Solo Show at Available Items in Tivoli, NY →

I hope you can join me for my solo exhibition, Above Ground, at Available Items in Tivoli, NY!

The opening reception is on October 10th, 5-8pm, with a Sonic Mud performance (Julia Elsas, Kenny Wollesen, Kirk Knuffke, Madeleine Ventrice) at 6:30 pm.

Available Items

64 Broadway

Tivoli, NY

Gallery is open 12-5pm Friday-Sunday and by appointment.

Future Nature at GLO Modern Gallery →

GLO Modern is thrilled to announce FUTURE NATURE, the debut exhibition curated by Lora Appleton at the newly launched GLO Modern Gallery. Opening September 4th in Manhattan’s Two Bridges neighborhood, FUTURE NATURE brings together a potent selection of contemporary and historical ceramics, paintings, metalwork, sculpture, glasswork and video that explores our evolving relationship with the natural world—and the precarious future we share within it. Show runs, Sept 4 - Oct 16 by appointment.

GLO Modern is an experimental gallery and contemporary souvenir shop where art and design collide in bold, unexpected ways. Co-founded by Lora Appleton (kinder MODERN) and Lena Imamura (Glo Studio), the operation redefines the traditional gallery model with a fresh, dynamic hybridity: part art gallery, part design shop, with a full-service art and design advisory—complete with in-house production and fabrication capabilities.  

Participating Artists: Joseph Algiri, Trish Anderson, Janny Baek, Ivana Brenner, Ceramicism, Carly Glovinski, Julia Elsas, John Fitzgerald, Aspen Golann, Brett Douglass Hunter, Phaan Howng, Lena Imamura, Dani Klebes, Teruko Kushi, Jeremy Martin, Yuri Masnyj, Lucia Massari, Lisa Sacco, Carolyn Salas, Paul Simon, Fernanda Uribe, and Maayan Zilberman.

Opening Reception: Sept 4th 6-8 pm

45 Market Street, NYC 10002

RSVP Here.

The Music of Rose Thorne at The Stone →

SAVE THE DATE!

August 20th- 23rd!

The Stone

55 West 13th St., NYC

Limited Seating!

Get there early to get a seat!

$35/cash at the door.

THE MUSIC OF ROSE THORNE featuring:

Kenny Wollesen (drums) Sami Stevens (voice) Dida Pelled (voice, guitar) Sasha Dobson (voice, guitar) Doug Wieselman (guitar, tenor saxophone) RIchie White (trombone) Will Shore (bass marimba, marimba, song bells) Tony Scherr (guitar) Vicente Archer (bass) Jesse Harris (guitar, banjo) Micheal Coleman (electric piano, synthesizer) Yusuke Yamamoto (electric vibraphone, steel pan) Elizabeth Pupo-Walker (congas, percussion) Steven Bernstein (trumpets) Julia Elsas (narration, wollesonics) Briggan Krauss (alto saxophone) Charlie Burnham (electric violin)

SONIC MUD as a part of Banshees Remix at Asya Geisberg Gallery →

SAVE THE DATE

The first all female SONIC MUD (with Éléonore Weill, Nava Dunkelman, Shayna Dunkelman, Julia Elsas) will perform on Thursday, July 10th as a part of Asya Geisberg Gallery’s Banshees Remix. We will have two short sets at 6:30 and 7:30pm.

Exhibition information in post below.

Banshees Remix

June 27 - August 8th.

