Pennsylvania-born James Makins creates works in ceramic that, as he describes them, “synthesize a complex set of references from the history of ceramics, [fusing] them with contemporary issues in music, dance, painting and sculpture. Through the employment of focused attention, heightened awareness and constant decision making, a vocabulary of mark making is established through gesture, finger pressure and varying wheel speed.” In his early career, Makins studied with Byron Temple, a student of potter Bernard Leach. Similar to his predecessors, Makins became interested in British and Japanese ceramics. He later studied at Cranbrook Academy of Art with Richard DeVore, whose work is also included in the present offering. Over the past four decades, Makins has created a wide body of work in ceramics—from dinnerware services to abstract arrangements of vessel forms—that evidence their meticulous handmade quality. Makin’s work belongs to the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Los Angeles County Art Museum, among others.