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Michael Gates

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“Afterglow” Group Exhibition is lit!
Pull up and check us out, New art arriving daily!

Buy Art you can’t buy anywhere else at @cat_eye_creative

Gallery Hours
Wednesday-Saturday 11am-6pm
Sunday 11am-5pm
& by appointment

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In the 1930s, sculptor Michael Gates’ great-grandfather, Enoch Reinhardt, built a modest, one-story pottery workshop on his family’s farm in North Carolina’s Catawba Valley. Outfitted with a traditional wood-fired kiln, the Reinhardt-Craig House, Kiln, and Pottery Shop was designed to expand the Reinhardt family’s tradition of crafting utilitarian ceramics - a six-generation legacy that began in the mid-1800s and lives on today through Michael’s work.

While Michael draws on influences as varied as esoteric symbolism, futuristic technology, online culture, and surrealists like Dalí and Magritte, his technique is steeped in the traditions of Catawba Valley pottery: wood-firing in subterranean “groundhog” kilns, applying alkaline glazes, and working with hand-dug North Carolina clay. His pieces in Body of Work, ArtsvilleUSA’s fall 2026 exhibition, also pay homage to an iconic regional art form: the face jug.

Link in bio to read the full interview + see Michael's work in our memento mori-themed fall exhibition, "Body of Work."

Follow Michael: @g8s_art

#artexhibition #facejugs #catawbavalley #pottery #northcarolina #sculpture #ceramicart #ashevillearts #southerncraft #handmadecraft

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On view now at ArtsvilleUSA.com🫀

www.ArtsvilleUSA.com/body-of-work-exhibition

Featured artwork: "Remember Not to Forget Bell Jar" by Kit Paulson

#artexhibition #artexhibit #craftexhibit #craft #handcrafted #mementomori #spookyseason #spookyart #figureart #handmadecraft #contemporarycraft

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Something wicked this way comes... just in time for spooky season.

ArtsvilleUSA is proud to announce its fall exhibition, "Body of Work," opening Wednesday, September 2 on ArtsvilleUSA.com. Curated by Executive Director Elise Wilson, the exhibition explores the age-old concept of memento mori, a Latin phrase meaning “remember your mortality.”

"Body of Work" bears witness to the joys and burdens of the corporeal body, reflecting on what slips away and exalting what endures. The exhibition is an ode to the exquisite and the macabre, to bodies broken down and reimagined, to the tender play between presence and absence, beauty and dissolution.

Featured artists include Deborah Anderson, Jeffrey Burroughs, Alison Chism, Bridget Fox, Michael Gates, Lisa Gluckin, Sandy Love, Susan McDonough, Melanie Merenda, Katt Naz, Kit Paulson, Alice Scott, Tia Sculpt, Paul Watson, and Emelie Weber Wade. The show features a range of mediums, including jewelry, sculpture, ceramics, textiles, metalwork, and assemblage, all crafted by artists working in the WNC region.

Stay tuned for more updates🫀

🖼️ Featured artwork: Portal by Sandy Love (@goodluckglassco)

#artexhibition #craftexhibition #contemporarycraft #craftcommunity #mementomori #spookyseason #spookyart #wnc #figureart #artexhibit #handcrafted

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Just dropping a little brightness here for ya!

The gallery is open 11AM-5PM today, but y'all know our website is always open for your viewing pleasure! Get your daily dose of art however you need to, and holler at your girl when you find something you don't want to live without!

www.amerifolk.com
@g8s_art
@transfiguredearth

#americanfolkart #amerifolk #folkartfamily #flowerarranging #salvadordali #daildydoseofart #holleratyourgirl #facejugs #facejugcollectors #wildclay #woodfiredkiln #folkartfix #exposedbrick #potterygram #handdugclay #legacypotter #familytradition #adoptanartwork #supportlivingartists #downtownasheville #artgallery #beholdthehead #gravedigger #southernfolkpottery

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Today's featured artist is the one & only Michael Gates!