4.5 Cortland Alley, NYC

Banshees Remix at Asya Geisberg Gallery →

Banshees Remix
June 27 - August 8, 2025

Natalie Beall, Kat Chamberlin, Julia Elsas, Rachel Frank, Priscilla Fusco, Roxanne Jackson, Ellie Krakow, Gracelee Lawrence, Meg Lipke, Wen Liu, Anina Major, Mollie McKinley, Rose Nestler, Heidi Norton, Esther Ruiz, Carolyn Salas, Trish Tillman, Letha Wilson

Asya Geisberg Gallery is pleased to present Banshees Remix, a resurrected and expanded group exhibition of eighteen women sculptors whose work subverts gendered narratives and traditions through a manipulation of scale, material, and surface. This exhibition includes the eight original artists and adds ten additional artists to expand the scale, number, and references of artworks. The works’ physical presence negotiate tensions around mythology, history, science, healing, and the body. The artists work with several technologies using 3D printing, photography, and sound. The exhibition’s second iteration celebrates a return to the Banshee as a re-embodied cry of protest and refusal. With new artists in the mix, the Banshees' material choices and juxtapositions, such as concrete, neon, steel, ceramic, wood, glass, leather, medicinal plants, among others, activate the gallery’s new Tribeca space on Cortlandt Alley. 

On July 10, 6-8pm, Julia Elsas will perform on her hand-built ceramic instruments with her Sonic Mud all-female band, where the musicians cry and wail, celebrating the powerful cycle of rebirth. 

“Lightly, lightly,
Ever brightly,
Moves the banshee, certain death.
Cry and call out,
Death will fall out.
Hold – you cannot hold — your breath.

Brilliant yellow
Is this fellow, 
Is the banshee, plumed and bright.
Lovers hearing
Listen, fearing.
Hark! who treads the plushy night?”

— The Banshee, by Virginia Moore, February 1942 

NADA Ceramic Market →

NADA is excited to announce NADA Market, a pop-up community market showcasing the work of artists and independent makers, taking place this December at NADA East Broadway, NADA’s exhibition space in the Lower East Side.

The Ceramics Edition, co-curated by BKLYN CLAY, will take place from December 13th to December 15th. This event will feature a diverse selection of affordable ceramic art and design pieces. Artists include: Beginner Ceramics, BKLYN CLAY, Cammi Climaco, ceramicism, Christian Moses, Dean Roper x Josh Smith, Julia Elsas, Object & Totem, Matthias Merkel Hess, RECREATION CENTER, Workaday Handmade and more!

SONIC MUD at the Jewish Museum of Maryland! →

I am thrilled to announce that my work is in the Jewish Museum of Maryland’s upcoming exhibition Material/Inheritance: Contemporary Work by New Jewish Culture Fellows. 

The exhibition opens at noon on Sunday, March 26th with a series of performances. At 1pm I will perform on ceramic sculptures that reimagine Biblical musical instruments with collaborators Kenny Wollesen, Kirk Knuffke, and Madeleine Ventrice-Knuffke. 

If you will be in Baltimore and want to attend the opening day please RSVP here. 

More information about the exhibition:

Featuring the work of 30 former and current New Jewish Culture Fellows, the show will open on March 26th and run until June 11th. Public performances, at the Museum and in other locations, will take place for the opening and closing. 

Featuring work by Hadar Ahuvia, Jett Allen, Zoë Aqua, Liat Berdugo, Danielle Durchslag, Jay Eddy, Laura Elkeslassy, Julia Elsas, Dan Fishback, Fancy Feast, Ben Gassman, Ariel Goldberg, Shterna Goldbloom, Jake Goldwasser, Adam Golfer, Tom Haviv, Adah Hetko, Rosza Daniel Lang/Levitsky, Ellie Lobovits, Michael McCanne, Tyler Rai, Nora Rodriguez, Naomi Safran-Hon, Arielle Stein, Nat Sufrin, Tatyana Tenenbaum, Ira Khonen Temple, Katz Tepper, Daniel Terna, and Mariya Zilberman

Curated by Leora Fridman, writer, educator, Curator-in-Residence at the Jewish Museum of Maryland and a New Jewish Culture Fellow.

Julia Elsas x 20x200 →

The All is a Miracle Dreidel, a limited edition collaboration sold exclusively through 20x200 is now live! This project has been in the works for many months and I’m so excited about how it turned out! 

Standing approximately 3.5" wide and 2.75" tall on the base, the dreidels were inspired by the exuberant shapes, colors, and textures seen in the sculptures of Peter Shire and Ron Nagel. 

