SONIC MUD at The Carnegie Museum of Art →

On December 1st, 2024 at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, PA musicians David Bernabo, Trē Seguritan Abalos, Marina López, and SONIC MUD (featuring Julia Elsas and Kenny Wollesen) will present new music with scores created from the forms, shapes, practice, and sonic landscape of ceramic artist Beate Kuhn during the final day of her solo exhibition, Turn.

Beate Kuhn (1927–2015) was a German sculptor known for her rhythmic ensembles of deconstructed, ceramic forms such as discs, cylinders, cones, and spheres. She also channeled beautiful and sublime aspects of nature with formal allusions to succulents, seeds, mushrooms, and invertebrate animals.

Beate Kuhn: Turn is organized by Rachel Delphia, Alan G. and Jane A. Lehman Curator of Decorative Arts and Design, with Alyssa Velazquez, assistant curator.

Photo by artphoto.biz

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.

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

Ugav Nights

I have had the honor of being in the inaugural cohort of the New Jewish Culture Fellowship, sponsored by the Brooklyn Jews and the UJA-Federation of NY.

For my final NJCF project, SONIC MUD: Ugav Nights, I have reimagined a mysterious biblical instrument, the Ugav, through a series of ceramic sculptures. The Ugav is mentioned only four times in the Bible, including in the very first description of musical instruments (Genesis 4:21). Contemporary interpretations of the Ugav describe it either as a reed instrument or a stringed instrument. Possibilities include: pipe, bagpipe, end-blown flute, vertical flute, water organ, panpipe, lute, harp, viola da gamba, or simply a love charm.

My sonic sculptures and other hand built instruments will be performed live at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music on March 28th, 8pm by Kenny Wollesen, Cyro Baptista, Sae Hashimoto, Dalius Naujo, Mike Irwin and Rich Stein.

Sonic Mud at Brooklyn Clay

I'm thrilled to participate in SONIC MUD a live performance of ceramic instruments at the new location of BKLYN CLAY. This event will take place during the Brooklyn Clay tour.

BKLYN CLAY 
535 Carleton Avenue 
Brooklyn, NY 
September 8th, 6pm

All are welcome.

Love Child at Ortega y Gasset

Kenny Wollesen and I will play my ceramic udu drums at the closing reception of Love Child, curated by Eleanna Anagnos, on Sunday, July 26 from 4 - 6 pm at Ortega y Gasset Projects // 363 Third Avenue, Ground Floor // Brooklyn, New York 11215.

More information about the artists in the exhibition can be found online at Ortega y Gasset Projects. 

The Drawing Center

Kenny Wollesen and I will perform on February 6, 2016 at The Drawing Center. Our sonic and visual performance is a part of The Drawing Center's Basement Performanceswhich is curated by renowned composer and performer John Zorn. Other musicians and artists participating in two month series include: Okkyung Lee and Andrew Lampert; Raha Raissnia and Panagiotis Mavridis; Bill Laswell; Kenny Wollesen and Julia Elsas; Ela Troyano and Uzi Parnes; and Ikue Mori.

Read an interview about the performance here.