“LOST”: This work by Lisa Naples is featured in “Lisa Naples: Grounded in Gold,” on view through November 25 at the Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, Pa. An Artist Talk Naples is on Wednesday, July 16 from 1 to 2 p.m.

The culmination of an ongoing 40-year studio career for nationally recognized ceramic artist Lisa Naples is on view through November 25 at the Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, Pa.

The exhibition, “Lisa Naples: Grounded in Gold,” demonstrates the Frenchtown-based artist and educator’s evolution from creating functional pottery to her celebrated reputation for abstract and narrative sculpture, which often features animals like rabbits and crows.

In her first solo exhibition at the Michener, Naples examines the inner experience of being human through abstract and animal sculptures that draw on the symbolism of gold.

Naples’ most recent group of sculptures, on public view for the first time, communicates the wide range of human experience with either two chimney-like openings or two rabbits facing towards or away from one another. While depicting the extremes of tenderness and estrangement, Naples grounds each piece in gold, representing what is most precious and sacred.

“What makes Lisa’s works so special is the way she’s able to take complex ideas and communicate them in her ceramics,” said Michener Art Museum Assistant Curator Abi Lua. “The beauty of this body of work comes from the creative storytelling that Lisa Naples is known for, and also from the way she invites us to a greater self-awareness of our own dignity — the ways we are grounded in gold.”

Naples’ work represents the larger community of ceramicists in the Delaware Valley region. Michener Art Museum, known for studio craft, acquired a Naples ceramic vessel in 2020 as part of its permanent collection. Titled Gestation II, its mirrored figural shape and two chimney-like openings explore the conception of an individual’s dualistic experience, where humans perceive themselves as separate from the world around them despite being intricately connected to it. Gestation II is temporarily relocated from the main galleries to be part of the exhibition.

The artist spent over two years producing the works on view in “Lisa Naples: Grounded in Gold.”

“This is the strongest, bravest work I’ve ever managed to create,” said Naples. “Exploring these deep questions could only happen by challenging my limits in ceramics. Even in a long studio career, this is the rarest of rare exhibitions. Manifesting the space and time to bring it into being feels like a small miracle.”

Naples has lectured and given workshops across the U.S. and has exhibited her art extensively, including at The Clay Studio in Philadelphia, the National Building Museum of The Smithsonian Institution in DC, and the State Museum of Pennsylvania in Harrisburg. The National Council on the Education of Ceramic Artists (NCECA) honored her with an international residency at the Australian National University in Canberra, Australia, in 2005. Her work was featured in a four-person exhibition of narrative sculpture entitled “Contemporary Folklore at Michener Art Museum” in 2010. She was awarded the 2012 Ceramics Prize at the Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show. Naples was awarded a New Jersey State Council on the Arts Individual Artist Fellowship in conjunction with Mid-Atlantic Arts in 2025.

Naples’ work is published in many books, including the 2024 release of The Complete Guide to Low Fire Glazes for Potters and Sculptors. In this volume, her custom satin-clear glaze is recognized as a staple for the low-mid fire temperature range. Later this year, Weywot Films is set to release a full-length documentary on Naples and her studio process for making the work included in “Lisa Naples: Grounded in Gold.”

The exhibition program in the Bette and Nelson Pfundt Gallery is presented by Vivian Banta and Robert Field.

Concurrent with “Lisa Naples: Grounded in Gold,” the gift shop at Michener Art Museum is stocked with ceramic works for sale from the Lisa Naples Clay Studio in Frenchtown. Contributing artists are Alison Goodman, Amy Horton, Judy Waitz, Karen Macainsh, Laurie Scupp, Mickie Marshall-Jacoby, and Tyree Dworak.

An Artist Talk with Lisa Naples is on Wednesday, July 16 from 1 to 2 p.m. ($10 member; $20 non-member). The Michener Art Museum is at 138 South Pine Street in in Doylestown, Pa. it is open Wednesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free on the second Sunday of the month with support from Art Bridges Foundation. For more information visit michenerartmuseum.org.