The text “All is a Miracle,” is from Thich Nhat Hanh’s The Miracle of Mindfulness: An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation, and is written in both English and Hebrew on the top of the dreidel. Using the richly reflective palladium glaze on a wedge shaped base, I designed my dreidels to rest playfully tilted atop the stand so that the words are mirrored on the surface. 

You can read more about the project on the 20x200 blog.

SONIC MUD at the Whitney Museum Shop →

I’m thrilled that the Whitney Museum Shop purchased a large selection of my SONIC MUD instruments! Next time you are visiting the Museum, you can view them in the store.

Sign up for my mailing list to learn about upcoming SONIC MUD performances.

October Open Studios | Sunset Park, Brooklyn →

I hope you can visit my studio during the Sunset Park Open Wide (SPOW) Open Studios!

My studio will be open on Friday, October 14th from 6-9pm and

Saturday, October 15 from 1-5pm

I’m in the NARS Foundation / J&M Studio Building in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.

201 46th Street, FL 2, Studio #223

Brooklyn, NY 11220

This year, Sunset Park Wide Open will be held from October 14 - 16! This three day event aims to reinforce the ties between local organizations, artists and the community in Sunset Park and neighboring areas by opening the doors of our South Brooklyn community.

Over 15 organizations and artist studios will have their doors open to visitors during the Sunset Park Wide Open weekend. Don't miss it!

Promotional support for Sunset Park Wide Open provided in part by the NYC & Company Foundation and the Office of The Brooklyn Borough President, administered by Brooklyn Arts Council. Thank you to all of our generous sponsors for their support of Sunset Park Wide Open!

SONIC MUD at Printed Matter / St. Marks →

O by Tammy Nguyen Launch Party with music by Sonic Mud

Printed Matter/ St. Marks

38 St Marks Pl, NYC

September 17, 2022

4:30 - 7:00 PM

Performance and Reading start at 5:00 PM

Printed Matter / St Marks is excited to host the launch of artist Tammy Nguyen’s new book, O, published by Ugly Duckling Presse, on the rooftop of 38 St Marks Pl.

Tammy will be reading from O accompanied by ensemble Sonic Mud, who will make music using handmade ceramic instruments. Following the reading we’ll have a reception with music and Vietnamese snacks! 

About the book: From a dentist’s office in San Francisco to the caves of the Phong Nha Karst, Tammy Nguyen’s O sounds the depths of personal, mineral, and geopolitical histories of Vietnam. In this many-threaded narrative, a wind that carved mountains whistles through a young girl’s teeth. The electric green of a plastic forest glints off of glazed porcelain. The shape of a bowl becomes the mouth of a cave. What emerges is a story without a center: an anti-allegory that finds its meaning in echoes and refracted light, a book stitched together by the O woven through the work as its visual spine and sonic refrain.

Chime Choir at Cooler Gallery →

Julia Elsas
Chime Choir
10/26 - 11/28/2020

Cooler Gallery
22 Waverly Ave, Brooklyn
M-F 10-5pm, Sat 11-4pm

Please email info@cooler-gallery.com to schedule your visit. 

 Chime Choir by Julia Elsas is an installation of 1,250 microtonal porcelain chimes. Visitors are invited to interact with the installation and play the chimes with felt hand mallets provided, adding their own music to a continuous loop in the cooler space. The sound loop was created by musicians Kenny Wollesen and William Shore, together with Elsas. They recorded the piece in February 2020 at Figure 8 studio.

Elsas created Chime Choir to be an encompassing communal instrument that people could move in and out of and play freely, simultaneously alone and together over a span of time. Elsas aims to create an environment in which everyone may feel embraced and touched by the music of Chime Choir. COVID-19 forces us to restrict freer movement and limit entrance to one masked and gloved player at a time.

Chime Choir grew out of Elsas’s ongoing exploration of the sonic potential of sculpture. She considers her sculptures to be fully realized when they are being played. To this end, she has organized a series of one-night musical performances, under the name SONIC MUD, which brings together her ceramic instruments and established musicians. 

