@kre8_bean

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I'm a potter who uses craft as means to create sculptures. Mostly out of clay.

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Cups for Y'all Feature: Neon ⚡🎆⚠️🍧

Functional? Maybe. Lush and electric? Absolutely. Representing the Netherlands team, 🇳🇱⚽✨ where Delft blue may be the legacy, but today’s makers push into high-voltage color—acid brights, glowing glazes, and surfaces that hum with experimental energy.

Eva Conrad (@depositunknown) is a ceramic artist whose practice bridges functional and sculptural vessels, shaped by her roots in Appalachia’s rich craft traditions. Now based in Queens, she explores bold color and pattern through a painterly, maximalist lens—constantly chasing new surfaces, forms, and ways of working.

Eric DePan (@depantheman) is a Houston native and master glass artist who maintains a glassblowing studio practice in Houston’s East End. He is also the founder of Houston House of Glass (@houstonhouseofglass), the production side of his studio, where he and his team create custom barware.

Born in Mexico and raised in the U.S., Southern California–based ceramic artist José Manuel Flores Nava (@kre8_bean) uses a combination of ceramic handbuilding techniques, slip-cast objects, and vividly colored surface treatments. He creates sculptural and functional work that reflect the resilience of the immigrant community. José holds a BFA and MFA from California State University, Fullerton, where he currently teaches.

Salvador Dominguez (@salvador_dominguez_) was born in Zacatecas, Mexico, and grew up in Pomona, California. Like many first-generation immigrants, language is an important part of Salvador’s narrative. His craft practice reflects on identity and its place within contemporary American culture. Salvador currently lives and works in Chicago, Illinois.

“Cups for Y’all” closes this week on Saturday, June 6!

1. Eva Conrad, “Orange Hazy Grid Mug” SOLD
2. Eric DePan, “Geodesic Cocktail Glass” $90
3. José Flores Nava, “Yellow Nopal Cup” SOLD
4. Salvador Dominguez, “Vaso rosa y verde” $5000 by @kre8_bean

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4 months ago

Calling all cup collectors! 🍵✨ The Cups for Y’all online drop is tomorrow!

We’re taking it beyond the gallery and extending “Cups for Y’all” to our Instagram Shop, featuring works by José Manuel Flores Nava (@kre8_bean), Komie Kim Le (@komiekimle), Faye Kennelly (@gritandlusterceramics), Mark Tarabula (@marktarabula), and more!

☕One-of-a-kind cups
✨Collection-worthy pieces at every level
📦 Ships nationwide

On view now at HCCC, “Cups for Y’all” is a celebratory showcase of contemporary cups—from coffee mugs and tea chawan to ceremonial goblets—exploring how this enduring vessel form continues to evolve through material, use, and imagination. by @kre8_bean

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5 months ago

Diaspora Stories: Memory & Belonging
Curated by Jan Marlese

Featured Artist: José Flores Nava

Pressed Bodies / Cuerpos Oprimidos
Stoneware, underglaze, glaze
9H x 7 x 7 inches

Half-full Bucket
Stoneware, terracotta, adhesive, house paint, wire mesh
25Hx 15W x 15D inches

Canned Jalapeños (2024)
Stoneware, underglaze
8.5 x 8.5 x 8.5 inches

In my work, I reimagine familiar produce by casting fruits and vegetables in clay, a material that is both strong and fragile. These forms are deeply connected to the land and to the Americas. These crops carry long histories of cultivation, migration, and survival. Shaped by Indigenous knowledge, colonial extraction, and ongoing displacement and resilience. The sculptures embody resilience under pressure. Their surfaces are brightly painted to insist on presence, beauty and resisting disappearance.

The cast fruits and vegetables are nested within vessels associated with outdoor labor and domestic use, including buckets, cans, and bowls. These objects reference work, containment, and home. Together, they create a collection of bright and beautiful sculptures that ask viewers to consider those whose bodies make abundance possible and how systems of labor continue to push and press upon those bodies in our present moment.

Gallery Hours
Monday – Thursday • 11am–5:30pm
Friday • 11am–1pm
Saturday: March 21 • 11am–3pm
Closed March 31

Exhibiting Artists
Ellen Bepp @ellbepp
Vivian Chiu @viv_chiu
José Flores Nava @kre8_bean
Jessica Sabogal @jessicasabogal
Shanna Strauss @shanna.strauss
Rashod Taylor @rashodtaylorphoto
Rupy C. Tut @rupyctut
Arleene Correa Valencia @arleenecorreavalencia

@sjdeltacollege @sjdcartclub @sjdc_ceramics_sculpture @sjdcphotography @sjdc.photoclub
@deltacollegeprintmakers @sjdcstudentactivities @deltacollegian @asdc_sjdc
@dreamerssuccesscenter @epic_club_sjdc @sjdcepicenter @sjdc_puenteproject

#diasporaart #diaspora #artsandculture #ceramic #ceramicsculpture taken in LH Horton Jr Art Gallery by @kre8_bean

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7 months ago

OPENING Thursday - 5-7pm!

