Hillary Kane

Hillary Kane, co-founder and director of Gaya Ceramic Arts Center in Bali, Indonesia, is an American artist splitting time between the lush and heady tropical backdrop of her island life and the cyclical seasons of her New England upbringing. An adventurous lifetime of living and exploring numerous countries and continents has filtered into her artwork and perspective on making.

In her practice as a potter and sculptor, the confluence of spontaneity and slow-earned knowledge becomes an inextricable dialogue. The allure of what can never be entirely predicted is as potent as the careful study of material and form, clay body and placement, texture and temperature. This collaborative essence, embodied in both wood fire and soda, is a process-driven passion where the humbling prospect of lack of control is, in fact, the actual delight.

A wood-firer to the core, Hillary’s approach to making and firing in any atmospheric situation, emphasizes bare clay surfaces and the implementation of a heavy reduction cooling cycle for color and finish.

In addition to 15+ years of hosting resident artists and instructors from all over the world at Gaya, Hillary has also been a guest lecturer/instructor/resident artist at numerous ceramic conferences and art centers internationally herself. Her work was recently featured on the cover of Ceramics Monthly, and can be found in galleries in Massachusetts and New Mexico, Indonesia and Italy.

She holds a BA in Fine Arts and Art History from Colby College.