OCHI is pleased to present Kiln Gods, an exhibition of small-scale ceramic works by 55 artists organized in collaboration with OCHI artist Emily Marchand. Kiln Gods will be on view at OCHI, located at 605 N. Western Avenue in Los Angeles, California from November 21, 2026 through January 16, 2027. A public reception will be held at the gallery on Saturday, November 21 from 6:00 - 8:00 PM PST. 

While in residence at the Center for Contemporary Ceramics at California State University, Long Beach in 2019, Marchand noticed a cluster of figurines on top of the kilns. She learned that they were talismans placed by artists to guide and protect their work through the tenuous process of firing clay to very high temperatures.

Versions of the custom turn up across the ceramic world. For centuries, ceramicists in Jingdezhen, China have honored Tong Bin, a Ming-era kiln foreman, with incense and prayer at his shrine in the imperial kiln complex. In Japan the kama no kami are deities offered salt and sake before each firing of a wood kiln. An ancient Greek poem titled “Kiln” calls on Athena to protect the work of potters who pay for the poet’s song. If the potter declines, the poet would summon spirits like the Shatterer or the Overblaze to wreak havoc in the kiln. In American studios, the god is often a scrap of unfired clay shaped into a figure and left on the kiln to keep watch over the work as the clay inside is transformed.

The traditions and knowledge of ceramics are passed from hand to hand. Glaze recipes, building techniques, and kiln firings are learned beside teachers and technicians, passed down through generations of artists and craftspeople. Kilns ask for extra hands; loading, firing, and unloading are rarely a one-person job. The superstitions and stories of success and heartbreak travel with the work that emerges from the kiln.

This exhibition invites artists working with fire and transformation to consider that threshold. The artists come from Marchand’s circle, including professors who mentored her, people she has worked for, friends who have guided her, and artists she has admired for a long time:

Cathy Akers
Patrick Pipkin Arnold
Meegan Barnes
Emily Yong Beck
Billy Al Bengston
Seth Bogart
Alan Chin
Josh Cloud
Caron Cronin
Brad Eberhard
Sharif Farrag
Devin Farrand
Nicki Green
Karin Gulbran
Julia Haft-Candell
Jessica Jackson Hutchins
Roxanne Jackson
Astrelle Johnquest
Anabel Juarez
Jennifer King
Shio Kusaka
Raina Lee
Grant Levy-Lucero
Jasmine Little
Sarah Mackenzie-Smith
Bianca MacPherson
Emily Marchand
Lilian Martinez
Ben Medansky
Christopher Nevill Miles
Adam Miller
Chris Miller
Jeffry Mitchell
Brittany Mojo
Sachi Moskowitz
Gwynn Murrill
Narumi Nekpenekpen
Fay Ray
Jackie Rines
Jennifer Rochlin
Candice Romanelli
Sterling Ruby
Anna Sew Hoy
Andrew Sexton
Peter Shire
Cauleen Smith
Charles Snowden
Cammie Staros
Katie Stout
Anna Valdez
Tâm Văn Trần
Peter Voulkos
Liz Walsh
Hana Ward
Bari Ziperstein

Some of the artists in the exhibition present small gods that are placed onto the kiln, while others made scaled down sculptures representing their larger practice. Whatever its form, the kiln god marks the same instinct: the moment a piece passes out of the maker's hands and into the realm of heat, chance, and faith.