One of the most exciting aspects of the face jug tradition is how tradition and innovation combine to create something altogether different. Whether made by a legacy potter or a newcomer attracted to the face jug mystique, these pieces can continue to be reinterpreted and reimagined while continuing to honor their roots. Enter Michael Gates.

He carries a renowned family legacy as a a descendant of a German family business synonymous with time-honored tradition: The Reinhardt Pottery. He's been known to use broken Reinhardt pottery shards for the teeth in his face jugs, and marks some of his work with his ancestors’ makers marks in addition to his own, just some of the ways he pays homage to his heritage.

And yet, Michael has his own fresh and inspired voice and does his own dang thing when it comes to making face jugs.

Michael spent some time abroad in Australia, where he was intrigued by aboriginal art. He also finds inspiration in "the unknown, psychedelia, spiritual, online culture, tech, ceramic history, and urban culture". As a result, his work is an appealing mixture of aboriginal love of texture & pattern, traditional slip decoration, cultural references, and messages about the state of the world. Michael digs his own clay, uses alkaline glazes, and fires in a wood-fired groundhog kiln, creating functional ware that honors the old, yet pushes toward the future.

You can catch our 14th Annual Face Jug Show on our website through Wednesday May 27th! And if you want to see these culturally iconic vessels in person, we'll be back at it on Tuesday!
See y'all in the gallery!

www.amerifolk.com

#americanfolkart #amerifolk #southernfolkpottery #familytradition #handdugclay #wildclay #woodfiredkiln #facejugs #facejugcollectors #legacypotter #folkart #14yearsandcounting #annualevent #artgallery #downtownasheville #supportlivingartists #artistspotlight #potterygram #meetthemaker #americanfolk #folkartfamily #thegangsallhere #14thannual #facejugshow #itsthemostwonderfultimeoftheyear #adoptanartwork #livinghistory #culturallyiconic #annualevent #ialwaysfeellikesomebodyswatchingme

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MG Devil got two different looks. Which is your favorite? @g8s_art #flowersinfolkjugs #flowersindeviljugs #flowersinfolkpottery #billytheflorist #deviljug

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Packing up face pots for the Catawba Valley pottery festival this coming weekend March 27-28! Booth 57, Hickory Convention Center. I'm next-door to the amazing @g8s_art #lunaparc #rickyoflunaparc #ceramicart #facepots #visionaryart

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#AbstractArt #ModernArt #DigitalArt #DigitalDownload ArtForSale

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In anticipation of our 14th Annual Face Jug Show, we got to spend a day at Stephen Harrison's kiln firing with a whole crew of potters and pottery lovers! What an incredibly educational experience to see the magic happen. 10/10, would attend again.

Our Annual Face Jug Show is our most anticipated show of the year, so you might want to mark your calendars! At 11AM on Wednesday May 6th, the entire show will publish to our website with telephone sales beginning promptly at 12PM.

And if you want to stay informed as we share more details about this year's lineup, you can sign up for the American Folk newsletter on our website or by sending us a DM!

www.amerifolk.com
@stephenharrisonpottery
@transfiguredearth
@g8s_art
@lauriemedfordpottery

#americanfolkart #amerifolk #folkart #folkartfamily #facejugs #facejugcollectors #wildclay #woodfired #culturallyiconic #savethedate #14thannual #facejugshow #comingsoon #themostwonderfultimeoftheyear #potterygram #legacypotters #familytradition #handdugclay #southernfolkpottery #annualevent #livinghistory #folktradition #markyourcalendars #kilnfiring #artgallery #downtownasheville #828isgreat

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Beautiful morning in South Carolina to start firing #6!

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Appreciation post for my first year of wood firing ❤️‍🔥

So many incredible people and experiences came into my life by following what lit me up 🔥 thank you to everyone who helped, taught, trusted, and believed in me.

2025 was gracious with growth, and for that I am so thankful 🫶🏼

#northcarolina #woodfiredpottery

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