An outdoor reception and performance with SONIC MUD (Eléonore Weill, Julia Elsas, Katie Down, Kenny Wollesen, Kirk Knuffke) and Matt Evans will take place at Cooler Gallery on Tuesday, November 10th, 7-9 pm.

Shofar Meditations →

Shofar Meditations is a new collaboration and performance piece with Brooklyn visual artist Julia Elsas and musician/composer Jessica Lurie. Lurie and Elsas created five new ceramic Shofars to be played in combination with Western instruments, exploring and interpreting the rhythms, sounds and meanings behind the blasts of the Shofar. This project was supported by the Brooklyn Jews and the New Jewish Culture Fellowship.

Interview on The Ceramics Podcast →

My interview with Cammi Climaco and Gustav Hamilton on The Ceramics Podcast was recorded before the arrival of COVID 19 in New York. We talk about my Sonic Mud collaboration with Kenny Wollesen, winging it, and slowing down. 

I LIFT MY LAMP at Planthouse →

On View: December 6, 2019 – January 4, 2020

Opening Reception: Friday, December 6, 6-8pm

Planthouse is pleased to present I Lift My Lamp, featuring work by Željka Blakšić, Mildred Beltré, Sarah Jorgensen, and Rachel Ostrow. The exhibition is on view December 6, 2019 through January 4, 2020 with an opening reception on Friday, December 6 from 6-8pm.

The artists in I Lift My Lamp provide light. Whether it’s by highlighting histories that are often passed over, re-contextualizing language, referencing memory, or directly depicting energy and light; the work in this exhibition is a source of illumination.

In addition, a selection of goods by E For Effort, Julia Elsas, Beka Goedde, and Victory Garden will be included in the show.

SONIC MUD at RELATIONSHIPS

SAVE THE DATE!

The next SONIC MUD performance will be at the lovely RELATIONSHIPS in Brooklyn, NY.

October 27th, 5 - 7pm

featuring Kenny Wollesen, Kirk Knuffke, Mike Irwin, and myself.

Showtime is 5:30pm! Don’t be late.

Please RSVP here.

October Open Studios

Save the Date for The NARS Foundation and J+M Studios Fall Open Studios!

Friday, October 18th, 6 - 9 pm
Saturday, October 19th, 12 - 5 pm

201 46 Street (at 2nd Avenue), 2nd and 4th Floor
Brooklyn, NY 11220

2019/2020 Keyholder Residency at the Lower East Side Print Shop

I’m thrilled to be a 2019/2020 Keyholder Resident at the Lower East Side Print Shop with four other incredible artists: Aarati Akkapeddi, Kajahl Benes-Trapp, Andrea Cauthen, Tahir Karmali. Sign up for my mailing list to stay up-to-date on upcoming events and exhibitions.

SONIC MUD at the NARS Foundation

The NARS Foundation hosted a SONIC MUD ceramic instrument performance with Kenny Wollesen, Kirk Knuffke, Mike Irwin, and Julia Elsas. See more images here.

The Weight of the Temporary

The Weight of the Temporary 
Curated by Elisa Gutierrez Eriksen

The NARS Foundation 
Main Gallery (4th FL) & Project Space (2nd FL) 
201 46th Street 
Brooklyn, NY 11220

August 9 - 23, 2019

With works by Yasmeen Abdallah | Keren Anavy | Niamul Bari | Frank Born | Jade Chan| Lauren Cohen | Julia Elsas | Lauren Gidwitz | Kathie Halfin + Bingying (Emma) Yi | Tenaya Izu | Daniel Jay Genova | Tadasuke Jinno | Sydney M. King | Abigail Levine | Ioana Manolache | Caitlyn McLaughlin | Robert Melzmuf | Elizabeth Moran | Joshua Nierodzinski | Xavier Alexander Petromelis | Jelena Prljevic | Andrew Schwartz | Liza Sokolovskaya | Elena Soterakis