Diaspora Stories: Memory and Belonging
Curated by Jan Marlese

Exhibition Events

Artist Talk with Arleene Correa Valencia
March 5 • 12:30pm
San Joaquin Delta College Campesino Forum

Artist Talk with Rashod Taylor
March 18 • 12:30pm
San Joaquin Delta College Campesino Forum
Sponsored by the Cultural Awareness Program

Gallery Exhibitions and Events are Free & Open to the Public

Diaspora Stories: Memory and Belonging exhibition present artists working in a variety of creative processes that reflect personal and historical diaspora stories, as well as identity informed by cultural heritage and memories of their homeland. Their work explores many common motives and histories for people to emigrate from their ancestral homeland. References include immigration to the U.S. in search of opportunity; the undocumented migrant experience of farmworkers and Dreamers; the forced migration of enslaved Black people; and the WWII U.S. internment camps that forced Japanese Americans to leave their homes to be interned for 4 years, simply based on their country of origin.

Exhibiting Artists
Ellen Bepp @ellbepp
Vivian Chiu @viv_chiu
José Flores Nava @kre8_bean
Jessica Sabogal @jessicasabogal
Shanna Strauss @shanna.strauss
Rashod Taylor @rashodtaylorphoto
Rupy C. Tut @rupyctut
Arleene Correa Valencia @arleenecorreavalencia

Gallery Hours
Opening March 5 • 5-7pm
Monday – Thursday • 11am–5:30pm
Friday • 11am–1pm
Saturday: March 21 • 11am–3pm
Closed for Spring Break: March 9-13 and March 31

@sjdeltacollege @sjdcartclub @sjdc_ceramics_sculpture @sjdcphotography @sjdc.photoclub
@deltacollegeprintmakers @sjdcstudentactivities @deltacollegian @asdc_sjdc
@dreamerssuccesscenter @epic_club_sjdc @sjdcepicenter @sjdc_puenteproject

#diasporaart #diaspora #diasporastories #artsandculture #ceramicsculpture by @kre8_bean

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7 months ago

This week! Stop by the GEC Art Gallery for our first show of the year celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month, “Obsesiones/Obsessions” featuring artwork by: Abel Alejandre, Ana Rodriguez, Jose Manuel Flores Nava, Leigh Salgado, Louis Jacinto, and Michelle Andrade. Curated by Tony Pinto

Opening Reception: Thursday, Sept. 11th 4pm-6pm
Show Runs: Sept 10-Oct3rd
Gallery Hours: Wed. Thurs. Fri. 10am-2pm
Free and open to the community taken in GWC Art Gallery by @kre8_bean

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a year ago

Lights are on 💡 11am-5pm Wed thru Sun. Come check out what’s happening at 80 Henry Street 💥 We’ll be here admiring this @kre8_bean Margarita Cup. Find it in our bio 🔗 or purchase in store (other colors, too!) taken in Saratoga Springs, New York by @kre8_bean

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a year ago

Raku. We do it for the kids.
@maybnur

#raku #ceramics #fire #firestarter taken in Saddleback College by @kre8_bean

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a year ago

Alert! ⚠️

Group show opening Thursday, October 3rd
Opening reception 6pm to 8pm in the @quad_art_gallery at Riverside City College

Great line-up! Very honored to be included among some of the best in the ceramics field 💪 @patsycox @alisonragguette @juan_barroso_art @russellwrankle

#art #ceramics #sculpture #contemporaryceramics #contemporaryart #colors #fruits #riverside by @kre8_bean

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2 years ago

Happy to be included in the upcoming exhibition All Media at the @irvinefinearts.

Join us next Saturday, July 6, 2pm to 4pm
Come check out all the amazing work created by a great number of artists! I will be there and expect to see you all there too!

Swipe for more info!

#artshow #ceramics #ceramicsculture #art #craft #contemporaryceramics #contemporaryart #color #strawberries taken in Santa Ana, California by @kre8_bean

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2 years ago

A little hyperlapse putting together a margarita fruit cup.
The fruits are cast and cups are throw and trimmed. That's the easy part. What takes the longest is putting them together. Enjoy and pass it along!

Also, making an appearance, a lovely cup by @jumieceramics

#ceramics #ceramicsculpture #margarita #fruit #pottery #potteryofinstagram #functionalsculpture #functionalceramics #contemporaryceramics #handmade #echoamano #Vivaldi #thefourseasons #winter #santaana #dtsa #143 by @kre8_bean

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3 years ago

Crushed Tomatoes
Stoneware, glaze and underglaze

See this and other works at @mtsac_dianabergergallery
Sept 14 - Oct 19
Curated by @nikkilewisceramics and @katietqueen

#ceramics #ceramicsculture #contemporaryceramics #contemporaryart #color #form by @kre8_bean

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3 years ago

Ceramics for your feed!

Here's a few cups on their way to @companiongallery for their annual Material Mugs VIII
A ton of great work will be available. Keep your eyes on the show!

#ceramics #ceramicart #ceramicsculture #functionalceramics #functionalsculpture #cups #margaritatime🍹 #pottery #slipcasting #AMACO #amacovelvetunderglaze #thisishowiamaco by @kre8_bean

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3 years ago