Exhibition Clay in the Modern West – Studio Pottery from the Robert Leopardi Collection

Event Details

Midcentury studio pottery flourished across the American West as artists and designers embraced clay as a medium for experimentation, utility, and modern expression. In Tucson and throughout the Southwest, potters developed distinctive approaches shaped by regional materials, desert landscapes, Indigenous traditions, and the broader currents of postwar American design.

Presented at the Ball-Paylore House, this exhibition brings together works from the collection of Robert Leopardi, highlighting both well-known and lesser-known potters whose work helped define the character of modern ceramics in the region. Seen within one of Tucson’s iconic midcentury houses, these vessels and objects reveal how studio pottery became an important part of modern interiors and everyday life, blurring the boundaries between fine art, craft, design, and utility.