Highwater features ceramics from the collection of Gail & Brian McCarthy, celebrating the 45-year legacy of Highwater Clays as a pillar of the ceramics community in Western North Carolina and beyond. Like many other cornerstones of Asheville’s arts community, Hurricane Helene had a devastating effect on the family-run company. When flood waters retreated, the McCarthys and their dedicated team, along with staff from Asheville Art Museum, worked together to rescue over 400 objects from their ceramics collection. This exciting selection of works from the McCarthy’s collection is a testament to their decades-long commitment to clay as an elemental artistic material.

Artists in the collection are:

Tisha Cook, Don Davis, Judith Duff, Rosa & Winton Eugene, Paul Frehe, Carol Gentithes, Diana Gillespie, Mary Lou Higgins, Alex Irvine, Nick Joerling, Matt Kelleher, Tom Kerrigan, Gabriel Kline, John Leach, Suze Lindsay, Steve Loucks, Andrew Massey, Phil & Terri Mayhew, Brian McCarthy, Linda McFarling, Mary Mikkelsen & Henry Pope, Ron Myers, David Nelson, Jane Peiser, Pete Pinnell, Sally Bowen Prange, Will Ruggles & Douglas Rankin, Norm Schulman, Micheal Simon, Gertrude Graham Smith, Kathy Triplett, Jim Whalen, and Dina Wilde-Ramsing.

This exhibition is organized by the Asheville Art Museum in collaboration with Gail & Brian McCarthy. This project was supported by ArtsAVL, Buncombe County Government, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Judy Appleton Memorial Fund.